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Sterk talks about firing Odom, finding replacement

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Jim Sterk fired Barry Odom on Saturday morning. He talks about the decision and the search for a replacement here.

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Below is a full transcription of Sterk's press conference

Opening Statement

"Appreciate you coming here this this afternoon. I met with Coach Odom this morning to let him know that we were making a change in the leadership of Mizzou football. This decision was not an easy one, but necessary and supported by Chancellor Cartwright and President Choi. As you know, Coach Odom has been a big part of Mizzou football for almost 20 years and all of us really appreciate what he's done and contributed to the university and to the program. Mizzou is really thankful for his contributions. I know how hard he and his staff have worked this past season, and the previous three to make our program better.l Coach Odom has dedicated himself to developing our student athletes on and off the field, for which we're really grateful. As a program we had tremendous momentum heading into 2019 with the opening of our South End Zone project, as well as other strategic investments into the program. We lost a great deal of energy over the last half of the season which causes great concern as we look to the future .Mizzou is a great place. It's an outstanding job. And we have necessary resources for this program to be successful at the highest level. We strive to achieve excellence and we expect to consistently play in the postseason and compete for championships, while representing Mizzou in the right way. A national search is underway and confidentiality during this time will be critical. Therefore I won't be accessible for public comments or comment on any search until the next football coach is hired. I'm grateful to our student athletes, as well as those past players who have worked so hard to make this program what it is today. Coach Odom bleeds black and gold and I understand that which made it not an easy decision. I did not make this move lightly and I made this move to move our program forward to build on the success of our past, of our current players and those yet to come. With that I'll open it up for questions."

Last year you signed Barry Odom to an extension. What changed so much in 12 months?

"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."

When was the decision actually made? The timing indicates you knew what you were going to do before the Arkansas game.

"It was being discussed but the decision was actually made in the last 24-48 hours with President Choi and Chancellor Cartwright."

What are some of the qualities you're looking for in a new head coach?

"I think someone that brings a lot of energy and experience to the program, a leader, quality individual that has had success in leading a program or as a coordinator at a high level. Those are some of the some of the qualities."

Is head coaching experience a requirement?

"Not a, not an absolute criteria but something that would be very helpful."

There have been people that say what kind of program does Missouri think it is. And why do they think they can go out and get a big time coach, what's your answer to that?

"Missouri has the resources to be a top 25 consistently in the postseason to compete for championships. Coach Pinkel showed that in a couple times he went to the championship game in the SEC. I think with the investment that we've made recently in our South End Zone project it puts it us on a level, as far as facilities, that are second to none. So I'm excited about the future. I think we have a great opportunity moving forward. We have a lot of good players in our program that we want to build upon and get the right person in here, a really good coach to come in and take over and I don't know as far as assistants and things like that who will stay, but right now those assistants are are employed and and they're there. They're going to work for Mizzou until the head coach is hired and then we'll, we'll make decisions, or they'll make decisions from there."

There are a lot of ways to conduct the search with a search firm or committee. How will you go through the search?

"Chancellor Cartwright and President Choi will be consistently involved. We won't have a huge, huge search committee, if you will, I'll keep key individuals involved informed but we're going to try to move quickly. It's important, things have really changed as far as the football landscape with, with the early signing period, the 18th through the 20th, with the transfer portal all those things so it's important that we move swiftly and hire the right person."

You moved quickly with the basketball search to hire Cuonzo Martin. Is that realistic with a football search?

"I don't know, we're going to try. We're going to, hopefully will in the next week and a half, two weeks, have a good idea who can be our next coach."

Barry was one of the lower paid coaches in the SEC. Do you expect that to change with the new hire?

"I think that the salary commensurate with experience and if we can go out and hire someone with a lot of experience, then we were going to look at that. We're going to look at coaches that have been successful. And so there'll be a range, if you will, of what we'll be able to pay to pay for someone but that's the support that I have for President Choi, the board and Chancellor Cartwright."

Can you talk about the opportunity and what kind of a job this is?

