Missouri Football: Top 10 potential candidates to replace Barry Odom

Barry Odom has been fired as head coach of Missouri football. Here are potential candidates from three different pools to replace Odom.

Missouri lifer Barry Odom has been fired as head football coach in Columbia. In his four years with the Tigers, Odom finished 25-25 including a 6-6 season this year.

This firing was a bit surprising, but current athletic director Jim Sterk was not the man who hired Odom. The Tigers also just re-opened their stadium and its $98 million upgrades. The upgrades in the south endzone aren’t just a seating upgrade, but an entire upgrade to their athletic facilities. It seems as if .500 isn’t good enough at Missouri, and Sterk feels they can do better.

Retired head coach Gary Pinkel won 10-plus games twice in the SEC and played for a conference title game in both those years (2013-14) reaching their high water mark in 2013 ending the season ranked No. 5. Since Pinkel’s retirement, Mizzou fans have seen their program get passed up by Georgia, Florida and even Tennessee is poised to pass them by.

Their past success under Pinkel and the nearly $100 million investment in their facilities has the administration in Columbia feeling strongly their football program is better than 6-8 wins a season. This is a critical hire for Sterk. With the feeling they should compete with Georgia and Florida, this hire must reflect this sentiment.

The coaching choice reflects the direction of the program. Usually the program goes the opposite direction of the previous regime. Barry Odom was a defensive coach, so often the program looks for an offensive guru.

Odom had no head coaching experience before Missouri so the university might look for a coach that’s run a program. We’ll see who they hire. Who are the top potential candidates?