Bold Barry Odom decision helps Mizzou romp and reflects his stamp on program

Lopsided as Missouri’s 65-33 victory over Memphis ultimately was on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, the game, the season and even third-year coach Barry Odom’s stature were teetering early in the second quarter.

With MU anxious to purge a three-game losing streak and make something meaningful of this season, Memphis had scored 17 straight to negate Mizzou’s 21-0 start … and who knew where this was all going?

Especially when Missouri was immediately facing fourth-and-1 at its own 34, and Odom boldly opted to go for it.

You might debate what this says about Odom’s state of mind. And some might consider it a matter of desperation.

But the view here is that this is something more, something telling: A coach now comfortable in his own skin, who felt the flow of the game, trusted his offensive coordinator to have a worthy play and his players to make it work — and understood that he’d have to own the consequences if the play failed.

Yes, he had a lump in his throat, maybe all the more so after Memphis took a timeout that might have allowed him to reconsider.

Then again …

“I’ve got one in my throat every snap,” Odom said, smiling. “It doesn’t ease up.”

As it happens, MU converted when Drew Lock hit Johnathan Johnson with an ad-libbed 8-yard pass.

Then the next three plays from scrimmage went like this: Lock to Albert Okwuegbunam for a 58-yard touchdown … an Adam Sparks interception to give Missouri the ball at the Memphis 44 … a Lock 44-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Knox.

Two touchdowns in 19 seconds became a third one in just over three minutes when Larry Rountree barged in from the 2 on Missouri’s next drive to make it 41-17.

Ballgame. Odom’s gut instinct averted a gut punch.

Momentum can be a fickle, intangible deal. But you could practically touch and feel this chance to “get grooving again,” as Lock put it.

“It’s like ‘the tide’s turned,’ ” added Lock, who threw for 350 yards and four touchdowns after throwing for just one in the previous three games.

The key question now is how much the tide turns on the season after the funk MU (4-3) was in.

Theoretically, the schedule going forward is more accommodating, including entering Saturday night’s games three teams with losing records (Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Arkansas).

But up next are 14th-ranked Kentucky, which was 5-1 overall and 3-1 in Southeastern Conference play going into its game against Vanderbilt, and resurgent No. 11 Florida (6-1, 4-1).

This win over Memphis (4-4) just won’t stand for much if it doesn’t translate directly to more ahead, especially since Mizzou is 0-3 in SEC play this season and Odom is 6-13 overall against the league.

Now, he’s still in the embryonic stages at the helm of a program that was more off-kilter than most realize when he took over after Gary Pinkel’s last team went 5-7 in 2015. And he has made crucial recruiting inroads — particularly in St. Louis. The former Tiger linebacker also has the heart and integrity you should want in your head football coach.

Even in an instant gratification world, there is ample reason to be patient.

“If you cheat the process,” Odom said, “you won’t play your best.”

Odom was referring to the day-by-day of getting ready for Kentucky, but it was an apt reminder about what it reasonably takes to mold a football program in your image.

Of course, reason doesn’t always prevail and there comes a time to stand and deliver. Like Odom did with that call, and how his team responded on Saturday.

What he needs now is to galvanize the fan base with wins over ranked teams — especially with Lock back for his senior year.

Quite simply, the Kentucky game is huge for MU, which won’t be able to commit 11 penalties for 108 yards — as it did Saturday — against the Wildcats and win.

But Missouri should be a better team for this game, warts and all — including that this should have been locked down in the first quarter.

Mizzou seized a 21-0 lead propelled by a blocked punt to set up a 2-yard Rountree touchdown, Christian Holmes’ 42-yard pick-six and a 41-yard Lock pass to Knox that led to Damarea Crockett’s 14-yard TD.

Enabled and emboldened by Mizzou miscues, though, Memphis scored three straight times to cut the lead to 21-17 and agitate a fan base that still needs convincing about the Odom era.

“This game will be very apropos on Barry’s Mizzou tombstone,” my friend Scott Cruce wrote on Twitter. “Unforced errors absolutely kill his teams. Missouri can’t beat Missouri. That roughing the passer on 3rd and forever changed the game and was totally unnecessary. Could be Barry’s Waterloo.”

Scott wants to see Odom succeed but considers it therapeutic to vent through Twitter, and his words at least technically were hyperbolic with so much game left to play.

In fact, what ensued in the next few minutes left him typing, “Yeah, forget I said anything.”

Just the same, in his frustration he likely was speaking for plenty of others.

Because this was a game Mizzou pretty well had to win to reset the season and regain traction in fan currency — or at least establish a link in the chain towards that.

He also was absolutely right that MU doesn’t have the margin for error to sag with a big lead and, more to the point, be undisciplined or make gratuitous mistakes. This team consistently plays hard but has to play smarter.

That’s why a group that could have beaten No. 2 Georgia and should have won at South Carolina, bizarre weather notwithstanding, didn’t.

But the season will be defined by what’s ahead, and give MU this: Against teams not named Alabama, the Tigers have appeared athletically on par with everyone they’ve played and seem to play highly motivated.

With the help of some coaching that sensed the moment, they took a fine step forward Saturday.

To make believers of the skeptics, though, the next strides are the biggest if Mizzou is truly turning the tide on this season.

This story was originally published October 20, 2018 at 9:19 PM.