A Sit Down With New Purdue Football Coach Barry Odom

Barry Odom was born to be a football player. Coaching became his destiny.

In Oklahoma, there’s two things that matter. Oil and football. Growing up in Maysville, Odom watched the Sooners win a national championship in 1985.

“The Oklahoma Sooners were in the heyday of (Barry) Switzer winning national championships or competing every year,” the 48-year-old Odom said during an in-person interview in June at Purdue’s Kozuch Football Performance Complex. “Where I grew up, it was about an hour away from their campus. I was able to see them first-hand at a very early age.”

The seeds of coaching were planted during Odom’s youth.

“I was lucky. Starting in Pee Wee baseball all the way up through my senior year in high school in baseball, basketball, track and football I had very influential coaches,” Odom said. “I was fortunate to be in communities that supported extra-curricular activities. It was something I enjoyed, seeing how my coaches put teams together, the things it took to have a chance to be successful. It’s something I’ve always wanted to be a part of.”

Odom’s latest reconstruction project is the Purdue football program, which he took over on Dec. 8, 2024. In the months since then, Odom has added a major college football-high of 54 transfers and 82 newcomers in all.

Rebuilding in the transfer portal is nothing new for Odom, who added 50 during his first season at UNLV in 2023. Fifty-five more came the following year. Those newcomers helped the Runnin’ Rebels record the school’s winningest season in 40 years, going 10-3 in 2024 after a 9-5 mark in 2023. UNLV has never had a more successful two-year stretch since becoming an NCAA Division I program in 1978.

In the five seasons prior to his arrival (2017-22), UNLV won a combined 20 games.

Like it or not, the transfer portal has helped college teams rebuild immediately and made five-year plans obsolete.

“There’s good and bad with everything. I choose to look at the good side of things,” Odom said. “The positive side of having an opportunity to recruit young men to Purdue. We’re a high school recruiting team as well as very aggressive in the transfer portal market. I think there’s opportunities that you can provide some depth and experience on your team through that way of recruiting. Also, building a foundation with strong high school recruiting is also important. We’ve had a blend of both of those that I think will help our 2025 team.”

It didn’t take long for one of Odom’s legendary high school feats to make the rounds inside the Purdue locker room. As a high school senior, Odom ran for 39 touchdowns. On a torn ACL.

Odom went on to be a four-year letterwinner at linebacker for Missouri from 1996-99, helping the Tigers make two bowl trips and serving as captain his senior year.  He left Missouri as one of the program’s top 10 tacklers with 362.

Odom hopes his toughness and competitive spirit rub off on a program that showed neither trait after a 66-7 loss to Notre Dame in Week 2 of the 2024 season. The Boilermakers hit rock bottom in Bloomington a couple of months later, watching Indiana wrap up a College Football Playoff berth with a 66-0 victory.

The next day, second-year head coach Ryan Walters was fired with Purdue eating the remaining $9 million on his contract. A week later, Odom agreed to a six-year contract worth at least $39 million. That’s by far the richest coaching contract in Purdue history.

“The thing that I looked at here was No. 1, leadership from Mike Bobinski and (university president) Mung Chiang,” Odom said. “The alignment, the vision, the support, the fan base, the passion, the energy, the conference, geographic location. All of those things went into it. Every job or new beginning there’s going to be challenges. I would choose to look at it as more opportunities than challenges.”

Odom is Bobinski’s third head football coaching hire. The first, Jeff Brohm, eventually led Purdue to its first Big Ten Championship Game appearance in 2022 before returning home to the University of Louisville. Walters went 5-19, a slightly lower winning percentage (.208) to Darrell Hazell’s .214 from 2013-16.

Whether Odom is a success or a failure, he’s likely the last football head coaching hire for the 67-year-old Bobinski.

“During our interactions with coach Odom, it became clear he possesses the belief, tenacity and competitive drive necessary to return Purdue football to the standard of excellence we all expect,” Bobinski said during Odom’s introductory press conference.

