Is he the most exciting? Nope. But his resume is solid.
I'm hardly blown away by it, but it's a good hire based on what UNLV can afford and who would likely even want the job.
It's who we have now. Let's see what he does.
Coach Barry Odom
- Thread starter RebNReno
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Is he the most exciting? Nope. But his resume is solid.
I'm hardly blown away by it, but it's a good hire based on what UNLV can afford and who would likely even want the job.
It's who we have now. Let's see what he does.
Coach Odom took a little less money the first 2 years than his current contract. He must have really wanted this job.
After taxes he’s essentially making the same amount. Plus he gets to use the university Kia Sorrento on Wednesday between 3 am and 3:26 am.
He was. He also flamed out in Arizona and there are a lot of reports about him not being the most dedicated guy, by people that cover the team and fans alike. Appears he enjoyed the nightlife quite a bit. I would have been good with him here. But I think there are concerns and some decent jobs have opened since and he hasn't been linked to any of them either.
I'll reiterate, would he come here with what UNLV can pay? Would he want to come here at all? Don't know.
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I'd like to see the staff he puts together. I went back and looked at all the recruiting classes for Arkansas and Mizzou while he was at both places.
At Arkansas looks like they only signed two 4* defensive players initially out of high school, but landed some nice players on the transfer portal.
2023 - HS: 4* CB TX TR: 0
2022 - HS: 0 - Transfer: 4* S Fl (from UGA), 4*CB TX (From LSU), 5* LB TX (From Bama), 4* EDGE TX (From LSU)
2021 - HS: 0 TR: 0
2020 - HS: 4* S OK TR: 4* ILB OK (From OU), 4* WDE KS (From Clemson)
At Mizzou it seemed to be a similar pattern of lots of high 3 stars, but the transfer data from back then is much thinner and it wasn't nearly as prevalent so the classes as a whole were rated lower
2019 - HS: 4* S MO TR: 0
2018 - HS: 0 TR: 0
2017 - 4* DT AR TR: 0
2016 - HS: 0 TR: 0
For me, recruiting has to be a bit of a concern and he will need to have a west coast guy as well as a top flight overall recruiter and a solid offensive guy. But I think all that shouldn't be impossible and he's had assistants that are now HC, most notably Josh Heupel at Tennessee.
At Arkansas looks like they only signed two 4* defensive players initially out of high school, but landed some nice players on the transfer portal.
2023 - HS: 4* CB TX TR: 0
2022 - HS: 0 - Transfer: 4* S Fl (from UGA), 4*CB TX (From LSU), 5* LB TX (From Bama), 4* EDGE TX (From LSU)
2021 - HS: 0 TR: 0
2020 - HS: 4* S OK TR: 4* ILB OK (From OU), 4* WDE KS (From Clemson)
At Mizzou it seemed to be a similar pattern of lots of high 3 stars, but the transfer data from back then is much thinner and it wasn't nearly as prevalent so the classes as a whole were rated lower
2019 - HS: 4* S MO TR: 0
2018 - HS: 0 TR: 0
2017 - 4* DT AR TR: 0
2016 - HS: 0 TR: 0
For me, recruiting has to be a bit of a concern and he will need to have a west coast guy as well as a top flight overall recruiter and a solid offensive guy. But I think all that shouldn't be impossible and he's had assistants that are now HC, most notably Josh Heupel at Tennessee.
My guess is there are other perks that arent direct payments.
Multiple car leases, housing potentially, outside endorsements, etc.
I would love to know the staff budget for assistants thats going to be the key I think.
Multiple car leases, housing potentially, outside endorsements, etc.
I would love to know the staff budget for assistants thats going to be the key I think.
Here’s a quick clip of him addressing the team.
Assistant money is a huge deal...
It was the entire deal, I’m told.
Where was the part of the video when he tells the players they’re just not good enough and they should probably enter the transfer portal like Deion did?
Curious to see the pool for his assistants. Apparently that was a hang up on why he didn’t take the Tulsa job.
There’s a lot of 3 star talent in Oklahoma and some of the other areas he’s recruited in the past. As you said though, we NEED a presence on the West Coast. Anxiously awaiting his staff moves.
I get where you are coming from on the recruiting concerns but with the way college football is changing, the transfer portal is becoming more important than high school recruiting. Teams will rely more on the transfer portal to fill out their needs. For example, you are a 2 star diamond in the rough high school senior that ends up signing with a G5 school and has a good year you’ll have power 5 teams coming after you. The portal can be useful but it can also hurt you with losing good players. We have been lucky to have a coaching staff here at Arkansas that understands how the game is changing with the portal and have brought in some great players because of it.
Go back 10 years or so, football recruiting was predominantly regional. It's not like basketball, there's no AAU equivalent in football with traveling teams.
Its different now, social media, NIL, transfer portal, all have changed the game.
It's still regional but not nearly to the extent is was even three to five years ago.
I believe he's recruited Gorman HS here in the past.
