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Every week, PowerMizzou.com publisher Gabe DeArmond answers questions from Tiger fans in the mailbag. This format allows for a more expansive answer than a message board post. Keep your eye out each week to submit your question for the mailbag or send them to powermizzou@gmail.com. On to this week's inquiries.
ChristianMizzouGuy asks: Are Odom, Babers and Campbell the best legit coaching candidates in our last search?(Herman was never coming). With Campbell and Odom having identical records coming into the season and Babers having a couple fewer wins but the best single season. Would you rather have the highs of Campbell(big wins) and Babers despite the same end record? Or the steady improvement Odom has had albeit having a a weird way of getting there?
GD: Those were probably the top three that were realistic. You could throw Matt Rhule in there who turned down the job. Missouri met with Campbell during the search process. Some have told me Mizzou wasn't interested, some have told me Campbell wasn't interested, but either way they walked away from the meeting go separate directions. I think Babers was on the list and Missouri might have met with him, but I don't really think there was serious consideration given to hiring him.
The thing you have to realize is that just because Campbell did what he has done at Iowa State doesn't mean it would have been the same here. Same with Syracuse. Let's look at each coach through three seasons plus two games:
Barry Odom: 20-20, 10-16 SEC. Record vs ranked teams: 1-8. Best win was Florida in 2018, worst loss either Middle Tennessee in 2016 or Wyoming in 2019 (I'd go with MTSU because I think Wyoming is decent, but Missouri is better now than it was then).
Matt Campbell: 20-19, 13-14 Big 12. Record vs ranked teams: 5-8. The strange thing here is that Iowa State has played four more ranked teams than Missouri has over the last three years (kinda puts a dent in that whole SEC is the greatest thing ever and Big 12 is awful argument). While Campbell has been better against the better opposition, Odom's record is three games better against unranked opponents. Best win for Campbell was against No. 3 Oklahoma in 2017 (he also beat No. 4 TCU the same year). Worst loss was Northern Iowa in his very first game.
Dino Babers: 19-20, 10-16 ACC. Record vs ranked teams: 3-8. Again, Babers has actually played more ranked teams in the ACC than Missouri has in the SEC. His best win came over No. 3 Clemson in 2017. His worst loss was either Wake Forest in year one or Middle Tennessee in year two.
Let's take year one out of the picture. All three took over programs that weren't great. You can choose which you think was best and which was worst, but all three won four games or fewer in year one. Here's the record the last two seasons (plus the first one or two games of this year)
Campbell: 17-10, 11-7 Big 12
Babers: 15-12, 8-10 ACC
Odom: 16-12, 8-10 SEC
I think by any measure Campbell has probably done the best job out of these three. Missouri and Syracuse have been good at football before. Iowa State really hasn't been. Campbell is the only one of the three with a winning league record in the last two years and he has the best overall record. He has also beaten more top 25 teams than the other two combined. Babers has the only 10-win season among the group, so you could argue he made the most drastic improvement (though we'll see where they end up this year). I don't think there's huge separation among any of the three. I agree Campbell has been the best so far, but I'm not sure there's any guarantee he'll be the best going forward. One advantage for Missouri is if all three end up being really successful, I think Mizzou has the best chance to hold on to its guy over the long haul.
As for which I'd prefer, I don't think there's enough difference to make a change between any of the three. At the time Missouri was hiring a coach, I'd have hired Odom over those other two because I hadn't seen anything to tell me Campbell or Babers was significantly better than the guy who was already here and familiar with Missouri's program and issues at the time.
mexicojoe asks: You might need to consult your dad for part of this but......Where would Mizzou Football be today if Dan Devine had stayed on as coach another 4-5 years?Same question for basketball if Mike Anderson had stayed another 3/4 years.
GD: Yeah I'm really not capable of answering the Devine part of the question. I wasn't alive. And my dad's not on the payroll and probably doesn't care enough to think about the answer.
As for Anderson, if he'd stayed, Missouri would have gotten Otto Porter. And maybe some other local talent. Obviously Frank Haith would never have been the coach here. I think Anderson would have been successful and I don't really think he would have left of his own volition. I think Arkansas was the only other place he was probably going to go. I've said a few times in hindsight that I think both Missouri and Anderson would have been better off if he'd never left. From the Missouri side, I don't know how long Anderson stays and succeeds, but I feel pretty good that had he stayed Missouri wouldn't have been on NCAA probation and the program wouldn't have gotten to the point where some people felt like they had the power to finally hire Kim Anderson as the coach. And we all know things probably would have been better if that were the case.
