Barry Odom's Press Conference

"Really good to be back on the field today with my team, and to get in and full preparation for our next opponent. I thought after, you know, getting back on Saturday night from our game in Nashville, you look at the power of experiences and most of all the power of of setbacks and failures or mistakes or shortcomings provides opportunities, really, to open, you know, open our eyes to truth and understanding and the ability for us to understand the reasons we didn't play well, and what we can do and will do to fix that to make sure that we control the narrative, we control the outcome or the story for the next five weeks, the urgency of what that's going to take and how it's going to happen. It's all in our control, and our team understands that and organization understands that. You know, you never, you know it's hard when you have to learn from a setback, but that's squarely looking us in the face, and we're not going to run from it. We understand that, you know, life is difficult, there's going to be times that you don't get everything that you want. And there's reasons usually for the reasons that had happened. So we've addressed those in every way that we can now from the top down, and I'm not going to point the finger, you know, at one group or one area and, and we've we've also come to the short conclusion that we've all got to be better in every area, and we've own that, we understand how we're going to do it, how we're going to fix it so you look ahead to the next opportunity that we have.

You look at the health of our team. Look at what we need to do sitting at five and two, what we need to do here for one more week and then we have a bye and then into the month of November with four straight. Health wise I would say we're probably banged up just like any other team is in college football going into week eight of the season, and I think you know the guys that played last week will all be back in position to play and we need to play well because we'll need everybody that we can get to go find a way to play our best against Kentucky.

I think Mark Stoops has done a tremendous job on building his program. The way that he's built it on the direct approach and the recruiting and very specific on how he's recruited to positions that fit the scheme on what he wants to do. His toughness shows up in the way that they play ball, and I admire the way that he's done it and the way that he's run and continues to run his program. You look offensively, Eddie Gran and I have gone against each other a number of times and I've got a lot of respect for the way that he always finds a way to be creative and utilizing the skill set of his players. You know a quarterback goes down, and then he comes up with a plan on what is best for each team and they're playing really well on that side of the ball. And the way that they're doing it is they understand on the approach that he is able to design the offense for them. I'm sure we're going to see number one and number 12 both this week. It sounds like that Smith is healthy enough probably to get back in some action, and then obviously, number one is as talented as players there is in college football.

So, and then you look defensively they're built tough and strong and aggressive and sound. They're great tacklers, and they play so extremely hard. You look up front, they're big inside and long on the perimeter, their linebackers are active. They're playing terrific pass defense on the back end on the way they're matching up their coverages on the things that they're doing. And, you know, the way that they're able to get pressure on the quarterback with four. They've done a really nice job recruiting to the scheme that they want to play and then they go execute it so our guys are excited about having an opportunity to get back on the field and play.

I thought, you know, today's practice or Sunday meetings, the activity that I saw through here yesterday and in our open day or bye day, and our players in the way that they've gone about approaching after not playing really well. You know I like the feel of what we did today, so we got to do it again tomorrow and again Thursday and Friday and then go execute it on Saturday. But that's part of the process on learning continually learning of who we are and how we're going to go do it. And this group has got some toughness about them, they've got some resiliency and they understand that that we didn't play our best, but credit to our opponent last week on outplaying us and outcoaching us and we don't want that to happen again. So, with that, I can go ahead and open it for questions."

"I think this more than anything, and hopefully we'll do it again, right, that you're open and you're honest with the assessment. You don't ever think that it's one person or one coach or one area, it's all of us collectively together. You know I'm not in the position to place blame other than put it on me, and I didn't get us in position or ready to go play our best and we got outplayed, so I think our players respect that. I think also it's a feel for each team. Every team is different, and the ownership that we've got and the care that they have on trying to make a wrong, trying to make it right. It's there. You know, it's never, you know you can't just say okay now we addressed it ,now it's over. Let's go fix it. Now the action part of it happens, and it's going to take a tremendous effort to go end up in the winner's circle."

"I think for some it probably does. You know how that game played out and goes down to the wire, you know you always, like I mentioned in the very beginning, that's the power of experiences and that's one that you know sticks with a lot of guys that are still here. You know staff, coaches, players, whoever, guys use different motivation different ways and I'm sure for some that, you know, anytime you face an opponent again and you always look back to the experience you've had previously against them so I'm sure it does for some."

