Athlon Sports grades coaching hire of Barry Odom at Purdue

The Purdue Boilermakers find themselves in a difficult position. Looking to completely rebuild their program in the 18-team Big Ten, Purdue hired Barry Odom away from UNLV. The hope is he can continue the success he had there in West Lafayette.

With the summer here and the college season only a few weeks away, Athlon Sports shared their thoughts on coaching hires around the country. That included Barry Odom, who the magazine gave an “A” rating.

“After guiding UNLV to its best two-year stretch in program history,” Athlon wrote. “And back-to-back trips to the Mountain West Championship Game, Odom landed his second chance at a power conference job. He previously went 25-25 at Missouri from 2016-2019. Odom’s ties to the Midwest, along with his growth as a head coach since his stint at Missouri, should make this a home-run hire.”

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Purdue is coming off the disastrous Ryan Walters tenure. In two seasons, he’d lead the Boilermakers to just a 5-19 record. That included going 1-11 in 2024 and taking a step in the wrong direction as a program. The team’s only win in the season ended up being over FCS Indiana State.

Now, the program is turning to Barry Odom. He has deep ties to the state of Missouri. A player there in the 1990s, and by 2003 he was a GA there. By 2012, he was the Tigers defensive coordinator. Later, in 2016, he’d get his first shot to be a head coach with Missouri. In four seasons there, he’d take Missouri to two bowl games but after going 25-25 overall and not going to a bowl in 2019, the school parted with him.

Odom would bounce back by taking time as the defensive coordinator at Arkansas. From there, he got another chance to be the head coach at UNLV where he would thrive. In two seasons, he put together a 19-8 record, including a double-digit win season in 2024. Both seasons he spent there, UNLV competed for a conference championship but wasn’t able to win either one of them. That was after he inherited a team that had gone 5-7 the year before he arrived.

Purdue is hoping that Barry Odom is going to be able to turn their program around quickly too. That’s a difficult task against a tough Big Ten schedule, though, which includes USC, Michigan, and Ohio State before considering a non-conference game against Notre Dame. First, however, the Boilermakers are going to open up their season against Ball State on August 30th.