Pinkel on Odom ‘he loves coaching’

New Purdue coach Barry Odom counts many influences. Among them: Larry Smith, Justin Fuente and Sam Pittman. But no coach may have been more impactful on Odom than long-time Missouri coach Gary Pinkel.

Odom learned at the feet of Pinkel, the Tigers’ all-time winningest coach.

“Worked for Gary Pinkel for really, collectively, was with him for 12 to 13 years,” said Odom.

Odom got to Missouri before Pinkel became head coach in 2001 in Columbia, playing with the Tigers from 1996-99 under Smith as a bulldog linebacker from Lawton, Okla.

At the time of Pinkel’s hiring, Odom was still in Columbia, Mo., working as head coach at nearby Rock Bridge High. He caught the eye of Pinkel, who was familiar with the ex-Tiger and hired him in 2003 as a GA. Odom ended up serving at Missouri in some capacity for 14 seasons before assuming command of the program 2016.

“He came in and I got to know him,” said Pinkel, who abruptly retired at the conclusion of the 2015 season after he disclosed he was battling cancer. “He’s going to be a graduate assistant and this kind of thing. That’s how we got to know him. And then he just kind of moved within our program and he did really good. And then I just identified him.”

That was the start of an extended run for Odom under Pinkel that saw him serve myriad roles for a Mizzou program that Pinkel built into a formidable force: GA, director of recruiting, safeties coach and defensive coordinator before finally succeeding Pinkel in 2016 as head coach as a 39-year-old.

“I think at the end of the day, I think he loves coaching,” said Pinkel. “He loves when he got that opportunity to go to UNLV. It was his chance to say, ‘I’m going to run my program and do it my way.’

“He has a great personality, and the players are gonna embrace him. And that’s a great start, because when you get that kind of commitment, then it allows you to really excel at a high level as you’re recruiting, and your player development happens.”

Odom was following an icon in Pinkel, who led Missouri to three Big 12 North titles, two SEC East championships and 10 bowls in 15 years as he left as the program’s all-time victory leader (113-73).

“I would say, structurally, of the things he did consistently, our program looks very, very similar, and Gary and I, we talk often, so thankful for him and his influence,” said Odom, who went 25-25 overall (13-19 SEC) from 2016-19 at Missouri.

Odom, 48, arrived in West Lafayette to find the program in a 1-11 heap from a 2024 season that saw the Boilermakers suffer the two worst defeats in school annals: 66-7 vs. Notre Dame; 66-0 at Indiana. Odom got to town buoyed by big-time success at UNLV, where he went 19-8 in two seasons with two trips to the Mountain West title game and two bowl bids for an historically bad Rebel program.

“Players like him, but it’s not a like from the standpoint, he’s a buddy,” said Pinkel. “He is a buddy, but players will respect him and he’s very sincere about how he takes care of all his players, and what he does for them, taking care of them meaning he’s like a father figure. He gets warm and close with his players because that’s the way he is. That’s his personality.

“He doesn’t act to act like he’s got to do that, and he doesn’t do it to look cool. He does it because he really cares about players, and I think that’s something that’s really hard to do as a head coach, especially when you’re dealing with volumes of players. That’s a tremendous asset for him, which really that’s why those players like him so much, and that’s why those players are going to play for him so much.”

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