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Fiery pre-game speech? Nope. Purdue's Barry Odom takes low-key approach

On3 imageby: Tom Dienhart08/29/25TomDienhart1
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(Krockover Photograph)

Screaming voices? Flying chairs? Fire? Brimstone? You won’t have any of that from Barry Odom during his pregame speech on Saturday.

“I don’t want to minimize the job that I do or maximize it either way,” said Odom. “And I say this very respectfully, because I had some great, great coaches I was around. I mean, hall of fame guys, and I don’t remember one pregame speech they gave.”

Well, that’s not true. Odom does remember one.

“And it was awful, but it wasn’t from the head coach,” he said.

MORE: Purdue punts on issuing depth chart prior to opener | Unknowns surround season opener for Purdue football | Barry Odom: ‘Deep responsibility to get Purdue football back to winning for the people of Purdue’

Make no mistake about it: Odom will gather his players in the locker room following pregame warmups on Saturday prior to the noon ET kickoff (BTN) vs. Ball State. By then, in the twilight of pregame, the hay is in the barn, so to speak. If the players aren’t ready to play, it’s not likely any fiery speech is gonna make a difference.

“If (players are) waiting on me to give them a pregame speech to ‘Let’s go do it,’ then I’ve missed the boat on preparing them to go play the best,” said Odom.

Still, Odom no doubt will have some measured and meaningful words for his team before kickoff on Saturdays.

“But the rah, rah, you know, throw a frog against the wall and go crazy,” said Odom, “that’s not really our style. It is for some. And for us, it’s more process driven … let’s really focus on what our job is.

“They’ll be ready to go play. I’m excited to run out of Tiller Tunnel, and I’m excited to see the fans, because I know there’s great passion, there’s great energy and tremendous support here.”

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