Saturday morning, PowerMizzou broke the news that Missouri had parted ways with head football coach Barry Odom after four seasons. Odom finished with a 25-25 overall record but lost five of his last six games this season.
In a statement announcing the move, athletics director Jim Sterk thanked Odom for his time at Missouri but said the team's five-game losing streak this season sapped the energy around the program and necessitated the move.
"As a program, we had tremendous momentum coming into the 2019 season with the opening of the new south end zone facility as well as other strategic investments in our football program," Sterk said. "However, we lost a great deal of that energy during the last half of the season. This decision was difficult to make but was necessary."
As the news spread, players both past and present reacted to the news. Most came to the defense of Odom, who spent 18 total seasons at Missouri in roles ranging from graduate assistant to defensive coordinator to head coach. After the Tigers' win over Arkansas on Friday, several players voiced support for their coach, including linebacker Nick Bolton, who said the team called a players-only meeting to discuss the importance of winning the game to Odom's career.
“Nobody in the locker room would want to play for anybody else besides coach Odom, myself included,” Bolton said.
Some former players, however, were not as complimentary of Odom. Here is a running list of reactions to Odom's firing from Tiger legends to committed recruits:
