Barry Odom
Barry Stephen Odom is an American college football coach and former linebacker who is the head football coach at Purdue University. He previously served as the head coach at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from 2023 to 2024, and the University of Missouri from 2016 to 2019. Odom played college football at Missouri from 1996 to 1999 and became a coach there in 2005.
Odom was born in Lawton, Oklahoma. After graduation from high school in 1996, Odom enrolled at the University of Missouri and played linebacker for the Tigers, starting for four seasons. As a junior in 1998, he led Missouri to the 1998 Insight.com Bowl and was a Third Team All-Big 12 Conference selection.
From 2000 to 2002, Odom began his coaching career as an assistant at Ada High School before being named the head coach at Rock Bridge High School. In 2003, he returned to the Missouri in a variety of roles, before being named safeties coach in 2009. Odom left Missouri in 2012 for the first time to become the defensive coordinator at University of Memphis. After helping to lead Memphis to The American championship in 2014, he returned to Missouri in 2015, where he led the Tigers defense.
Odom accepted the job as head football coach for the University of Missouri Tigers in 2015. Odom led the team to two consecutive bowl games before being relieved of his duties at the conclusion of the 2019 season. On December 19, 2019, Odom was named the defensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas. He helped guide the Razorbacks to back-to-back bowl victories in 2021 and 2022. On December 6, 2022, he was named the head coach of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he led the Rebels to back-to-back Mountain West Conference championship games, their first championship games in school history. He was named the head coach at Purdue University on December 8, 2024.
Early life and education
Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, on November 26, 1976, Odom is the son of Cheryl and Bob Odom. Odom's father was a teacher and high school football coach. Barry and his brothers Brian and Brad were born in Oklahoma, while his father was an assistant football coach at nearby Maysville High School in Maysville. Odom played high school football as a linebacker and running back, starting for Maysville for three years before transferring to Ada High School in Ada, Oklahoma for his senior season. Odom's first game for Ada High School came in 1994 against their rival, Ardmore. Odom guided the team to a 39–13 victory that night. Ada was so dominant that they outscored their opponents on average 41–10 every week. Odom helped guide Ada to a second straight state title, in a 29–7 win over Clinton, that saw him run for 144 yards and four touchdowns. Odom finished his senior season with 39 touchdowns and 1,477 yards rushing. He was named a Class 4A East All-Star by The Oklahoman as a linebacker. Odom was additionally a track and field star, finishing as the runner-up in the Oklahoma 4A 400-meter dash with a time of 48.64College career
Odom hoped to stay in-state to play football for Oklahoma or Oklahoma State, but both programs fired their head coaches, and he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, which caused his recruitment to be stunted. Odom originally signed a national letter of intent to play football at East Central. After Odom ran the 100-meter dash in 10.6 seconds, in the spring of his senior year, Larry Smith offered him a scholarship at the University of Missouri regardless of how his surgery went. The Tigers allowed him to get the surgery done at home instead of coming to Missouri to have the surgery done.In January 1996, Odom enrolled at Missouri. After just two days on campus, he received a phone called from head coach Larry Smith's office, asking him to come to see Smith. When Odom arrived, Smith informed Odom that his days of playing fullback were over, he would be transitioning to linebacker. Odom wore No. 39 to honor the year the university started, 1839. Odom found himself in the defensive rotation as a true freshman, playing in behind Joe Love. In a road game against Iowa State on September 28, Odom collected a season-high 18 tackles, as Troy Davis rushed for an Iowa State school record 378 yards. He led the Tigers in tackles in one game over the course of the season. By the end of the year, he had collected 72 tackles, five tackles for loss, and a pair of sacks.
In the spring of 1997, he tore his left ACL during an April scrimmage. Typically a 9-month recovery time for an ACL surgery, but Odom was able to be on the field again in three and a half months, participating in the Missouri fall preseason camp. In a game against Tulsa, Odom was named the Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the Week collecting 8 total tackles and an interception. Odom finished the 1997 season second on the team with 103 total tackles, 2 tackles for a loss, and an interception. He was selected as an Honorable Mention All-12 Conference, as well as Missouri's Defensive MVP. The Tigers were invited to the Holiday Bowl, their first bowl invitation since 1983.
