re: Mizzou losing Steckel

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At $600,000, Steckel is the highest-paid coach on Pinkel's staff, but sources told the News-Leader that the coach would be willing to take a pay cut for a chance at his first head-coaching job.

Steckel was at Missouri's bowl practice Saturday morning and sitting with some of the Tigers' recruiting targets at the Xavier-Missouri basketball game Saturday afternoon.

"I have no comment on that," Steckel said at the basketball game. "I haven't even been on their campus."

Two logical candidates to replace Steckel would be current Missouri defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski and Memphis defensive coordinator Barry Odom.

Kuligowski, who has been on Pinkel's staffs at Toledo and Missouri for the past 23 seasons, has seen six of his former linemen go in the NFL Draft in the past six years, including three first-rounders.

SEC sack leader Shane Ray is a probable first-round pick this season, and Markus Golden should also go in the first few rounds. Missouri ranks sixth in the nation with 42 sacks this season.

Odom makes $372,113 at Memphis, according to the USA Today assistant coach salaries database. A former Missouri linebacker, he's seventh on the Tigers' all-time tackles list and coached on Pinkel's staff in different capacities from 2003 to 2011, serving as safeties coach the final three years before going to Memphis.

Memphis' defense has gone from 117th in the FBS in yards allowed per game to 22nd in Odom's three years in charge.

Steckel would be the sixth assistant coach to leave in Pinkel's 14 years at Missouri, following offensive coordinator Dave Christensen, Eberflus, Odom, offensive coordinator David Yost and co-offensive line coach Bruce Walker, who retired from coaching last summer.

A former Marine, Steckel got his degree from Kutztown in 1982 and started his coaching career as a graduate assistant of Miami (Ohio) in 1992.

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