"Isn't that awesome that, you know, the administration on both sides worked together to find a way to get that done? I think Missouri and Kansas should always play. I think they should play in every sport. And we all know it took a lot of hard work I'm guessing on both sides to try to make it work and find a way to get it to fit and look forward to that hopefully someday that every sport will be recognized and the ability to play each other because that rivalry, it's still there. It goes back for generations and it's going to continue to go to generations forward. And, you know, it's something that I think would would benefit our student athletes, the experience that they have in college, and it also would would be great for both fan bases. You know what I want my sons, the one's a freshman and one's an eighth grader, I want them to be able to play Kansas, I think that's, I think it's a big deal. I mean you live in Missouri that's what you want. I'm sure you talk to the people over there that's what they want. So, that's kind of how I feel about that."

"I mean, it's hard to look past the one in Kansas City, that, you know, in 07. That was a pretty big moment. I remember as a true freshman in 1996. You know the last game of the year, there wasn't really anything riding on the game as far as bowl implications, but it was just us against them, and we won that one too. So, you tend to remember some of those, you know."

"You look at all the penalties, you know, two weeks ago we had two. And, you know, pretty clean game and then last week was obviously 12 or 13, whichever the number was it was not anywhere close to what the standard of the way that we need to play is. So address them very specifically, you know, the mental focus we lost the ability to have emotional stability throughout the course of that game. It was, we didn't have it, and that's something that that obviously we correct, we fix, and we can't have that. And won't stand for it. Moving forward, that's not Missouri football. It didn't give us a chance to be successful."

"Yeah, you go into the process of continuing to build a relationship, personal relationship, you address the game. You know you talk about the things that they want to talk about with how they fit into our program. I don't remember what time the game got over exactly but it seemed like it was later by the time I finally got back to being around those guys and obviously they saw how the game unfolded and tough loss but they're mature guys and we talked some about the game but also the big picture about how they could step in and help us."

"You look at some of the returning players so we have a feel for who some of those guys are, their skill set, what they bring either the speed or the you know the way they run the routes or the things they did up front blocking them and there's always some carryover on common opponent coming back but as far as, you know, the way the game played out, I don't know. Again that goes back a little bit individually to the motivational factor that the guys use or don't use."

"He will. Be a number of guys, you know, between (Joshuah) Bledsoe and Tyree and then, (Khalil) Oliver and _Ronnell) Perkins, you know there'll be a rotation in there that'll help us get to the second half and and Tyree's going to, you know, just like the 11 guys that are on the field, the way that they need to prepare them. Everybody else is making the trip, they need to prepare like for the starter because they're a play away from from being the guy that we're counting on."

"I did talk to him. I talked to him on the field, after I saw the replay, and he's such a great kid and I hate the way, you know, it didn't look good I'm not I'm not arguing that it looked. It looked bad. We've talked all the time defensively when a quarterback goes into a slide, whatever your action is as a defender, it's you can't touch the guy, and he had already gotten into a position that he was sinking his hips to go in for the tackle. He was going to try a low tackle and in a bad lapse of judgment lowered his head at the last minute, and made head to head contact. Obviously it was called, it should have been, and he felt that. You go in the locker room afterwards and he's sobbing uncontrollably because he knows he made a mistake, and I, you know, he didn't mean to hit the guy in the fashion that took place but he did. It was a bad mistake, and he's obviously paying for it."

"Those guys, when your number's called, you know, the opportunity for them to go in and play, you know he's worked extremely hard up to this point, he understands the scheme of the way we're going to play ,he's got really good skill. And, you know, we need him to do his job, don't get in the moment so much that you think you gotta go do something that that's not you, you know what I mean? And just play. Play what's called assignment sound, have your eyes in the right spot and he's going to play really well. He's going to prepare extremely well, he has up to this point, and he's earned the opportunity now that his number's called, it's time, let's go."

