I had heard the rumors all week and had hoped they were wrong. But, this morning my beloved University of Missouri fired Head Football Coach Barry Odom after finishing the year with a 6-6 record.The season started full of promise and the Mizzou PR machine cranked out enough crap that many of us bought into the belief this could be the university's best football team in ten years. After all the Tigers had their toughest SEC opponents at home and a relatively easy non-conference schedule. Plus the MU hype machine told the fan base that Kelly Bryant was the second coming of Chase Daniel.
I should have known something was wrong when the Tigers shot themselves in the foot in their season opener at Wyoming. Mizzou scored two touchdowns on its first two possessions only to be outscored the rest of the way by a mid major.that ended the year with a 7-5 record.
But then the team bounced back winning five in a row (all at home) against the likes of West Virginia, South Carolina and Ole Miss. In fact after beating Mississippi on October 12th the Tigers were ranked at #22 in the nation. And that was the beginning of the end.
Mizzou went on the road for games at Vanderbilt and Kentucky and lost both of them to two, to be honest, crappy football teams. In the process Missouri looked terrible and fans and friends started to question just how good the team was. The following week certainly didn't help as Mizzou had to play Georgia in Athens. And the #4 Bulldogs dominated the Tigers in all facets of the game shutting out Missouri 27-0.
It just got worse, the following week Florida came to Columbia and the #8 Gators shut down the Tigers 23-6. And the Tigers again couldn't find the end zone. The last time that happened was against Kentucky two weeks prior. The fans in my section at Faurot Field were irate at the end of the game at the lack of offense. But, there was hope the Tigers would get bowl eligible the following week against Tennessee. (As an aside, bowl eligibility became academic since the NCAA ruled against Missouri's appeal in late November for losing institutional control to a woman who wrote papers and took tests for players on her own before deciding to turn the football, baseball and softball teams into the NCAA).
The win against Tennessee never happened. The Vols beat Mizzou 24-20 in a game in which Mizzou struggled to move the ball in the second half. Tennessee was obviously the better team and as I walked back to my parking space I stopped to use the men's room in the Hearnes building and fans were banging the stalls chanting "Fire Odom now!" In retrospect, Coach Odom had one week left.
His final game was against a horrible Arkansas team yesterday afternoon in a half full War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. After five straight losses Mizzou won by a count of 24-14. Both teams were using quarterbacks that were barely on the roster at the start of the season. Arkansas ended the year at 2-10 and lost every game in the SEC with the wins coming against mid major schools. To put it bluntly Arkansas was terrible.
So, having finished the season with a win, I was optimistic Odom would be retained for one more year since his contract had been extended by two years in 2018. I also thought the Athletic Department would insist on changes in his coaching staff, especially demanding the replacement of offensive coordinator Derek Dooley who had come to Mizzou before the 2018 season. Well, I was correct. Dooley and all of the Tigers assistants are probably out of jobs now depending on whom Mizzou Athletic Director Jim Sterk decides to hire. According to what I heard this afternoon Sterk is conducting a "national search"for the next head coach. (National search, is code for please keep buying season tickets and contributing money to the athletic scholarship fund, while we try to figure out what we're doing).
One thing people need to remember about this season is the Tigers lost their best defensive player in Cale Garrett the first week of October in the game against Troy. Garrett dominated opposing offenses and was a preseason first team all SEC pick. The Tigers also had numerous injuries on defense that led to both starting corners being out of the game against Tennessee. There's no doubt Tennessee took advantage of the younger inexperienced defensive backs who started the game for Mizzou. And it ended up costing Missouri the game. You certainly couldn't blame Odom for the injuries.
The question I will always have, unless it comes out at some point, is what happened to the team between the Ole Miss game and the Vanderbilt games? Mizzou was confident and its offense moved the ball at will against the Rebels. Seven days later in Nashville, the Tigers were feckless. And the offense remained that way for the rest of the season. Granted Clemson transfer QB Kelly Bryant was nagged by injuries for the rest of the season. But, at times it appeared as if the offense was just going through the motions. What happened on the practice field or in the locker room to cause this breakdown? Was there dissension on the team and if so what caused it? And if it did exist why wasn't this coaching staff able to stop it? My point is the Tigers looked like two different teams from the time they were 5-1 and the next game against Vandy. I hope one of the young reporters in the University of Missouri Journalism school might be able to come up with an answer, if in fact there was a split between the players.
I've been watching Missouri for 50 years since I saw my first Mizzou game in 1969 against Illinois. So, I'm not about to give up my season tickets now and stop donating to the university. But, if someone from the Athletic Department reads this I want them to know I am not happy about the dismissal of Barry Odom. Hopefully Mizzou is not starting that cycle of hiring a coach, firing him five years later and blowing up the program in the process. Hopefully there are people in the department who remember that 20 year period the Tigers went through in the 80s and 90s where Missouri rarely had winning teams or went bowling. Jim Sterk take your time in hiring a new coach and please pay them more than most other SEC coaches are making. The state, alums of Mizzou and football fans of the Tigers deserve the best.
