LAS VEGAS — There was supposed to be a late-morning news conference Sunday to celebrate UNLV’s football program returning to a bowl game for the second consecutive year. It was an historic moment and head coach Barry Odom, some of his players and athletic Director Erick Harper were all scheduled to appear.
Some 90 minutes after the scheduled start, only Harper was in attendance. Odom had left UNLV after two seasons to become the head coach at Purdue. The players, who had been told by Odom at a meeting at the Fertitta Football Complex that he was hightailing it to West Lafayette, Ind., were excused from attending.
Which made the announcement that the 10-3 Rebels would face California on Dec, 18 in the Art of Sports LA Bowl hosted by Gronk — jeez, that’s a long title for a football game! — as anticlimactic as you can get.
Harper, who told me a week ago that it would be a challenge to keep his football coach, now has to start the process all over again. He didn’t know right away who would coach the team at SoFi Stadium on the 18th, nor did he know who would be opting out via the transfer portal when it opens Monday. But by later in the day, Harper announced wide receivers coach Del Alexander would serve as interim coach for the LA Bowl.
While he doesn't know who the team's permanent coach will be, Harper did know was there is a price for success when you’re a Group of Five football-playing member and UNLV was unable to meet whatever Purdue’s price in luring Odom away.
“The Big Ten has deep pockets,” he said.
Yeah, I guess it does.
In doing so, Purdue becomes just the second school to lure a football coach away from UNLV while he was still employed on Maryland Parkway. In 1975, SMU hired Ron Meyer after Meyer went 27-8 in three seasons with the Rebels.
Odom stayed just two years. But he accomplished quite a bit in that short span. He won 10 games this year and was a collective 19-8 overall. He went to the Mountain West championship game twice, losing both times to Boise State. He got UNLV to its first-ever top-25 ranking in the polls, getting as high as No. 20 (the Rebels are No. 24 in this week’s polls). He beat in-state rival Nevada twice to retain possession of the Fremont Cannon, an important thing around here. He also beat Hawaii twice, which isn’t as important to UNLV fans as beating the Wolf Pack, but he got a nice pineapple trophy each year for his efforts.
Most important, he made Rebel football relevant for the first time in a very long while. Harper promised that will be the standard going forward and we’ll see if he can catch lightning in a bottle twice in selecting Odom’s successor.
You can be angry at Odom for leaving if you wish. Me? I won’t. He left the place far better than when he found it. Or need I remind you about Marcus Arroyo’s tenure as Odom’s predecessor —7-23 over three seasons.
Odom gets to go to a Power 4 league. The Big Ten has four teams in the College Football Playoff, led by top-ranked and No. 1 seeded Oregon. He’s getting more money at Purdue. How much more, I don’t know, but trust me, it’s more than the $1.75 million UNLV was going to pay him had he stayed.
And let’s remember, Odom’s a Midwest guy with midwestern sensibilities. Indiana is closer to Missouri, where he went to school and later coached, than Southern Nevada. I’m sure his family will be comfortable as Hoosiers living in West Lafayette.
So how can you fault someone for improving his life and enhancing his career? There’s just 18 head coaching jobs in the Big Ten and Odom now has one of them. The fact that his team happens to be the worst in the league at 0-9 (1-11 overall) and lost 11 in a row, including a 66-0 Old Olden Bucket buttkicking to rival Indiana isn’t going to scare Odom. Not after what he saw and went on to accomplish at UNLV.
For Purdue, it’s hoping hiring a guy from the Mountain West will pay off again. Back in 1997, the Boilermakers brought in Joe Tiller from Wyoming when the Cowboys were still in the old WAC. Cowboy Joe found a quarterback named Drew Brees and suddenly Purdue was no longer everyone’s doormat. He would go 87-62 with the Boilers.
If Odom can do that, Purdue fans will see to it he never has to buy lunch at the Triple XXX, the hamburger and root beer joint near campus. They might even name a chop steak burger after him.
As for UNLV, we’ll see if Harper’s magic can come up with someone to keep the good times rolling. Or will this be another case of someone having a short-term run of success before the program lapses back into mediocrity?