By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
Missouri Tigers head football coach Barry Odom has been relieved of his duties. The school made the announcement on Saturday morning.
Odom had just completed his fourth season at the school on Friday. He won his last game, as the Tigers won 24-14 over the Arkansas Razorbacks on Black Friday.
“I want to thank Coach Odom for his contributions to our program,” Director of Athletics Jim Sterk said. “He and his staff have worked diligently during the past four years. Coach Odom has represented our program with integrity and dedicated himself to developing our student-athletes on and off the football field, which we are grateful. We wish the very best for him and his family in their future endeavors.”
A national search has begun to find his replacement. It is not clear at this time if the school will use a search firm, like other schools looking for a new coach, or will have an in-house search committee.
Odom was 25-25 at the school. The Tigers ended the 2019 season with a 6-6 season.
He had two winning seasons at the school. Odom guided the program to a 7-6 record during the 2017 season.
Following the regular season, the program played in the 2017 Academy Sports + Outdoor Texas Bowl.
Then, one year ago, he guided the program to an 8-5 record. The team then played in the 2018 AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
“As a program, we had tremendous momentum coming into the 2019 season with the opening of the new south end zone facility as well as other strategic investments in our football program,” Sterk said. “However, we lost a great deal of that energy during the last half of the season. This decision was difficult to make, but was necessary.”
Despite being Bowl eligible, the Tigers will not be playing in a Bowl game. On Tuesday, the NCAA upheld their postseason ban for the football program, among other programs.
A tutor — who was employed at the school with the football team at the time — admitted to doing work for the student-athletes. Sterk was very critical of the NCAA’s decision.
