Mizzou football: Replacing Barry Odom is harder than it seems

The next Mizzou football coach might not be as great of a candidate as many had hoped.

Mizzou football got rid of coach Barry Odom less than a week ago. The Mizzou officials believed the program could not move forward under Odom and believed they could bring in a coach to provide more energy to a team that ran low at the end of the season. Not everybody loved the decision.

Remember those people who didn’t want to fire Odom because of the question: Who would you get to replace him? Well, those people who questioned the decision before and after still have a gripe, because the list is not great.

The Mizzou board reportedly is not happy with some of the targets from athletic director Jim Sterk and the Mizzou athletics department, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"Sterk has shared with some board members that Mizzou is targeting Arkansas State’s Blake Anderson, Army’s Jeff Monken and Louisiana Tech’s Skip Holtz, a source confirmed. Board members did not outright reject any candidate but some are worried about the public fallout if Mizzou doesn’t consider other high-profile coaches instead of settling for lesser-known names, especially after firing Barry Odom, a Mizzou alum whose last three teams were 21-17 and each won enough games to be bowl eligible."

Other coaches who appear to be on a longer list for the Tigers still aren’t pleasing to the fanbase. Those coaches include Tulane’s Willie Fritz, Charlotte’s Will Healy, Central Michigan’s Jim McElwain and Nevada’s Jay Norvell.

There is not a lot of buzz around some of the hotter names, the likes of Memphis’ Mike Norvell, Florida Atlantic’s Lane Kiffin, Boise State’s Bryan Harsin or UAB’s Bill Clark.

For those wanting Washington State’s Mike Leach, that is out of the question after he received an extension Thursday. For now, Mizzou lacks the “wow-factor” with theses names, The Kansas City Star columnist Vahe Gregorian writes. And he is correct.

Odom was fired after four seasons with Mizzou football, leading the team to 4-8, 7-6, 8-5 and 6-6 seasons for a record of 25-25. Some of the schools in search of a head coach right now wouldn’t think twice about letting go a coach with that record. But the Tigers did. Because, like Sterk said, Missouri “has the necessary resources and commitment to compete at the highest level.”

In order for that to be possible, Mizzou needs a coach. It seems like Sterk and Co. have a long way to go if they want to replace Odom appropriately, or at least please those close to the team.

And this list so far isn’t doing it.