Purdue hires UNLV’s Barry Odom as next football coach | football

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Purdue Boilermakers are giving UNLV coach Barry Odom a second chance to lead a Power Four program.

Athletic director Mike Bobinski announced Sunday that he has hired the 48-year-old Odom to replace Ryan Walters, who was fired last week after posting a 5-19 record in two seasons at West Lafayette, Indiana.

“Coach Odom embodies, both as a leader and as a person, the qualities that our football program and the university value,” Bobinski said in a statement. “It was clear during our discussions with Coach Odom that he has the belief, tenacity and competitive drive necessary to return Purdue football to the elite standard we all expect.

Odom posted a 19-8 record in two seasons at UNLV after posting a 25-25 record in his previous stint as head coach at Missouri from 2016-19.

However, with the Rebels, Odom’s open offense reached two consecutive Mountain West Conference championship games. They lost to Boise State each time.

This season, Odom’s team finished 14th in the FBS in offensive rating (36.2 points per game), matching UNLV’s best record (10-3) in 40 years.

That should excite fans of a school dubbed the “cradle of quarterbacks” after a historically poor season.

Purdue struggled to a 1-11 mark, suffered its two worst losses in school history and scored just 15.8 points per game – the second-lowest average of any Power Four school.

“Their trust will be rewarded with a football program that reflects the personality and excellence for which Purdue is widely known – character, intensity and a winning, no-excuses attitude,” Odom said. “I can assure you it will be built to last.”

Odom has a wealth of experience, most of which he gained at Missouri, his alma mater.

The former college linebacker served as a graduate assistant for the Tigers in 2003, recruiting coordinator in 2004 and 2005, director of football operations from 2006 to 2008 and safeties coach from 2009 to 2011.

After spending three seasons as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Memphis and another in the same role at Missouri in 2015, the Tigers promoted Odom to head coach in 2016. In a strange twist, Walters served as either co-defensive coordinator or defensive coordinator for all four seasons of Odom’s tenure at Missouri.

Odum spent the next three seasons as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Arkansas before being hired by UNLV in 2023.

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