Tennessee owes assistant Kevin Steele - who was just hired in January - up to $860,870 in severance after firing

Tennessee will pay the price for firing Kevin Steele less than two months into a two-year contract he received in January.

That price?

As much as $860,870 in severance, according to his separation agreement obtained Friday by Knox News through a public records request.

Steele's termination letter is dated Tuesday. First-year coach Josh Heupel completed his inaugural staff this week by hiring Mike Ekeler as his 10th assistant.

Under the terms of Steele's buyout, he's due to receive his severance in monthly installments throughout the end of his contract, set to expire Jan. 31, 2023.

Steele has a duty to mitigate the damages. That means if he gains new employment during the term of his Tennessee contract, his salary in that new job will defray what UT owes.

Tennessee hired Steele on Jan. 12 to a two-year deal worth $450,000 annually. UT Chancellor Donde Plowman and former athletics director Phillip Fulmer signed Steele's contract.

Steele joined then-coach Jeremy Pruitt's staff as a defensive assistant. UT fired Pruitt for cause on Jan. 18 amid an investigation into sweeping recruiting malfeasance alleged to have occurred under his watch, and Tennessee named Steele acting head coach.

Also that day, Tennessee announced that Fulmer would resign after more than three years as athletics director.

UT hired Danny White to take the reins of the athletic department on Jan. 21. White hired Heupel on Jan. 27.

White and Heupel had been the AD and coach, respectively, at Central Florida.

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Why was Steele hired to a two-year contract less than a week before Pruitt's firing and Fulmer's exit?

"I don’t think at that time, when he was hired, that we knew that that was going to happen," UT System President Randy Boyd said last week.

Steele's buyout comes amid a fiscal year in which UT has projected a $28 million operating deficit for the athletic department. The Vols will rely on financial support from the university and the SEC to cover the deficit.

Athletics employees who earn more than $50,000 annually are in the midst of an eight-month period of tiered pay cuts that began Nov. 1.

Steele, a UT alumnus, has served as a defensive coordinator at Auburn, LSU, Clemson and Alabama. He was among the finalists considered for Tennessee's head coaching job when Fulmer hired Pruitt in December 2017.

But he didn't emerge as a candidate to be Heupel's defensive coordinator. Instead, Heupel tapped Penn State's co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Tim Banks.

Steele, 62, came on the market this offseason after Auburn fired coach Gus Malzahn, and Steele was not retained by new Tigers coach Bryan Harsin. Steele had spent five seasons running AU's defense, and the Tigers ranked in the top four in the SEC in scoring defense in four of his five seasons on staff and never ranked worse than sixth.

In 2017, he was a finalist for the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant coach in the country. That season, Auburn limited Georgia to 17 points in an upset of the No. 2-ranked Bulldogs and held Alabama to 14 points in toppling the top-ranked Crimson Tide.

Auburn had owed Steele about $5 million in severance over the next two years until Tennessee stepped in to shoulder some of the burden. His Tennessee buyout will mitigate Auburn's damages, but that still leaves AU on the hook for more than $4 million.

Blake Toppmeyer covers University of Tennessee football. Email him at blake.toppmeyer@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.