With Odom and 1997's leading tackler, Harold Piersey returning in 1998, along with several of the starters on offense, the Tigers were expected to be one of the better teams in the Big 12. They finished second in the Big 12, winning the 1998 Insight.com Bowl 34–31 over West Virginia. The Tigers would finish with a 8–4 record, their most wins in a single season since 1981. He would finish the season with 74 total tackles, 7 tackles for a loss and 1 sack. For his efforts, Odom was named Third Team All-Big 12 Conference.
With a large number of seniors on the 1998 team, the Tigers had a lot of talent to replace. Odom was chosen as a team captain as a senior in 1999 and would go on to finish with 362 tackles — the fourth-most in school history at the conclusion of the 1999 season. At the conclusion of the season Odom was named Honorable Mention All-Big 12 Conference.
Odom earned his bachelor's degree from MU in 1999, and a master's degree in education from MU in 2004.
College statistics
Coaching career
Early career
After earning his undergraduate degree in December 1999, he served as an intern with Mizzou's Tiger Scholarship Fund while he worked on his Master's in Education from the University of Missouri. He returned to his home state of Oklahoma in July of that year to serve as an assistant football coach for his alma mater Ada High School, which finished that season as runners-up for a state title, losing 17–7 to Carl Albert.Odom returned to Columbia, Missouri the following year, taking over as head football coach at Rock Bridge High School in February 2001. Odom helped the program turn around, which hadn't had a winning season since 1997. The Bruins went 6–4 in 2001, a two-win improvement from the previous season. The next year, Odom guided Rock Bridge to an 8-4 campaign and an appearance in the Class 6 semifinals. Six weeks after the season ended, Gary Pinkel hired Odom as a graduate assistant at Missouri.
Missouri
In 2003, Odom returned to Missouri as an administrative graduate assistant. He stayed at Missouri until 2012, serving in numerous different coaching and administrative positions.2003–2008
Wanting to run a college program, Odom joined the Mizzou staff, first as an administrative graduate assistant for Gary Pinkel in 2003. On July 29, 2004, Pinkel promoted Odom to director of recruiting. Several players recruited during Odom's two seasons as director of recruiting were key members of the Tiger 2007 and 2008 back-to-back North Division Champions.From 2006 to 2008, Odom helped run Pinkel's program administratively as his director of operations. In that role, Odom oversaw coordination of the team's budget, travel plans, compliance issues, facilities operations and scheduling, as well as assisting with recruiting operations and managing the day-to-day overall operations of the program. As director of football operations, he coordinated all public relations activities and community service events that required the presence of Mizzou's football student-athletes, and also played a role as part of the design and planning team that oversaw the expansion and renovation of the Mizzou Athletics Training Complex, which opened in February 2008.
2009–2011
In 2009, Odom took over as safeties coach under Pinkel, filling the gap in the coaching staff left by Matt Eberflus leaving for the Cleveland Browns. He helped the Tigers climb from 104th in the nation in pass yards allowed/game in 2009, to 37th in the nation in 2010. During his three seasons as safeties coach, the Missouri Tigers went 26–13, including a 2010 Big 12 North division title. The 2010 team defense finished 11th in the nation in defensive pass rating, 19th nationally with 18 interceptions, 12th nationally in touchdowns allowed, 10th nationally in yards/attempt.Defensive coordinator
Memphis (2012–2014)
In 2012, Odom left Missouri to become defensive coordinator of the Memphis Tigers under head coach Justin Fuente. Memphis ranked 117th nationally in total defense in 2011, the season before Odom joined staff. Three years later, Memphis ranked 28th.Odom became well known due to his performance during three years directing Memphis' defense from 2012 to 2014. His 2014 defense was a key component of Memphis' 10–3 season, as his unit finished the regular season ranked fifth nationally in scoring defense and 22nd in total defense. In his first season at Memphis, the defense improved to 50th nationally, followed by a jump to 39th in 2013. Memphis earned a share of the 2014 American Athletic Conference title, giving them a conference championship for the first time since 1971.
Missouri (2015)
After the 2014 season, Missouri needed a new defensive coordinator after Dave Steckel left to become the head coach at Missouri State. Pinkel tabbed Odom as Steckel's replacement, and in 2015, Odom again returned to Missouri, this time to serve as defensive coordinator.Odom's Tigers ranked ninth in the nation in total defense, allowing just 302.0 yards per game. Since the NCAA began tracking defensive statistics in 1978, this marks the first time in MU history that Mizzou has had a top-10 defense. Odom's defense was also ranked seventh nationally in scoring defense, seventh in pass defense and second in tackles for loss.