Just one week after firing Head Coach Ryan Walters, the Purdue Boilermakers have their new Head Coach in UNLV’s Barry Odom.
Odom comes to Purdue with six years of Head Coaching experience between two years in Las Vegas, preceded by four seasons at Missouri (2016-2019).
In his six years as a Head Coach, only two of them saw him not lead his team to a bowl game berth and he finishes his career at UNLV with a 19-8 record (12-3 conference). Overall, his record as a Head Coach is 40-33.
He enters a tough situation at Purdue, taking over the reigns of a program that saw a colossal decline (five wins in two seasons) over the two years following Jeff Brohm’s departure with three wins in two seasons, but a program that was a bow game winner just three years ago.
The 2024 schedule wasn’t kind to Purdue, with games against Oregon- who ended up undefeated and as the no. 1 team in the country, Notre Dame, Ohio State, a surprisingly dominant Indiana, and Oregon State.
However, Odom inherits a much different schedule for 2025, facing a struggling Michigan team, Rutgers, a weak USC team, Ball State and Southern Illinois, in addition to the rest of their conference schedule.
With rival Indiana turning into a powerhouse, the expectations will be high for Odom and the new-look Boilermakers and their work is definitely cut out for them, but if Coach Odom can take Purdue back to bowl game territory or better, he will be a made man.
-Reggie Edwards
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