When Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel thinks about the progress his defense has made throughout the years, he returns to his first year.
After accepting the position in 2001, Pinkel received a call from now-offensive coordinator Dave Yost, who had good and bad news. The good news was that Missouri had one cornerback on scholarship. The bad news was that he was set to undergo surgery the next day.
“Thank God we are in a little bit better shape than that,” Pinkel said jokingly.
Pinkel can laugh at the memory now, after the strides his defense has taken over the past decade, particularly last season under second-year defensive coordinator and 10th-year linebackers coach David Steckel. Steckel was recently promoted to assistant head coach for his years spent improving the Tigers’ defense.
For years, Missouri struggled to complement its high-octane offense with a sound defense. From 2007 to 2009, the Tigers ranked in the top 50 nationally in either total defense or scoring defense only once.
Their struggles were in large part due to an inability to defend top passing attacks of their Big 12 Conference opponents, finishing 96th or worse out of 119 Division 1-A teams in each of those three seasons.
But 2010 was an instant turnaround on the defensive side of the ball. The Tigers ranked sixth nationally in scoring defense last season, surrendering just 16.1 points per game in the high-scoring Big 12.
Missouri clearly fixed its pass defense woes in 2010, ranking 37th nationally against the pass and 11th in the country in pass efficiency defense.
Additionally, eight Missouri defenders received all-Big 12 recognition in 2010. Five of those have returned for the 2011 campaign.
A quick discussion with any member of this year’s defense will find a clear reason behind the turnaround: the hard, passionate work of Steckel.
“He’s just an intense, fiery guy,” said senior defensive end Jacquies Smith, one of the defense’s returning all-Big 12 performers. “He’s on the sideline jumping around, chest-bumping the guys, getting in your face, and I think that’s the kind of coaching you need. You need a guy who’s right in your face, telling when you’re doing good and telling you when you’re doing bad.”
Smith’s teammates reiterated his appreciation of the defensive coordinator.
“I love coach Steck,” said junior defensive end Brad Madison, another returning all-Big 12 performer. “I love him. He does a great job with the defense. He’s very intense, and you’ve got to be like that to have a great defense.”
Madison is a shining example of the strides the Missouri defense has made under Steckel in its depth across the board. Despite his role as a backup to all-Big 12 defensive ends Jacquies Smith and Aldon Smith, Madison found his own way onto the all-Big 12 Second Team in 2010.
“We are very fortunate there,” Pinkel said. “There are also some other positions that we have a lot of depth, but it seems that on the line we have a lot of experience and we are happy to have that.”
The Missouri defense enters the 2011 season with a chip on its shoulder, eager to prove that 2010 was not a fluke but rather a sign of things to come. To do so, the Tigers will place their faith in their fiery, third-year defensive coordinator.
It worked the last time around.