Barry Odom fired by Mizzou after four seasons

Barry Odom finished his tenure at Mizzou with a 25-25 record.

It didn’t take long for Mizzou to make a decision on coach Barry Odom.

Mizzou announced it fired Odom on Saturday morning, a day after he defeated Arkansas 24-14 and finished the season 6-6. He had a 25-25 overall record while with the Tigers.

Odom was announced the coach shortly after the 2015 season ended. He was a former linebacker at Mizzou and coached under Gary Pinkel’s staff in his final year. Odom made it to two bowl games while at the helm but finished 0-2 in those games.

In a news release, athletic director Jim Sterk thanked Odom for his integrity and how he dedicated himself to developing the student-athletes over the past four years.

"“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 in a statement. “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.”"

Sterk never hired Odom, he signed on as the AD after Mack Rhoads left town. But he did give Odom an extension last season. Some believed that would keep Odom through at least next season, but a day after the Tigers returned home from Little Rock, Odom was let go.

Odom was 13-19 against the SEC and struggled against several ball clubs. He went 0-4 against Kentucky and 1-3 against South Carolina. He had multiple wins over Florida and Tennessee, but also lost to one-win Vanderbilt while Mizzou was ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 this season.

Mizzou began the season with high expectations, hoping to get to at least 10 wins and push for an SEC East title. Those aspirations were tested in Week 1 of the season when Mizzou football lost to Wyoming 37-31.

Odom got the team back on track and midway through the year Mizzou was 5-1 and ranked. But the Tigers lost five games in a row and needed a win in the final game of the season to get to .500. They got that win, but days before the Arkansas game, the NCAA announced it denied Mizzou’s appeal to lift a bowl ban.

Sterk said a national search has begun to find the program’s next head coach.