Read & React, Vol. 3
Barry Odom made some waves last Saturday night. Not so much during the game. His team didn't really put up enough resistance against Auburn to cause a ripple, much less something that could be confused with an honest-to-goodness wave. It was Odom's post-game comments that drew attention.
I'm not really all that interested in rehashing the contents of the four-minute diatribe. If you liked Odom before it, you liked him more after. If you wanted him out before it, you wanted him out sooner after. It didn't do a thing to change any minds.
Without a game this week, though, it's the major talking point around Mizzou right now (other than the start of basketball practice, which is tomorrow--Cuonzo Martin and his players will be available at a media session at 12:30 and PowerMizzou.com will have coverage).
On the ten-year anniversary of Mike Gundy's "I'm a man" rant, Odom went all in with "I'm THE man." Odom can only hope his turns out as well.
Since going on that tirade, Gundy has had one of the Big 12's best programs. Since the start of the 2008 season, the Pokes are 86-31. They've won at least eight games all but once, at least nine games all but twice, had five ten-win seasons and been ranked in the top 25 at the end of the year seven times. Not a bad run.
I'm not here to tell you Odom is going to replicate that success. But I am here to tell you Saturday night is going to serve as a line of demarcation. It's either going to be the night you found out he really was the man for the job or the night it became certain that he wasn't.
If Odom's declaration that "I wanted to quit hiding my emotions. I wanted to quit not being me. That’s me," is true, maybe it's a positive. Maybe we finally saw the real personality of the coach. Maybe it translates to his players and they suddenly turn into a competent football team.
Also, maybe not. Mizzou hasn't looked particularly interested in being that team for the last 11 quarters. They've been outscored 117-17 and spent the vast majority of those three games serving as a virtual punching bag for South Carolina, Purdue and Auburn.
The words don't much matter. It made for decent video and stories, but it won't do anything to make Missouri actually play better. With a bye this week, Missouri has some extra practice time before trying to end its three-game losing streak at Kentucky.
"Self evaluation," Odom said of this week's activities. "And make some changes on different ways that we’re playing, some different schemes."
That likely doesn't mean a major shift in the offensive and defensive schemes. You can't really do that mid-season. But Odom did offer some insight into what types of changes could be made.
"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," he said. "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.”
The day after the latest one-sided defeat, I stated I thought Odom should go with a full-on youth movement. I still feel that way. I think it's his best chance at building enough momentum to be back next year. Play the guys you recruited in the last two years a lot more. Maybe you improve and you can tell Jim Sterk, "We got better when these guys were in there. Give me another year to bring more of them in. Judge me then." At worst, you get beat by five touchdowns and the games are over ten minutes in. In other words, the same as it has been. But at least if you go down, you gave change a shot. I asked Odom about that possibility as well on Wednesday.
"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," Odom answered. "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."
If you're thinking, "Does that mean yes or no?" don't worry, you aren't alone. I don't know either. It wasn't really an answer so much as a doubling down on the "this job is a whole lot harder than you realize and the situation I walked into was a whole lot worse than you realize" from Saturday night.
We can debate whether that's true. I'm sure there are plenty of things we don't know about the situation. But just as I said every time Kim Anderson tried to tell us there were a whole bunch of things we didn't know, you either have to tell people what those things are or you have to live with the fact that they don't care and those things don't matter. Either produce results or give everybody a valid reason why results shouldn't be expected. And "there are a lot of things you don't know" isn't really going to be considered a valid reason by most people.
All of this is a long way of saying, Odom bet on himself last weekend. He told you he's the man for the job. There aren't a whole lot of Missouri fans who believe that right now because, honestly, there's been nothing on the field to prove it. But it doesn't really matter if you believe it or if I do. It doesn't even matter if Odom believes it. It matters quite a bit if Jim Sterk does, but even more if the players do.
This isn't the most talented team in the SEC. But it's more talented than we've seen. It's fair to watch this team play the last three weeks and think "There's got to be more to this than we see. They're simply not this bad."
So starting next Saturday in Lexington, we're gonna find out if Odom's players believe him. If they do, they might not win, but we'll at least see some fight and some effort and maybe even a competitive game. If not, well, that might be pretty evident too.
Last Saturday was the line in the sand. The next eight weeks determine on which side of the line Missouri will land. At that point, you're gonna look back to Saturday night. And you'll say that's when you knew.