"Yeah, it's a, it's a great opportunity. As i said I'm excited about it. Just building one of the best facilities in the country is a recruiter's dream, if you will and being the University of Missouri and being the land grant, being a huge institution. All those things compile into a powerful combination and I think in each of our programs in each of our coaches we're striving to be in the top 25, and be consistently there and so I think it gets people excited. I know we're gonna have a lot of interest. We already have a lot of interest and we'll be looking to hire the right person."

Can you talk about Barry's reaction when you told him?

"I don't know, you'd have to ask him but he obviously, very tough and he cares deeply about this institution and, and I respect the heck out of that. So, it's never easy to make a change and he's poured a lot of blood sweat and tears into this place."

How did you tell the players and what was their reaction?

"So, we were just given of what the timing, that actually met after I met with Barry, had expected to meet with the players but as he said, part of them had dispersed because of, they get a little bit of a time and they have their banquet tomorrow. So we decided to do a phone call, he thought that was best as far as communicating with them and the staff. So we pulled them together and tried to beat anything out there on Twitter. Almost did but it was, it was close."

How big a limitation is the financial situation and the recruiting restrictions?

"I don't think it is at all. We're a program, one of the few in the country that really pay back to the institution, not paid back but we paid to the institution, we're self sufficient. We supported the institution, over $20 million a year. And s as we look at it, the Chancellor and I had talked about a loan similar to what I think they did when they moved from the Big 12, where we didn't receive revenue for one year and paid it back so those are the things that we've talked about so it shouldn't be a limitation."

Other than the losses on the field was there anything about the direction of the program that concerned you?

"I think just the momentum of it. We reached a point where we needed to make a change, because we have lost that momentum."

There have been a lot of people that wondered what happened to this football team. Was there something behind the scenes that we don't know about?

"I think the coaches, as you talked to them, not sure exactly either what happened and it was unfortunate. So, yeah, no, still an unknown as I talked to coaches today."

Was this a stretch to make this work financially with the bowl revenue and the buyouts and everything?

"The bowl revenue I guess the, the holdback if you will, from the SEC, half of that is set aside in escrow, and so we have the opportunity to get that back. As far as the other as far as the paying off of assistants and and the contracts, I expect these coaches, either to be retained by the next head coach or hired, there might be a few that that don't have something so I think that number's an outlier. It's out there a long ways and it'll probably be, I would guess a third of that at best."

Can your past experiences in coaching searches help you here?

"Well, one is is confidentiality that we needed, we need to do that need to try to act swiftly, be upfront with the potential candidates and here's what we're looking for. And here's what we want to do but 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."

Do you think Power Five experience or experience in the SEC is necessary?

"It's definitely a benefit of being experienced at this level that I've said before you know the SEC is not for the faint of heart and so you, you have to know what you're getting into and so I think experience in the SEC or obviously competitiveness at a high level is is important, and not an absolute but it's pretty important to have it and understand what you're getting into in this league."

Most athletic directors say you always have to have a list. So have you always had a list, or is that something you put together over the last few weeks?

"You always have a few people that you know that might be interested. 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."

I know you look at the whole body of work, but was the Tennessee game the one that kind of cemented it for you?

"No, I think, as a whole, looking at it as a whole and everything."

Are you open to a candidate who might be out of coaching right now?

"Non traditional candidate, if you will? You have eligibility or you have experience? (We) can't afford you. That's true."

How critical is the hiring of a football coach to the athletic department?

"It's a very important hire for not only athletics, but the institution. We're an economic driver. As far as exposure to the institution but also to the, to the region here so it's our economic impact as I I've looked at it with our south endzone project I think over the two years it was going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 million. So it's, it's a huge impact to the athletics department and and the University and the region."

You cited attendance as a big factor when you fired Kim Anderson. How big a factor was that here and can you rebuild that in a year?

"It's a factor but not, not the ultimate factor but it is, you know, we want people to come and be excited about Mizzou football and, and they can be a part of it. We reduced the scope but created more premium opportunities with the south end zone and I think that was a really rousing success and we had a lot of interest and people still I'm signing contracts for people that want to go into the bunker club or buy club seats so that's continuing even beyond the season so it's important. It is a factor and, and we want to get attendance up and we want the entire state of Missouri excited about Mizzou football."

