OT: Barry Odom's Total Boilermaker Rebuild Begins Now

[jcgmoi]

Remember him? UNLV does.

In the first 45 seasons of UNLV football at the D-I/FBS level, it enjoyed just three seasons with more than seven wins . . . Before Odom took over in 2023, the program suffered through eight straight losing seasons.

Odom won nine games in his first year, and the Rebels won 11 in 2024 . . .

Last season Purdue lost a shoot-out to Illinois but were curb-stomped by four other ranked teams by an average of 50 points per game. The Boilermakers ranked 130 in scoring offense and 131 in scoring defense. Odom will try to straighten out the D and he brought in former Missouri and Southern Cal OC Josh Henson to do something with the O. Odom previously passed on Henson when he took the head job at Missouri but that was then.

https://collegefootballnews.com/college ... ring-again

[edwin drood]

I missed that Odom had gone to Purdue. Hope he does well. The Big10 has gotten rather top heavy the last few years with Ohio State, Michigan and now Oregon dominating. Indiana, MSU, Rutgers, Illinois, Nebraska, Northwestern et al sort of a minor league.

[hdhntr148]

Barry is getting the band back together with Josh Henson at OC and Michael sherer at DC. this review shows a lot of talent came thru portal and Sherer had amazing results for UNLV.

will have to root for Purdue in B1G especially with all the easy to hate big Brands there.

[Armchair QB]

Wish Barry luck. He struggled to get us over the hump, but you can’t forget he was really inexperienced when he got the job. Right guy, wrong job at that time. Probably not fair and good timing for him at that point in his career, although he did have Drew Lock as his QB, which was very fortunate obviously.

He is several years older and wiser now. Did great at UNLV. He might just turn Purdue into a winner. Hope he does.

[LwtnTigerZ]

Wish Barry luck. He struggled to get us over the hump, but you can’t forget he was really inexperienced when he got the job. Right guy, wrong job at that time. ...

And, what a hump he faced...

Barry came in as Mizzou football HC on the tail end of the War of 2015. Mizzou CoMo campus had imploded over deans' and grad-student revolt against conniving Chancellor R. Bowin Lofton, plus a student anti-bias campaign against tone-deaf President Tim Wolfe.

As for gridiron, Barry took over after an embarrassing final season for Gary Pinkel, featuring a November strike by some of the Black football players which was supported by Pinkel and the Athletic Department.

Then, as Barry was unpacking his office at Mizzou, MU athletic director Mack Rhoades took the last train to Waco after barely a year on the job. Before Barry coached even one game, a SI sportswriter was predicting that, without instant success, Barry was doomed: any new AD would want to bring in "his own guy." It was a troubling premonition, given Mizzou's system-wide chaos at the time.

But Barry couldn't find a Tiger magic wand, and got fired after registering a 25-25 record over four years.