USA TODAY International Edition
MISSOURI’S ODOM REMAINS STEADY AMID UNCERTAINTY
New Tigers coach doesn’t shrink from challenges
Next to the bigscreen television, which is hooked up to two video game systems on which he claims to be undefeated, Barry Odom keeps cabinet drawers full of sweet snacks for visitors to his office.
It is important to Odom, a former Missouri player and assistant who has lived here for nearly all of his adult life, to make people feel just as comfortable playing a video game with him as talking with him about the biggest concerns in their lives. It is an essential part of the healing process that must take place to get past the stigma of last fall, when racial tension on the University of Missouri campus spilled over into a boycott by the football team.
“There’s always going to be issues,” Odom said. “In life, you have issues. As a family, you have issues. I’m going to hit those head on. I’m not going to backpedal or run from it. Let’s go get better and find a way to make Missouri the best university and athletic program in the country, and that takes work.”
Odom, 39, received the opportunity of a lifetime in December when he replaced Gary Pinkel, who abruptly stepped down for health reasons. But his dream job also comes with unusual challenges that will test whether Missouri is truly built to compete in the Southeastern Conference over the long haul.
After Missouri won SEC East football titles in 2013 and 2014, its athletics department has spent much of the last year putting out fires and trying to regain lost momentum.
Whether it’s the campus protests, Pinkel’s retirement, quarterback Maty Mauk’s suspension and subsequent dismissal in January, an NCAA investigation into the basketball program or the softball team formally protesting an administrative inquiry into the coach, it has been pretty much been constant chaos since Mack Rhoades took over for longtime athletics director Mike Alden in April 2015.
“By no stretch are we past everything, but at least we can begin and start to focus on the future,” Rhoades said. “Bottom line for us, you’re either going to get worse from it or better, and there’s only one option. We’re going to get better.”
That’s where, he hopes, Odom comes in.
DIFFICULT ROAD AHEAD
Though Odom was viewed by some as a hire who could help heal the wounds from last fall, this was not about continuity.
Odom, in fact, made fairly significant coaching staff changes, dropping offensive coordinator Josh Henson, offensive line coach A. J. Ricker, longtime defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski and popular strength and conditioning coach Pat Ivey.
Odom has had to work hard to get the message across to Missouri staffers that he was not simply carrying over the way things were done under Pinkel.
“There have been some challenges with that, because I’ve said a million times I have such great respect for Gary and what he did,” Odom said. “I’m going to do some of the things he did as a program, but there’s things we’re doing differently. We’re not just wiping the calendar clean and putting a new date on it and saying this is what we’re doing because it’s been done this way for 15 years.”
The truth is, Missouri’s next coach was going to have a more difficult road regardless of the boycott fallout because the program’s fundamental challenges haven’t changed. It doesn’t have a palatial football complex, which is pretty much standard these days in the SEC. It doesn’t have the richest pipeline of in- state talent.
Pinkel overcame that because of the way his staff developed and used talent and because Missouri’s entry into the SEC coincided with the East’s traditional powers experiencing malaise.
With Georgia, Tennessee and Florida apparently on the up- swing, Odom won’t have that luxury. Rhoades acknowledged that Pinkel’s quick success in the SEC might have given some at Missouri a false sense of security.
In other words, hiring Odom solely because he could heal a fractured campus would have contradicted everything else Rhoades is trying to accomplish.
“I knew the hire would resonate well with our fans because he’s a former player, all those things, but for me I had to be extremely careful,” Rhoades said. “The No. 1 question that Barry or any potential head coach had to answer for me was, ‘ Is he the right leader for our program?’ That means national relevance. ...
“I think a lot of people or some people get the impression that if you’re the internal candidate, you’ve got the easiest path in terms of getting the job, and that was completely opposite for Barry. He had the hardest path.” PREPARATION IS KEY Though Odom is relatively unknown outside Columbia, his football credentials are unquestioned within the coaching profession. An overachieving linebacker out of Lawton, Okla., he ended up at Missouri because Oklahoma State’s new staff under then- coach Bob Simmons didn’t want him. Two years after his playing career ended, Odom landed the head coaching job at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia. He got an offer from Pinkel in 2003 to work as a graduate assistant.
After working his way up from administrative roles to Missouri’s safeties coach, Odom got a call from Memphis coach Justin Fuente offering the opportunity to be defensive coordinator.
In Memphis, Odom’s potential quickly became apparent. Despite roster challenges, Memphis jumped from 117th nationally in total defense to 50th in Odom’s first year. By his third in 2014, the Tigers won a share of the American Athletic Conference title and allowed 19.5 points per game.
His return to Missouri as defensive coordinator last season was one of the program’s few positive developments, as the Tigers finished sixth nationally in total defense.
Odom expects the defensive line to remain the foundation of the program. From Aldon Smith and Sheldon Richardson to Shane Ray and Kony Ealy to Terry Beckner and Charles Harris on the current team, Missouri has a wealth of talent.
“If you could pick a spot for me as a coordinator,” Odom said, “I’d try to build it around the line, and they can cover up a lot of stuff everywhere else.”
Though unflashy Odom will generate the least amount of buzz at SEC media days in July, it won’t be any surprise if he maximizes this opportunity.
Odom compiled a book of every offensive coordinator he ever faced with information on formations and tendencies that stretched back to the beginning of their careers to understand their evolution as a coach. He’s so obsessed with preparation, he said, he will test himself all the way up until game time, drawing an opponent’s routes on paper until he thinks he has a grip on what he’s about to face.
But Odom also doesn’t want his players living in a football bubble.
And like it or not, the conversation about those issues isn’t going away. Questions about the boycott and the social climate on campus, particularly for AfricanAmerican recruits and their families, probably will be attached to Missouri for some time.
“Some of the ideas and some of the things that our players have seen and been exposed to, it’s nothing different than what they see in the everyday world. They just happen to be two minutes up the street,” Odom said. “The worst thing I could do would be to not address it or not talk about it. I’m trying to get our guys to open up and see there’s life outside of this. Yeah, we’re trying to win. ... But, man, your college opportunity is so short, let’s take advantage of every chance we get.”