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thedrifter
07-24-09, 07:46 AM
MU defensive leader is ex-Marine, relishes drills
By Vahe Gregorian
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Jul. 24 2009

COLUMBIA, Mo. — If it were up to Dave Steckel, his tale would be a Beatles
song in a Seinfeld episode — a nowhere man in a story about nothing.

He'll tell you he's from a town that theoretically no longer exists after being
swallowed up in an annexation, jokingly (we think) ask you not to mention his
wife and suggest any profile of him would be more interesting for voids left
than for truths revealed.

He'll say a thousand others could have been given the Mizzou defensive
coordinator job he was blessed to be granted in February.

"This isn't about me, and it never will be," he said in his office, instead
pointing to players and defensive colleagues. "It's not about me, and that's
why I don't feel comfortable doing this" interview.

But to MU fans frustrated with the defensive performance last season, it's very
much about Steckel and the upgrade in defense they hope is forthcoming. He set
a certain tone during spring practice.

"He was kicking people off the field for jogging or lagging around. He gets
your attention a little quicker (than predecessor Matt Eberflus)," said All-Big
12 senior linebacker Sean Weatherspoon. "Coach (Eberflus) would make (the team)
do up-downs. Coach Steckel isn't going to do that. He's going to embarrass you
in front of everybody and make sure the whole team knows you're the one who's
lollygagging and you need to get right because everybody has to be accountable."

He'll also do the job with a certain extra degree of animation.

"He's a hands-on guy," said Weatherspoon, laughing as he recalled his first
meeting with Steckel during recruiting. "I was sitting beside him eating, and
he was putting his hands around me, shaking my shoulder. I was thinking, 'Who
is this guy, you know, with his hands all over me?'

"He's always trying to let you know he's right there, trying to make sure you
know he's talking to you."

He's been less so with the media, though his more high-profile job will put him
in higher demand.

"He has no way of getting around it now," Weatherspoon said, smiling and
adding, "I'm interested to see how the change goes."

Initially, it was strictly name, rank, serial number in an interview in May,
reflecting both his wariness of the media and perhaps his tenure in the U.S.
Marines from 1975-78.

Prompted, Steckel blurted out name, rank and serial number … only to reel them
back, saying he didn't want the number known.

Although Steckel says too much is made of his Marine past, he has a poster in
his office from a Marine recruiting campaign that reads, "I Never Promised You
A Rose Garden."

And when an appointment down the hall went overtime and made a reporter late,
his first words were, "You'd never have made it in the Marines."

Maybe Weatherspoon best summed up the role the Marine background seems to play.

"He's having fun with it," he said, "so it kind of separates him from being,
like, a total Marine guy."

SERIOUS BUT FUNNY

Serious as he is about his work, Steckel's wit is one of his most obvious
traits.

Between one-word answers and blank stares over interview questions he deemed
too personal — such as how many siblings he has — Steckel couldn't help but
flash the sense of humor he'd kind of rather not let the media know he has.

Consider "Stec Logic," a book he joked his wife, Mary Beth, is writing about
his idiosyncrasies. If there were such a book, one chapter might be about his
nickname: Stec, which comes with its own schtick.

"Stec's with no 'K,'" he notes. "There's a reason for that, too."

What's the reason?

"Don't worry about it," he said, staring blankly before finally chuckling and
adding, "It might not be right. People don't have to agree with it. But there's
a rhyme or reason between my thought processes. … I'm Popeye. I am who I am.
I'm not going to change a whole lot."

MU fans, of course, hope the fiery Steckel will radically change the defensive
performance as he follows Eberflus, who left for a job with the Cleveland
Browns. Despite 10 starters returning last season, the Tigers gave up 55 more
points than the year before.

Steckel "will bring his personality, and that will be good," MU coach Gary
Pinkel said.

Pinkel was careful to say that's neither better nor worse than what Eberflus
brought to the mix, and so was Steckel.

"I mean, I love Matt Eberflus," said Steckel, who as MU's linebackers coach
coaxed three players to first-team All-Big 12 honors. "But Eber's not Stec, and
Stec's not Eber. What he did was great, but the players have to get used to me."

Not to mention the fresh dynamic between secondary coach Cornell Ford,
defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski and new linebackers coach Barry Odom.

"Without those three guys, I'm just a little rowboat out there without any oars
or paddles or direction," said Steckel, who said he wants to mold a team that
resembles stallions his daughter took him to see: "Powerful. Smart.
Disciplined."

'LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP'

While Steckel initially said he believes he and his staff established chemistry
and trust with the players in the spring, he also playfully noted that
Weatherspoon has called him a "dictator."

"It's like my family — a love-hate relationship," Steckel said. "I love them,
and they hate me, probably."

While Steckel offered little about his family and upbringing near Allentown,
Pa., he let on that his father was a longtime educator and fought in the Navy
in World War II. And he was pleased to talk about older brother Les, since his
brother's longtime coaching career made it a "coaching question."

But it came with a dollop of Stec Logic:

"He had a dog, my sister had a cat and I had a goldfish. The dog knocked over
the goldfish drawer, and the cat ate the goldfish," Steckel said. "So Les was
an officer (in the Marines in Vietnam), and I was enlisted. He did all the
yelling, and I had to take all the yelling.

"We're the same, but we're completely opposite. I say bad words some times, he
doesn't. I drink beer, he drinks red wine. It's hard to explain the concept to
people, but we're exactly the same. No one loves my brother more than I do, and
I'm sure he loves me."

He paused and added, "I probably shouldn't have said all that stuff."

While he admires his brother, now the president of the Fellowship of Christian
Athletes, Steckel said he didn't necessarily follow him into the Marines or
coaching.

"I was an average student, average athlete, so, you know, I went into the
Marine Corps to straighten out my life," he said.

As for coaching?

"Couldn't sing or dance, and it was too windy to throw rocks," he said.

Whatever that means, exactly, Steckel apparently was committed to coaching,
making seven stops before joining Pinkel's staff in Toledo in 1992.

"I was moving up the ladder; I couldn't keep a job — whichever one fits," he
deadpanned.

Trying to hoist his way further up the ladder, he left Toledo for Rutgers in
1996 only to be on a staff fired after the 2000 season.

At the same time, Pinkel left Toledo for Missouri and had an opening for a
linebackers coach.

"Gary Pinkel took me off the street," he said. "Some people talk about loyalty.
He is loyal."

Even so, Pinkel may not be able to get him out of talking to the media any more.

"He's just being cautious, just being responsible. He'll do fine with handling
all that," Pinkel said. "The great thing about him is he's not looking for any
publicity. But at this level, it doesn't work that way."

Even behind the facade of a nowhere man living a life about nothing.

Ellie