Washington State will hire Alex Grinch as its defensive coordinator, sources told FootballScoop on Wednesday.

Grinch spent the past three seasons as safeties coach at Missouri, aiding the Tigers to two straight SEC East championships. He helped Missouri jump 17 spots nationally from the year prior to his arrival to this season.

A Gary Pinkel disciple, Grinch joined the Missouri program after graduating from Mount Union in 2002 as an administrative graduate assistant, and then spent two years as a defensive graduate assistant. He then spent four seasons coaching defensive backs and serving as recruiting coordinator (in 2007-08) at New Hampshire before joining former Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Christensen’s staff at Wyoming as defensive backs coach.

Grinch will be asked to upgrade Washington State’s talent level and pair the nation’s seventh-rated total offense with something better than the nation’s 117th-ranked scoring defense.