Barry Odom, who was UNLV’s head coach the past two years when the Rebels made it to two Mountain West Championships, will be Purdue’s next head coach, the school announced Sunday.
“This is an exciting day as we announce head coach Barry Odom as the new leader of the Purdue Boilermakers,” Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski said in a press release. “As both a leader and person, Coach Odom personifies the qualities that our football program and university value. During our interactions with Coach Odom, it became clear that he possesses the belief, tenacity and competitive drive necessary to return Purdue Football to the standard of excellence we all expect. He is a proven and experienced leader who has brought success to two different football programs and has made an impact on the lives of countless student-athletes and staff throughout his football career, including during his time as a standout defensive coordinator and position coach at Missouri, Memphis and Arkansas.”
Odom has a 44-32 overall record as a head coach. He went 9-5 last season in his first year as UNLV’s head coach. He was 25-25 from 2016-19 at Missouri.
Odom, the 2023 Mountain West Coach of the Year, spent a great deal of his career at Missouri. But his coaching career began at the high school level. He was an assistant at Ada High School in Oklahoma in 2000 and was the head coach at Rock Bridge High School in the state of Missouri from 2001-02.
He then went to Missouri, where he worked in a variety of roles. He was an administrative graduate assistant in 2003, a director of football recruiting from 2004-05, a director of football operations in 2006, and an assistant athletic director from 2007-08.
That led to him becoming a safeties coach for the Tigers from 2009-11. His first stint as a coordinator, though, was at Memphis where he was a defensive coordinator and linebackers coach from 2012-14.
He returned to Missouri to be a DC and LBs coach in 2015 before being promoted to head coach from 2016-19.
He was an associate head coach, defensive coordinator, and safeties coach at Arkansas from 2020-22 before going to UNLV.
“It is with tremendous honor and gratitude that I accept this opportunity to serve as the head football coach at Purdue University,” Odom said. “To coach at an institution like Purdue, in a community like Greater Lafayette and for a proud, tradition-rich and hungry football program like the Boilermakers is a dream come true for me and my family. I would like to thank Mike Bobinski for choosing me to lead Purdue Football, as well as extend my heartful thanks to University President Mung Chiang and Board Chair Mike Berghoff for their support. Their trust will be rewarded with a football program that will reflect the personality and excellence that Purdue is widely known for; character, intensity and a no-excuses winning attitude will be the foundation of what we will build at Purdue, and I can assure you it will be built to last. Most of all, my family cannot wait to become Boilermakers. We will get started in West Lafayette immediately.”
