If he does a lot of people will be interested that's for sure.
Coach Barry Odom
- Thread starter RebNReno
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If he does a lot of people will be interested that's for sure.
Arroyo couldn’t stop any of the top MWC teams but yeah AFA was especially a bugaboo for him!
I really thought this would be the Rebel Football Coach hire in which once I hear who it is I would say FK yea! Basically same feeling as the Hauck/ Arroyo hire not as shocking as the Sanchez hire. Did not pissed me off like the Menzies hire. Just tells me there was really no money with UNLV. There will never ever will be enough money to hire a caliber coach at UNLV. Wishing Odom well hopefully he is the future Musselman or Bird of Football.
Honestly, this almost perfectly describes my initial take, including the UNLV financial defeatism. I just started to really research things in depth and honestly after the 'meh' initial response, I think it's a pretty decent hire given our limitations. This guy has turned around and helped turned around lots of programs, he's got SEC HC experience and experience as a DC across multiple programs and has generally rose up from those positions to better positions. He's a young guy, but has a bit of that midwest affability as opposed to CMA's sort of aloofness.
I honestly don't know what his ceiling realistically is here, but I feel like his floor won't be taking a 5 win team and making them a 0 win team. I also think that defense travels, especially in a tough outdoor conference like the MWC.
But this is all colored by what our budget was.
If you have $20 bucks to spend on dinner and you get mad because you can't afford to eat a 5 course meal at Picasso, then you kind of don't understand how the world works, no matter how much you want that butter poached main lobster, you might just have to go to Red Lobster and not be angry about it.
My girl and I left at halftime of that game. That game and the SJSU game were so embarrassing this year.
I thought we had a shot at Saban. A little disappointed the admin couldn’t make it happen.
OK.....so this wasn't the sexy hire. This wasn't a name that was thrown around, but Coach Odom checks all the boxes that UNLV was looking for. Relatively young coach, age 46, with a ton of experience. Former SEC head coach and currently a SEC defensive coordinator with one of the best defensives in that league. This is completely the opposite of what got with Arroyo. While both were P5 coordinators when hired, we are going from a PAC-12 OC whose fanbase was glad to see him go to a SEC DC whose fanbase know they lost a good one. This was a really smart hire looking at it 24 hours later. Now who he brings on the staff, how he recruits the portal and the west coast will determine a lot of his potential success. This seems like a good hire. I'm ready to give him a legit chance to turn this around.
Press conference is streaming live now for anyone looking.
Missed it, and the link doesn't appear to have the replay up right now. Anything good come out of it?Press conference is streaming live now for anyone looking.
Nothing you wouldn’t expert a new coach to say. It was much longer than they usually go. I’ve been listening to his interview with Caleb and Cofield the last 10 mins. Has told the team he wants them all to stay. Brumfield is going to stay. McKinnie is going to stay. Nothing on Plant, Ajike, or the Williams. Obviously, we’re a different team with them. Wants to grow with players who aren’t senior transfers. Wants multiple years. Knows he needs to hire people with regional ties. Nothing on OC.
With Brumfield’s next injury being imminent Bailey is a huge need
That's great to hear. Hopefully the players give him a shot. Unless they're transferring and going to start at a major college like Windmon did last year, what's the point of jumping ship? Finish what you started here.
Did he take less for more $ for assistants??? I hoped he did a Dave Rice just better results and better character assistants.
I liked what I heard today. He’s not flashy, sounds like a no nonsense, midwesterner, former linebacker. He wants to keep the current team together and build off that. Him and Harper are on the same page and he knows he needs to win quick and this isn’t a rebuild. Said he’s heard from hundreds of people who want to be on his staff but he mentioned talking to the guys currently in the building today so I think he’ll keep a few current coaches to help keep as many players here as possible. I expect a good coaching staff.
I thought i read his priority was $ lined up for his staff and i also heard that we had more than 1.75 million he is getting. So i HOPE that money is getting diverted to his staff.
Here's the link to the press conference.
I like what I heard, and I don't think that it's outside of the realm of possibility that we will win 11 games next season. I'm saying that we lose a close one at Michigan only because it's on the road.