Guess is he'll retain one or two off current staff to hold onto current recruiting targets and players if they fit what he wants.
He'll need somebody with more West coast/regional ties on staff, but it's not as imperative as it once was...
Your jokes have been spot on lately! (I was trying to think of a funny way to bring you back down to earth, but I was failing miserably).
I'd be happy if he retains our DC. He was known as a stud recruiter, so that would fill one of the holes that concern us. On the other hand, the DC was friends with Arroyo, so there's that.
Your status as being the idiot that stands out the most in a roomful of idiots seemingly does not preclude you from actually making a smart observation. Which I reluctantly agree with.
This is spot on. Good thing is, it’s changing for everyone. We are all learning as we go. There’s right at 1000 players in the portal that opened up yesterday. You will still want to sign 20-25 high school guys per year and expect to lose 8-10 to the portal each year and make the difference up bringing in immediate needs through the portal. It’s a lot easier asking a transfer to come in for 1-2 years rather than commit to come in for 4. The game is changing and if you don’t change with it you won’t make it.
Was that a compliment? I'm not intelligent enough to tell. 😁
Agreed, only thing I might say is you can drop that number to around 20 HS guys, since you can find plenty in the portal with 3 years of eligibility vs 2 years and having to sit a year.
I’d rather suck and move up than stay and do well. The former will yield more in conf affiliation monies.
But no, I don’t think a splash hire gets us there regardless. Now we have to perform. The window is small …
The only thing I like about the hire is he is defensive-minded.
Thanks Coach. We’re happy you’re here at UNLV
Put me down as thumbs up. I like the hire. We are in the MWC not the SEC my prediction is he'll make pretty quick inroads with the roster and play on the field. No more "Harry High School" play but serious smash mouth SEC lite football. I'll be there.
Look as down as we are about Arroyo and a lot of it is justified....
He was 5-7 with 4 one score losses. He flips any of those, he's 6-6 Rebs are bowling and this thread (and a few others) don't exist.
Go back even to last seasons 2-10 there were 6 or 7 one score losses I think.
He didn't so here we are.
Point being this team was close. There's enough talent on the roster to win.
Let's hope Odom can get them over the hump.
Bull, I wanted nothing more than CMA to succeed but losing close games, red zone problems, defensive deficiencies, OLine still couldn't pick up blitzes, never beating any top MWC top teams his results were worse than Sanchez. Sanchez beat SDSU, beat Reno 3 out of 5, and that was with out the benefits of having the stadium and the Complex that he generated. For all of of CMA recruiting, the best players were from Sanchez Windmon and Dougie. CMA got his just deserts.
Just like Menzies!!! He wanted the job and look how that turned out!
(I figured I'd post it before somebody else did)
Sanchez was only hired because he coached the son of a really rich guy who promised to do him a solid.
Had Sanchez done the same thing at Liberty but the promise of a 30 million dollar facility wasn't there he never would have gotten the job here. he would have gotten the Gorman job.
Sanchez also suffered a lot of bad losses himself. Howard comes to mind.
But..
I get the gist of what you're are saying though. I want every coach to succeed. I'd rather be wrong, eat crow and Rebs go bowling every year vs be right and take more pleasure in saying I told you this coach would suck.
In my opinion, I think going .500 at Missouri is impressive. aTm has many more advantages (budget, facilities, fertile recruiting). Thing with Sumlin is you also need to include Arizona
In his body of work and that was a MASSIVE failure. Can’t just ignore it like it didn’t happen. Yes, Arizona is a difficult job, but so is UNLV, so it’s a fair comparison
Sumlin is funny, you can make a compelling argument based on which portion of his career you choose to cherry pick.
I think the thing that would worry me beyond the U of A results are some of the reports from local dudes that covered Arizona. A fair amount of stuff floating out there that he wasn't the most dedicated dude at that point and enjoyed the nightlife a bit too much.
Don't know the truth of it, but might raise some flags for an AD in the midst of a coaching search.
With Sumlin you also have to include his time with Houston, which was a success, so that's 3 stops, 2 were very successful, 1 wasn't. Don't know what happened in Tuscon, but that doesn't erase what he did before.
In the 2 seasons prior to Odoms arrival at Mizzou, they were 23-5 (14-2 in the SEC), so its not THAT impressive to go .500.
Honestly I'm done going back and forth, he's our guy, I'm fine with it and I hope he kills it.
That's a valid point about Sumlin for sure.
I think there may be a reason/s why he hasn't been getting a lot of run after Arizona. I can't remember his name being floated outside of UNLV.
I’m willing to see him work! I’m curious about his staff and recruiting, start with keeping the key guys here and out of the portal and then hit the road and get us some OL, DL, WR, QB, CB and DE/OLB help.
Welcome Coach Odom, we need some wins!
Welcome Coach Odom, we need some wins!
I'll be happy if he can figure out how to stop Air Force. It was for sure Arroyo never would.
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