Missouri defensive coordinator Barry Odom promoted to head coach

[jbcarol]

According to Sports Illustrated's Thayer Evans, Arizona State defensive line coach Jackie Shipp is expected to make the transition into performing the same role at Missouri.

Shipp is a strong recruiter and has been coaching college football in some capacity for 25 years. He spent 14 seasons at Oklahoma under Bob Stoops and played in the 1985 Super Bowl as a linebacker with the Dolphins.

[jbcarol]

David Morrison ‏@DavidCMorrison 24m24 minutes ago

It's strange watching Greg McElroy critique MU's 2015 offense with the guy ultimately in charge of it sitting directly to his left.

[jbcarol]

David Morrison ‏@DavidCMorrison 2h2 hours ago

New title for 2nd-year MU safeties coach Ryan Walters: "co-defensive coordinator." - http://mutigers.com/roster.aspx?path=football ...

[jbcarol]

David Morrison ‏@DavidCMorrison Mar 1

Per MU, the athletic department retained Kevin Weiberg and College Sports Solutions in the coaching search that ended with Barry Odom.

The search firm billed MU a total of $84,720.60.

Per MU spokesman Ryan Bradley, the school used the firm for "coordinating travel and logistics...in an efficient [yet] discreet manner."

For frame of reference, MU paid the search firm Korn Ferry $206K for aid in AD search and College Sports Associates $42.5K for men's hoops.

[jbcarol]

 David Morrison ‏@DavidCMorrison 15h15 hours ago

Odom on whether this amount of roster turnover is normal for a new staff:

[jbcarol]

David Morrison ‏@DavidCMorrison 2h2 hours ago

On the blog: Based on precedent, how much hope is there for MU's offense to turn around significantly this year?- http://bit.ly/1MDTkmC .

Tigers averaged 280.9 yards per game last year, the program's worst mark since 1971 and one that ranked 124th out of 127 full-fledged FBS members.

Since 2008, there have been 29 FBS teams who have averaged worse than 280.9 yards a game in a season. And, thanks to considerable help from CFBStats.com, we can chart if things got better for those teams in the offensive doldrums and, if so, how quickly they got better.



Year 0 to Year 4

Ole Miss

Year 0: 280.8 ypg (2011)

Year 4: 517.8 ypg (2015)

Diff.: 237.0 ypg

% Change: 84.4

You've got to tear it down to build it back up. The Houston Nutt era ended ignominiously in 2011, and Arkansas State's Hugh Freeze came on board. Freeze's background was in offense, and he brought in Dan Werner (pass game) and Matt Luke (run game) to be co-coordinators of his vision. Freeze and Co. have put his up-tempo approach to good use since 2012, posting at least 400 yards per game every year since and making bona fide stars out of quarterbacks Bo Wallace and Chad Kelly and receivers Laquon Treadwell and Donte Moncrief.

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So the solution for a long-term change seems to be get a new head coach (check, for Missouri), preferably one with an offensive background (no check) but if not, the ability to bring in an accomplished coordinator/quarterback whisperer (check, Josh Heupel) and lean on a strong passing game to fundamentally rewrite the rules of the offense (we'll see if that's a check). The addition of a graduate transfer quarterback also factored into Miami's quick fix (no check)...

[jbcarol]

David Morrison ‏@DavidCMorrison  11h11 hours ago
Barry Odom sent this to MU students today. In it: news of a spring practice "held exclusively for Mizzou students."

David Morrison ‏@DavidCMorrison 20h20 hours ago

Barry Odom on the student-only practice Thursday: "I would love for there to be 28,000 people here. There may be 28."

[jbcarol]

David Morrison ‏@DavidCMorrison 3h3 hours ago

Alright, so who wants to be a student practice spy for me today? #ThereIsPaymentInvolved #ThePaymentIsNothing

[jbcarol]

Blake Toppmeyer Verified account
‏@btoppmeyer

Does a bowl bid matter in Year 1 of a coach's tenure? Well, sort of http://www.columbiatribune.com/sports/mu_football/does-a-bowl-bid-matter-in-year-of-a-coach/article_f7b0cc9a-1569-535b-a22f-92cc972b4bee.html ...

making a bowl in Year 1 usually does result in a successful coaching tenure, and a bowl bid is the goal for first-year Coach Barry Odom and his players as the Tigers (2-4) enter the back half of the schedule.

"I think it's really important. ... It would mean progress for us," said Odom, who took over a team that finished 5-7 last season.

After back-to-back losses to LSU and Florida in which the Tigers were trounced by a combined score of 82-21, Missouri is about to embark on a more manageable stretch of games.

After Saturday's homecoming game against Middle Tennessee (4-2), the Tigers will host Kentucky (3-3) then play South Carolina (2-4) on the road before hosting Vanderbilt (3-4). With a road game against Tennessee and a home finale against Arkansas looming after that, Missouri better make its hay in the next four games if it plans to make a bowl. UT and Arkansas are Top 25 teams.

"Getting to that bowl game is so important for this team, obviously," said Jesse Palmer, who has been the SEC Network's color commentator for three Missouri games this season. "It's a young team still with a first-year head coach with two new systems on offense and defense. You think about how important those extra 15 practices are going to be for Missouri when you look ahead and spin forward to next season, man, it's really critical. This is such an important four-game window here for the Tigers."

A few SEC programs are led by coaches who didn't make a bowl game in the first year of their tenures but quickly turned it around thereafter.

No. 17 Arkansas went 3-9 in its first year under Bret Bielema...

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/827550855868084225