People say Missouri can't be LSU or Alabama, but you don't seem to accept that mindset.

"I think we do need to look and looking back and historically, I was surprised overall with our programs that our average in the directors Cup was 56 or something like that and two of our last three years we finished 33rd. I think we need to be in the top 25 and that's what we're striving for. We have coaches that want to be there. And, and my job is to help build the support around their programs so that they can be so that's our goal, I think, year in, year out graduate 100% of our student athletes and be in the top 25."

In coaching searches you often go with the opposite of what you had so will you prioritize an offensive minded coach?

"I think it depends on the candidate. Obviously people get excited about scoring a lot of points. I hired a coach at San Diego State who's completely the opposite. So you talked to Rocky Long and 17 points is a lot of points. So, I think it depends on the type of person that you have and the experience that you have and, but it is something that may play into it. I think, experience and having successes is more important than whether it's offense or defense."

Do you plan to use a search firm?

"Yes, I'm using Parker search, the search firm that we use for Cuonzo's search."

You mentioned the early signing period. Is it important to have someone hired by the time that starts?

"We want it as soon as we can and I think it's important to have someone in place but it's, it's not a requirement but it's going to be a goal of ours to have someone in place so that they have an opportunity. We have 17 commitments. Coach Haley's is our interim interim head coach and he's going to work on on keeping those commitments in place and we want to sign as many of those as we can and get in touch with a lot of those comments during the day."

The seven weeks of recruiting penalties, is that something you can start taking advantage of now during this period without a head coach?

"That's a compliance question i don't think Andy's here but we have looked at that, we had met with the staff and okay, can we use those this year and next year and there they've been in discussions about with the NCAA on that. So that's a possibility. Yes."

With the finances is this money that will come out of your budget already or will you be asking donors to help finance this?

"Well, obviously we want, you know the the support is needed to be able to do it, it's needed to be able to build facilities and I would say this is part of building our football program and so we've had folks interested in supporting and you always want to ask for support for a positive and so it's I think it's more of helping build our football program forward and the annual donations for building excellence is what we want to do. Some folks have offered already and will encourage folks to continue to give to our scholarship fund. We were at 11.4 last year, our need is somewhere in the 12.5 is what we spend on that and so that would be great to cover. There are scholarships for the year as well."

The Chancellor mentioned the payback situation the other day. Would this be something similar?

"I've got a budget meeting with his CFO Rhonda Gibbler and Tim Hickman and I are meeting with them and that was already scheduled to talk about, about finances and so that will be added to the discussion."

Just to clarify, was this decision made before the Arkansas game?

"It was in the last 24 hours around that game. Yeah."

What is your overall message to the fanbase today?

"One, that we really appreciate his dedication to the university and to our student athletes. But we're moving forward to, to really move this continue to move the program forward and, and I'm excited about the future of Mizzou football. We're, 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."

Do you take the attitude of fanbase into account when you make this decision?

"Fan bases are all over the board so probably somewhere in there is what I'm thinking. So yeah, it probably works. I can say I listened to the fan base. Now, I, you know, seriously, I do. You do want people to get excited about the program and that's my goal is to have someone that can build upon it, upon what's been done already and have success in the future."

When you talked to the players today did they have a chance to share any thoughts on the decision?

"There were just question marks more about the assistant coaches and all and we're going to be meeting with a smaller group of football players and talking about what, you know, they see in the next coach. We want to communicate with them and coach Haley is doing that right now. So, we'll stay in communication with our players."

It's expensive to fire a coach. Can a school like Missouri afford not to have a successful football program?

"Well, as you're kind of indicating football is our light largest revenue driver and so our ticket sales have continued to go down, we need, you know, there's probably a five to $6 million range where, just to get back where we were in 2014, or so. So we've got work to do. The decision today is part of that and getting back to that level."

Attendance was up this year. Do you know how much more revenue that generated?

"I don't know at the end. I know they were up individual game sales going into the last two games and I haven't seen the reports on those."

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