Brian Odom, younger brother of Barry, leaving MU’s staff for Oklahoma, per reports

Brian Odom appears to be headed home.

Missouri’s outside linebackers coach since 2017 and the younger brother of Tigers head coach Barry Odom will join Lincoln Riley’s staff at Oklahoma in a similar role, per multiple reports.

The younger Odom, an Ada, Okla. native, signed with the Sooners out of high school and redshirted on OU’s 2000 national-title team before transferring to Southeastern Oklahoma after the 2001 season.

Brian Odom had been mentioned as a possible candidate to join the Sooners’ staff after Riley hired Alex Grinch to be his new defensive coordinator, but it appeared Odom planned to stay in Columbia as recently as last week. Grinch is the nephew of former MU coach Gary Pinkel and was a graduate assistant at Missouri alongside Odom. The two worked together at Washington State when Grinch was the Cougars’ defensive coordinator and Odom was an analyst.

Grinch, 39, was the defensive coordinator at Ohio State last season and is considered one of the rising names in the industry.

While some would look at the move as a lateral one in the coaching world, Oklahoma has been a mainstay in the College Football Playoff race since Riley took over for Bob Stoops, and Odom would likely be getting a big raise — the Sooners’ assistant coach salary pool is larger than the Tigers’. Odom’s contract currently pays him $300,000 annually.

With MU defensive coordinator Ryan Walters being in his early 30s, the move also gives Odom a better chance of advancing through the business quicker than if he stayed at Missouri. Odom has also worked at Houston and Arizona.

Missouri was unable to confirm the reports. Should Odom leave, Missouri now has four vacancies to fill on its coaching staff: tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley, senior defensive analyst Ted Monachino and defensive analyst Neal Renna left for Texas A&M, Kansas State and Eastern Illinois, respectively. Barry Odom could go a number of ways with his coaching vacancies and even create a new spot should he make inside linebackers coach Vernon Hargreaves in charge of the entire position.