Barry Odom spoke with reporters on the SEC teleconference Wednesday morning. Here's the transcript of what he had to say.
Opening Statement: “We got into a bye week. Really as you look into every season you hope that the bye week comes at the right time. It’s different and spread out as every team is different and for this one currently this is about the perfect time for us to have a bye week. We got some guys that have been injured the last couple weeks, got a chance to get a full roster back for next week at Kentucky. Also for us, self evaluation and spend a lot of extra time on that and make some changes on different ways that we’re playing, some different schemes. We’ve had a productive week so far. Looking forward to really more good practices. We’ve been able to get a jump on our next opponent and do some good on good cross-work, looking forward to getting back into game week."
Wonder if you’ve had some feedback from people inside the department or the University about your comments after the game and what sort of feedback it may have bee?
“Really everything that I am geared to do is for, the other night was a carryover from the locker room and everything that I do either privately or publicly is for my team and for my staff. I’ve received, as I do most weeks, received a number of either calls or texts about the game or something I’ve said throughout the week. Our team, we’ve not won as many as we’ve wanted to at this point, but we’re working extremely hard, we’re doing a lot of really good things, we’re going to get that translate over into showing up on game day Saturday afternoon or Saturday night. Got a lot of positive things going on at Mizzou and I appreciate it.”
So was the feedback generally positive, people are behind you?
“If you go from a day to day standpoint in the meetings that I have with my staff or with administration, they’ve all been really, really positive.”
Could you provide an update on the defensive tackle position? I believe you said after the game Saturday you said you had two and a half that were healthy.
“We’ll have everybody practice going out this afternoon and all those guys are back active. Not 100% but I feel like here over the next couple days, Sunday night when we really get into our game week, full game week prep, all of them will be active and ready to go.”
Since the game against South Carolina do you feel like the special teams has made progress?
“I look at our punt team and it has for sure. I look at our kickoff coverage, which past that game has been solid. Punt return we still need to get more out of, and then kickoff return, the other night the kicker had such a tremendous leg we didn’t really have an opportunity to get a return and haven’t. We’ve been close, the week before that in our kickoff return. We’ve still got to continue to work on our front line getting in position because we’ve got an opportunity to get another first down there for our offense before they even take the field. Working hard on that and we’ve got some things going on schematically that I feel like will give us an edge.”
You mentioned the defensive tackles, but are there any other lingering injuries after the game?
“No. You get into this part of the season, you’re always going to have guys that are, you’re never going to feel 100% I don’t think. Going back to my expeiriences as a player, that’s the game that we’re playing. From the guys that participated in the game last week we should have all back ready to go for Kentucky.”
You mentioned the chance to go back and make some changes with a bye week. Can you make major scheme changes during the season or are you talking about just little tweaks here and there?
“Looking more at just the things of anything that we have done well, why did we do it well? And the things that we’ve done poorly—and you do this every day—but what was the breakdown? You can really, if you use your time wisely, split up and really game plan against each other a little bit and get some cross evaluation. You’re using the time efficiently and for us there’s been some of our odd-front stuff defensively that’s been really good so we spent a little more time on that this week and then some of the fits that we had working together structurally, just making sure getting into this that positionally we’re spending more time in the film room together seeing how we work off of each other and fitting together. You got 11 guys doing the thing we need to do then we’re a pretty good defense. If you don’t, we’re not. Offensively, running the ball, finding ways a little bit more creatively to get that done. We’ve spent more time maybe than anything the mindset of we’re going to have some adversity, let’s embrace it and go play the next snap.”
Along those lines, I know you evaluate personnel every day, but considering the way the last three weeks have gone, do you look at particularly some of these younger guys getting extended playing time?
“We’ve got a number of guys really that are playing on both sides of the ball. But you also look at over the course of really some of the things that were talked about the other night, this is a turnaround, it’s going to happen, but we’ve also got multiple players, over 25 that aren’t in the program anymore. Instead of having that guy, whoever it is being plugged in that’s an older guy, now you’re looking at it’s Kobie Whiteside and Chris Turner, who I think are tremendous players and going to be great college players at Mizzou. But also, with that, that’s what the roster is, the management of that. We are playing a number of young guys. With some time that stuff will take care of itself, but also we’ve got an opportunity that we do have some guys that are currently on our team that really are going to have to step up. We’ve had two really good practices this week with them and some of our different roles for them as far as being counted on, whether it being in the kicking game or offensively and defensively. We got all hands on deck so to speak. Let’s go make a push and see what we can get done next week.”
