Barry Odom’s fate was sealed at some point during Missouri’s five-game losing streak and prior to Friday’s season-ending win over Arkansas. Director of Athletics Jim Sterk repeatedly referenced the loss of momentum in the program during the second half of the 2019 season as he discussed his decision to fire Odom on Saturday.

"It was being discussed but the decision was actually made in the last 24-48 hours,” Sterk said at a meeting with the media on Saturday evening.

After a Homecoming win over Ole Miss, Odom had the Tigers 5-1 and ranked 22nd in the country. They did not win again until Friday, a span of 48 days. It was far too little far too late.

"I felt we lost momentum of the program and and that it would be difficult for us under his leadership to continue to move it forward,” Sterk said.

The Odom era is over after 50 games. There have been and will be many epitaphs written about it. We’ve already written ours. But the focus now is on the future. Who’s the next coach at Mizzou?

Sterk said he will use Parker search firm in assisting with the search. He stressed the need for confidentiality and said he will make no further comment until he introduces his next coach. He anticipates doing that within two weeks.

“We need to try to act swiftly, be upfront with the potential candidates and here's what we're looking for,” Sterk said. “I think we're going to have a lot of interest so we'll have to gauge of who's truly interested. I don't want to talk to somebody that's just trying to leverage it for a better contract. So I want someone that wants to be here that can lead this program and in the right way.”

Sterk said head coaching experience is a plus, but not a necessity. He said the same of experience at the Power Five level. He said that an offensive background was not a necessity. When asked if he would be willing to look at candidates who are not currently coaching, Sterk dodged the question. So what will Missouri’s candidate list look like? It’s anybody’s guess. Sterk has his list. But he’s not sharing it.

"You always have a few people that you know that might be interested,” he said. “But, obviously just in the last few weeks putting that to pencil and trying to decide okay, what could we look for ultimately, I had to be prepared. Either way, if Barry stayed, which could have happened. But if we were going to look I had to be prepared that way too.”

The search will start immediately. Sources have told PowerMizzou.com that donors are being the ten to 14 day timeline to a hire privately. Interviews are likely to start as soon as the beginning of this week. The present is full of turmoil. It’s Sterk’s responsibility to fix that.

“I'm excited about the future of Mizzou football,” he said. “In a short time we'll have someone here and and be introducing that person to this group and, and I think people will will get excited about what we're doing moving forward."