Mizzou coach Barry Odom looks to regroup from Week 1 loss

Barry Odom said the opportunity to teach his team comes this week.

Barry Odom opened his Week 2 press conference by telling the media his team didn’t play well enough to win the game.

That was obvious … But what he said afterward meant more to how this team can move on.

Odom said his team can take the adversity they were dealt in the final quarter with their backs against the wall and use it to play better this week. If they play the way they played the final quarter, that would be well enough to win.

The fourth-year coach said that adversity the team had last weekend provides them an opportunity to create character, and how they handle it is the challenge he has sent to the Mizzou football organization.

Odom said Tuesday he misread his team.

"“When you look at you know, 17 to 23 year old guys that you think you’ve got some things figured out with the pulse on how they’re going to react, I mentioned last week, you know, the unknowns on game one, I thought I had pretty good feel on kind of how we would respond to some of those situations and I was wrong, we didn’t respond very well. But it’s an opportunity for us to teach from it.”"

Odom said this experience can teach his team how to respond. That’s what the Tigers will look to do Saturday as West Virginia comes to town.

The Mizzou fanbase is down. The team might be, but Odom sounds encouraging. He’ll need to get his team focused, because a Week 1 loss is hard to swallow. And that’s what they are working on.

"“There’s been some open dialogue conversation about what we need to do and how we’re going to do it and the level of grit and toughness that it takes to go get it done. So we’ll be in that situation again. Probably this week.”"

West Virginia is a winnable home opener, and the Tigers know that if they play the way they closed the game out against Wyoming, they should come out on top.

Not getting into that situation could help. Mizzou had three turnovers and didn’t record one. They gave up two runs of 60 yards or more for touchdowns, and they tried to overcome a 17-point deficit, and fell short of that goal.

That is why he has these fancy cards:

If they are in that situation again Saturday, with their backs against the wall as Odom said they probably will be, they can overcome it.