Uhhh, if we win 11 games next year, we'll be looking for a new coach soon. LOL. Would be a nice problem to have though.
I watched the press conference. Everyone says all the right things in the initial press conference however, Coach Odom seems to have a presence that is one I haven't seen since John Robinson. He seems to be someone that knows what he's talking about and knows what it takes to be successful and how to get there.Press conference is streaming live now for anyone looking.
We are positioned like the other MW schools. Most people look past the conference affiliation and the TV money that comes attached with it, but it’s a huge deal.
Oh yeah, he knows...he have to navigate the water/desert now to get what he wants. Can he do it?
Very genuine guy. As I’ve mentioned there are coaches out there that want to work with BO and announcements will be starting to come out soon. He will be very hands on with the defense. The tools are there to be successful. Nobody will out work him. You will see a better product on the field. Glad to see the fan base excited for football.
Bring on Georgia and Bama!
Michigan will be taking lumps next season when we visit them.
We've been excited most years, but typically by the 3rd of 4th game, that excitement has long passed us by. This year seemed like it was going to be something different, after starting 4-1, but then we went downhill fast. We weren't necessarily expecting to beat Air Force, San Jose St., etc, but we barely even showed up against those teams. Then we lost 1 TD games to SDSU, Fresno State and Hawaii, with Hawaii being the really bad loss.
I don't know if it was the schemes, the player execution, play calling, or what, but we just never seemed to be able to get over the hump.
Either way, we're starting out fresh now with Odom, and I'm excited to see what he can do here. Go Rebs!
One thing I've noticed about teams that fade late in the season.. a lot of times it's a lack of mental toughness. The grind of the season is too much. A lot of that comes from the top man down.
Defense has been the weakest link (of a lot of weak links) for some time now.
If nothing else (I'm good with Odom hire) we hired a defensive minded guy finally.
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Good catch. I didn’t read their “letter.” Just assumed it would say “…with that being said, I am entering the transfer portal”
Money will change big time when we move to P5 conference. It’s make or break time. You’re thinking about the past (and present to a degree) when we need to be thinking bigger picture about the future in a P5 conference. The stage is set with the city and university ready. Now we just need administration to not trip over their own feet and get it done....for once.
The stage is not set. We are a mediocre at best mwc program. We need to show something.. and fast. We need to win and we need fannies in the seats. Without a big following in our own city what do we really offer? SDSU has been winning and they get the invite. As much as i hate it... that's reality.
“The stage is set with CITY and UNIVERSITY”. No one said anything about the current state of the sports programs and quite frankly they are secondary. It’s about the city (untapped TV market) and university (academics and facilities).
But where are we going to get the money for that type of hire? The town is still reeling from the pandemic, and you had to go out and fundraise to get enough money to buy out the last 2 years contract on the coach that wasn't working out.
You can say we're thinking about the past and present but we just don't have the funds to sign a big time coach--and it's not just the Head Coaches salary, it's being able to pay top end for coordinators and positional coaches. Even mid tier P5 programs are paying more to positional coaches than we were paying Tony Sanchez as a head man a few short years ago.
We might be thinking of the present circumstances, but you're only thinking about the future and ignoring the realities and limitations that we have in place. It seems as though most of the conference are done expanding for now as well. I think it's going to be 2-3 years before the next round and after the big conferences see how the new 12 team playoff works.
This contract (and apparently the assistant contracts) will move us to the top of the MWC in coach's salary finally--and the extra money we raised had to go to a buyout because CMA wasn't the guy. And this is even taking into consideration that we are paying our basketball coach in the bottom half of the conference. This contract puts us at the top 3 of the MWC for the first time in our existence for football salaries. Sometimes going big is relative.
I think there's a flaw in your line of thinking. If the sports programs are frankly secondary then why do we need to spend money to make a flash hire? If the programs are a secondary thought compared to the other perks of Vegas and the academic position of the school (and I don't disagree that having a med school, having Tier 1 research status, etc is SUPER important to some P5 conferences not named the Big12) as well the athletic support facilities being top notch, wouldn't we be in just as good a position to get a P5 invite then?
I think if the Rebels can bowl the next 2-3 years, even with only 6 wins, UNLV will get an invite to P5
