Jerone Steckel was hired as the defensive line coach for South Alabama Football in March of 2025.
Steckel spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons at Eastern Michigan coaching the program’s defensive line. Steckel helped guide the Eagles to six wins and a bowl appearance in 2023. That bowl game was in Mobile’s own 68 Ventures Bowl at Hancock Whitney Stadium where South Alabama defeated EMU for the first bowl championship in program history.
Prior to joining the staff at Eastern Michigan, Steckel spent four years at Southeast Missouri State as the defensive line coach. He helped the Redhawks go 9-3 overall and 5-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play during the 2022 campaign. The Redhawks advanced to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Playoffs for the third time in five years and posted their fourth nine-win season in program history. In 2020 and 2021, Steckel coached his first All-OVC performer in Bryson Donnell. A first-team selection, Donnell made five starts on the defensive line and was SEMO’s fourth-leading tackler with 41 stops. He added three tackles for loss, a sack and four quarterback hurries. Donnell also blocked a kick, forced a fumble and had one fumble recovery.
Steckel earned his first full-time coaching opportunity in 2018 as the defensive line coach at Missouri State. That Missouri State team tallied 24 sacks in a single season and picked up wins against No. 9 Illinois State and No. 20 Northern Arizona. The 2018 season at Missouri State was Steckel’s second stint with the Bears as he was a defensive quality control coach with the program from 2015-17. Between stops in Missouri, Steckel spent the 2017 football season at Central Michigan as a graduate assistant.
Steckel was selected for one of the National Football League’s Bill Walsh Diversity Fellowship Coaching positions in the summer of 2020. He worked with the Los Angeles Rams during OTAs and Training Camp.
Steckel’s first coaching position in college football was at Division II Adams State where he was a graduate assistant. That opportunity came after he concluded his playing career at his alma mater, Eastern Illinois. Steckel spent two seasons with the Panthers after starting his playing career at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa. At Eastern Illinois, Steckel helped the Panthers win the 2012 OVC Championship, and was roommates with former NFL quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
At EIU, Steckel earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and sports studies in 2014. He and his wife, Katlyn, have one son, Tatum.
THE JERONE STECKEL FILE
PERSONAL
Born: Jan. 1, 1989
Hometown: St. Louis, Mo.
Education: Eastern Illinois, 2014
Wife: Katlyn
Children: Tatum
PLAYING CAREER
College: Eastern Illinois (Defensive Lineman)
COACHING EXPERIENCE
2014: Adams State (Graduate Assistant)
2015-17: Missouri State (Defensive Quality Control)
2017: Central Michigan (Graduate Assistant)
2018: Missouri State (Defensive Line)
2019-22: Southeast Missouri State (Defensive Line)
2023-24: Eastern Michigan (Defensive Line)
2025: South Alabama (Defensive Line)
