During his weekly meeting with the media, Missouri football coach Barry Odom spoke of his latest inspiration for the Tigers, who lost to Georgia.
In what has really become just as bizarre a season on the field for Missouri as off the field, Monday’s presser took another turn for the weirder.
According to Dave Matter of The St. Louis Post, in his weekly meeting with the press, “Odom pulled out a dented can of Instant Ignite from his lectern, that was left behind from his meeting with the team Sunday night.”
Wait, what? Do we really want the coach who seemingly can’t get his team to collectively win more than one game (this season) playing with fire? I think that should be met with a resounding, “No!”
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Coaches have a history of doing things which, to the outsider, can border on ludicrous. But, if the seeming insanity is what it takes to inspire athletes to get on the same page and rally, then it was worth the five-minute speech, or in this case, presentation.
"You’ll get a kick of out this; this was used last night, so that’s good. I don’t know why it stayed in here. … I don’t think we got any marks (on the walls). Sprinklers didn’t go off, so we probably need to get those tested also."
Wow, talk about a fire hazard, at the very least. As reported by Matter, the purpose of Odom’s meeting with the team on Sunday night, was to inspire his players to forget about the first half of the season.
The burned remnants reportedly included “game plans, scouting reports, criticisms from social media, and a list of the names of officials who ruined the end of Missouri’s best game so far, this season.”
We also have to wonder, following Odom’s inexplicable firing of former defensive coordinator DeMontie Cross, if this isn’t more smoke and mirrors – no pun intended – meant to distract everyone else from the first half of the season.
My only hope in that display, was the scouting reports didn’t include those of future opponents, but as far as everything else is concerned, burn baby, burn.
With a new fire in Missouri’s spirit, maybe the game plan will include more sensible plays on offense, like better (read as more frequent) use of the tight ends, more short passes that eat away yardage, and on defense, well, I’m not so sure that can really be fixed a this point, but maybe try some fresh legs out there.
Next: Barry Odom: 'It's going to take time'
It’s homecoming week for Missouri, and the Tigers face what appears to be a beatable opponent. Of course, the same was said of Purdue, and look at what happened, there. With any luck, the Tigers can save some face in front of alumni on Saturday, and get their second win of the season.