"Look, anytime he touches the ball you need to know number one before he's lined up, you know on the punt return game, quarterback, receiver, running back, wherever he is, you know, they're a really good team when he's got the ball. So, we all know that, we know that he's going to make some plays also, you know, it'd be pretty foolish to think that they're going to shut it down completely. You want to limit those explosive plays, you know, manage those to an extent but also just being aware, and understand that we got to play assignment sound. They're going to try to feed him the ball would be my guess and you got to be great tacklers, you got to use your leverage the correct way. You know, if you're going to take a shot you better make sure that you get somebody there to help you out."

"Well the thing, you look, you know last weekend in Athens, it was this horrible rain so I think part of that went into it as well. You know at corner, so you play 70 snaps and 65 of them you play really well and the other five, you know, you lose your focus, then that's a, it's a disaster of a game. So, you know, for those guys to play one play and then erase it all and get ready to be in the moment for the next, now you know it's more of a mental conditioning than anything with the physical side of it, but they've got to stay still so dialed in to the call, the execution and understanding. You know, when I was coaching the secondary years ago I'd talk all the time about you need to think when the ball's snapped every time they're coming to you. And if you get that mindset, you really believe that, you trust it. Then you're not surprised by when they do drop back and throw the ball."

"You control the space between your ears. You know what I mean? Then we'll go practice really well on Wednesday, we'll continue to put a great game plan together. And we're five and two and got an opportunity to control the narrative here for the next five weeks. It's up to us. Let's go do it."

"When you look at, you know, the breakdowns we had offensively in that game and one of them was our inability to run the football. It starts up front, you know, those guys understand it, we didn't play point of attack blocking. Pass protection, we didn't play our best, and you know the ownership for those guys to take charge and understand that we need them to play really well. Whatever positions like our tackle whatever it is we need those guys to play well. If we do, we're going to have a great day offensively. If we don't, we're going to struggle. And, you know, it's a very elementary statement, but they understand the simple formula offensively for us to play well, they got to play well. We will go as that group does."

"He's got to be a little more vocal just with his checks and communication which he's done. He's done a fabulous job last two weeks on what we've asked him to do but it's not going to stop. He's got to be the guy to, to make us right and you know there's times that that you know he was the guy that echoed that call, but now he's the one that makes it and he's done a great job. He's been very productive. He's taking the ownership of doing that. And he's played pretty well."

"Yeah, I kind of felt it too the other day but also, you know, it's the things that he's able to do sometimes out of the scramble, you know, I'm okay with that but also if he's got some uneasiness about the in-game feeling that he's got and we need to kind of reset and deal with what he's feeling and and you know I felt that he did too a little bit as you talked to him on the sideline. So we can learn from that. We will, I think that he understands what was there, what was not there. It was don't try to change things that, you know, just play like it is. And we'll go through our progression and read and then it's time to try to take off and let's do it. Let's not force it."

"Continue to work through it and you know, there's been times it's been really good, but obviously when you get down in that area and you line up for a field goal, you've got to come away with three points. Man, that's just, you know, that's bottom line. Where we are, you know, every possession is so important. Try to come away with points and you get out of that area, you know, you come away with zero and zero and two times you line up and kick it that's obviously not very good so we got to fight through it, we got to battle through it. Now, trust me, Tucker's gonna find his way. He's done a tremendous job punting, he's done a great job on kickoffs. We've got to make sure that that's on our side. We're going to need one. Just like we did last week we're going to need one to win the game."

"He's good. Mentally he's in a good spot. He kicked well today. I think we're, I think we're all right,"

"There's a little bit of both. I think you look, there's some times out in the field that we want him in the game when he comes out of the game. There's times that, you know, the read is not there to go to him initially so we go somewhere else. I think we need to lean on that. He's got the ability to make plays, we need him to do it consistently, but also we may need to force feed that a little bit."

"If he plays like seven plays in a row, he might come out, need a break. Then on that play, you're like well I'd like to go 11 personnel and let's try to hit Albert, but he's standing over there by me. So we can't throw it to him when he's not in. We try to go as long as we can with him but there's times he's going to need a break. I can't sit there and say, Albert you've got to go this play, and he's standing there can't get his breath. So we have a set substitution but if the drive goes a little bit longer than it does, then there's times that you know whatever the circumstances that he's not in the game, he's over the sideline."