Missouri’s Dave Steckel set to take over as Missouri State’s new football coach

Missouri defensive coordinator Dave Steckel will be introduced Sunday as the next head coach at Missouri State, a source confirmed to The Star on Saturday evening.

Missouri State has called a news conference for 5 p.m. Sunday to announce its new head coach.

A spokesman for the University of Missouri had no comment.

Steckel, 57, has been with the Tigers since 2001 when he joined Gary Pinkel’s first staff as the linebackers coach.

He was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2009 and was made an associate head coach in 2011.

Steckel, a native of Fullerton, Pa., previously coached on Pinkel’s staff at Toledo and also had stints at Rutgers, Lehigh, Dickinson College, Minnesota, Ball State and Miami (Ohio).

Steckel, who was a finalist for the Broyles Award this season as the nation’s best assistant coach, received a raise to $600,000 per year in March when Pinkel signed a contract extension through 2020.

During SEC conference play, the Tigers, 10-3, had the best total defense and the top-ranked run defense, while the passing and scoring defense ranked second in the conference.

Missouri State elected not to renew Terry Allen’s contract Nov. 23 after the Bears completed a 4-8 season.

The most obvious candidates to replace Steckel are current Missouri defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski or Memphis defensive coordinator Barry Odom, a 1999 MU graduate who formerly served as director of football operations and safeties coach under Pinkel.

This story was originally published December 13, 2014 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Missouri’s Dave Steckel set to take over as Missouri State’s new football coach."