Mizzou’s Barry Odom names a defensive coordinator but loses another assistant to UCF

Three days after Missouri offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel left to become the new coach at Central Florida, the Tigers are dealing with more football staff changes.

Coach Barry Odom said he found out Friday morning that MU offensive line coach Glen Elarbee will be joining Heupel at UCF. Neither Heupel nor Elarbee will coach Missouri in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 27 in Houston.

Odom also announced Friday that secondary coach Ryan Walters has been promoted to defensive coordinator. Walters, who already had the title of co-defensive coordinator, came with Odom from Memphis in 2015 to become the Tigers’ safeties coach.

Jon Cooper, an offensive analyst for Missouri, will be the Tigers’ offensive-line coach for the bowl game. Odom said his staff will work collectively to game plan offensively and organize play calling.

“In the world of coaching moves, you’re going to lose guys,” Odom said. “You’re going to gain guys. I’m happy for Coach Heupel to get the job that he did. He’ll do a great job there. And then Glen Elarbee — I found out this morning — made the decision to go with him. I’m a little indifferent about that one.”

Odom said he informed his offensive linemen of Elarbee’s move during a position group meeting at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

“There’s ways to handle things in this business; there’s ways not,” Odom said. “I was surprised they learned the way that they did.”

Elarbee, who came to Missouri after Odom became Mizzou’s head coach, was the offensive-line coach and co-offensive coordinator at Arkansas State from 2014-2015. At MU, Elarbee guided one of the best offensive lines in the country for two consecutive seasons at Missouri, and Elarbee got a raise from $320,000 to $360,000 before the start of the season.

Mizzou was first in the country in tackles for loss allowed in 2016 with 36. The Tigers have only allowed 34 tackles for loss this season, which ranks second in the country and first in the Southeastern Conference. All of the Tigers’ starting offensive linemen should return for next season.

Central Florida has not announced what position on Heupel’s staff Elarbee will take. Odom joked while meeting with reporters after practice that he had not yet checked his phone to see if any more of his assistant coaches have agreed to take jobs elsewhere.

“I got this Missouri Tiger jersey on right here,” tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley said when asked whether his future is at MU.

Finley played at Oklahoma when Heupel was a coach on the Sooners’ staff. MU’s tight-ends coach seems like the most likely internal candidate for the Tigers’ offensive coordinator opening.

“That’s what I’m going to be,” Finley added. “I’m excited to move forward with the guys that we have.”

Odom, a defensive-minded coach, said he wants to hire an offensive coordinator who will run a system similar to the hybrid air raid-spread offense that Missouri currently uses because that’s the system the Tigers have recruited for. The results have been good. Quarterback Drew Lock leads the country in touchdown passes, and Mizzou is No. 7 in the country in total offense.

“If you look at what we’ve got coming back, I think it’d be really wise to continue down that road,” Odom said.

Walters’ promotion comes as no surprise. Odom said Walters was effectively the defensive coordinator for the second half of the season after the program fired co-defensive coordinator DeMontie Cross following a 31-13 loss to South Carolina.

In October, Walters received a $35,000 raise to bump his annual salary to $375,000.

“It’s a natural fit,” Walters said. “It will be a seamless transition.”

While he came to Missouri as a safeties coach, Walters absorbed the cornerbacks, too, this season after former cornerbacks coach Greg Brown left for Auburn.

“He’s going to do an outstanding job,” Odom said. “This year, really toward the last half of the season, he had that role anyway and did an outstanding job.”

Walters said he’s open to relinquish his duties as secondary coach if Odom sees a potential coaching hire there instead of at linebacker, the position group Cross coached. The Tigers’ new defensive coordinator said on Friday that he wasn’t sure how much of a say he will have in the vacant job on the defense staff but will defer to Odom’s judgment.

Defensive tackle Terry Beckner Jr.’s decision to return for his senior season rather than go to the NFL will be a big boost to Walters’ defense in his first full year as a coordinator.

“It’s big time,” Walters said. “Him and I have a great relationship. He’ll be a tremendous asset both on the field but even more so off the field and leading our guys and being an example.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Mizzou’s Barry Odom names a defensive coordinator but loses another assistant to UCF."