UVLV Hires Former Missouri Coach Barry Odom For Five Years To Take Over Struggling Football Program
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer
UNLV’s football program has a new head coach — former Missouri head coach Barry Odom, a 46-year-old who is leaving his Arkansas defensive coordinator job to succeed the just-fired Marcus Arroyo.
Odom comes to UNLV after finishing his third season at Arkansas, where he was defensive coordinator and safeties coach after serving as Missouri’s head coach for four years from 2016-19. At Missouri, he won exactly half of his 50 games, winning 25 and losing 25.
Here’s the salary and compensation under a 22-page contract signed Tuesday:
In years 1 and 2, Odom makes $1.75 million a year. In years 3 and 4, Odom makes $2 million a year. In year 5, Odom makes $2.25 million a year.
There are incentive payments:
And the signatures:
Odom takes over a 5-7 UNLV team that lost six of its final seven games. Arroyo was 0-6 in 2020 and 2-10 in 2021 before winning four of the first five games in 2022. But a 4-1 record turned into 5-7 and Athletic Director Erick Harper had seen enough.
Odom arrived in Las Vegas Tuesday and then met the UNLV football players. “The moment I knew this job was open, I knew I wanted it,” Odom told the players in a Twitter video posted by UNLV football. “It starts with this core group.”
Harper will introduce Odom to the media and Las Vegas Wednesday at 10 AM at the campus alumni center.
We had a tremendous amount of interest in this head coaching position and Coach Odom checked every box, including having experience successfully leading a program at the highest level of this sport. He is unanimously well-respected around the country and is the right person at the right time for the Rebels . . . — UNLV Athletic Director Erick Harper
Odom is a Maysville, Oklahoma native who lettered four times as a linebacker at Missouri from 1996-99, making two trips to bowl games and serving as team captain during his senior season.
Odom inherits impressive facilities at UNLV, which has a recently-built football headquarters and uses the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium for its home games.