History states Purdue football wins with offensive innovation and talented quarterbacks. Jack Mollenkopf and Bob Griese/Mike Phipps. Jim Young and Mark Herrmann. Joe Tiller and Drew Brees/Kyle Orton. What kind of coaching style will fans see this fall?

“They’re going to see a team that is prepared, that is excited to play with energy and enthusiasm, a disciplined football team that plays extremely hard and creates an exciting atmosphere to watch winning football,” Odom said.

“Offensively, the most important stat is we win. The blending of our team’s physical attributes, how you piece that together into a playbook. There will be a balance. You have to be able to run the football to win games. You have to be explosive in creating plays in the run and pass game. You’ve got to have some sort of element of linear passing game. You have to be good on the perimeter. You have to protect the quarterback. There’s going to be run/pass options built into schematically what you call. I think the right word would be multiple. Taking care of the football. Playing smart. Playing together.”

Luckily for Odom, one of the few Boilermakers who didn’t abandon the program for greener (as in money) pastures is fifth-year senior running back Devin Mockobee. Obtaining his mechanical engineering degree is more important to Mockobee.

If Mockobee can average 100 rushing yards over the 12-game season, he will surpass Mike Alstott as Purdue’s career leader. Barring injury, Mockobee appears likely to at least become the Boilermakers’ fourth 3,000-yard rusher (Alstott, Kory Sheets, Otis Armstrong). Mockobee enters the season opener Aug. 30 against Ball State with 2,466 yards.

“I’m excited about having the chance to coach him,” Odom said. “Academically, socially and athletically – he checks the boxes. He’s all in. He gives great effort. Guys look to him as a leader, and we expect him to have a tremendous senior year.”

Time will tell if Purdue has enough Mockobee-type players to overachieve the predictions of another last-place finish in the Big Ten.

“Fortunately, we get to play the games,” Odom said. “We don’t have to live on history or tradition. For us, the opportunity for us to compete because we prepare the right way.

“Last year, I had nothing to do with. I also didn’t have anything to do with three years ago. All that we can look at is what have we done from the first day on the job together up to this point. Tomorrow is a new day. Are we going to be able to pour into the process of preparation, of habits, of determination, of accountability, of openness, of honesty, of love, of building and galvanizing a team to get ready to be our best for the next day?

“I know it’s a very, very boring process. The monotony of doing it over and over and over is tiring but the ones that have success can do it every single day. If we can do that, then from Game 1 to Game 2 we’ll play even better … where in November we’ll be playing meaningful games competing for a championship. If you prepare the right way, if you recruit the right way, if you coach the right way and a little luck falls in your favor it doesn’t matter the logo of your opponent. Your opponent is yourself. We’re going to get into a numbing state of what preparation looks like. If we do it the right way, when we run out of Tiller Tunnel it won’t matter who is on the sideline. We’ll be ready to go play our best ball.”

To help speed up the transition, Odom brought eight players and six high school recruits from UNLV. Four of the veterans appear likely to earn starting jobs against Ball State on Aug. 30: cornerback Tony Grimes, linebackers Mani Powell and Charles Correa plus offensive lineman Jalen St. John.

Also making the move from Las Vegas are defensive coordinator Mike Scherer, special teams coordinator James Shibest, offensive line coach Vance Vince and assistant head coach/wide receivers Cornell Ford.

“I think we’re going to have an exciting roster,” Odom said. “There will be a group of people who will have no idea when we take the field on Aug. 30 who one or two or maybe 15 specific guys are but they are going to appreciate the brand of football they play. They’re going to become a household name. It’s a blank sheet of paper and we get to write our script.

“It’s our job to play winning football, and I know at the end of the year I will be judged on 12 opportunities, turning that into 13 and plus from there. If you do it the right way, we will turn Ross-Ade into one of the greatest environments there is in college football.”

Kenny Thompson is the former sports editor for the Lafayette Journal & Courier and an award-winning journalist. He has covered Purdue athletics for many years.