Barry Odom had just celebrated one of his biggest victories as a head coach when his mind shifted to the toughest moment of his career.
Five years ago, to the day, Odom was fired by Missouri. He became emotional and paused for a moment as he reflected on that time, thinking about the journey from that low point to leading UNLV to a 38-14 victory over Nevada, securing a spot in the Mountain West Championship game, and giving the team a real chance at the College Football Playoff.
“I’ll never forget that,” Odom said about being let go at Missouri. “You learn from your lessons. You learn from your opportunities. You pick yourself up, you dust yourself off and you go create more.”
At 48, Odom has turned things around at a place where coaches previously struggled. The Rebels, ranked 19th by The Associated Press and 20th by the CFP, will face No. 10 Boise State on Friday night. As the top two teams in the CFP rankings, the winner of this game will represent the Group of Five in the playoffs.
Before Odom took over two years ago, UNLV had only been to four bowl games. Now, the team is heading to back-to-back bowl games for the first time in its history, no matter what happens against Boise State.
At 10-2, the Rebels have reached double-digit wins for just the third time in the program’s history, and the first time in 40 years when Randall Cunningham, the program’s greatest player, was the quarterback.
UNLV’s success was recognized in the conference awards announced on Tuesday. Linebacker Jackson Woodard was named the top defensive player, wide receiver/punt blocker Ricky White III was named the best special teams player, and kicker Caden Chittenden was named the top freshman.
Odom often credits his players, coaches, support staff, and administration for the team’s success, but he is the one who made many of the key decisions that helped turn things around.
“Him believing in me makes me believe in myself,” said Woodard, who transferred from Arkansas with Odom, who was the Razorbacks’ associate head coach and defensive coordinator. “That’s what I admire about him so much. I haven’t always had that in my career, at least early in my career. That’s why I followed him. Coming here, I didn’t even think about losing. I knew we were going to go win.”
Other coaches who came to UNLV with high hopes in the past failed to turn the program around. However, the three most recent former coaches are now in prominent roles again: Marcus Arroyo is the offensive coordinator at No. 12 Arizona State, Tony Sanchez is the head coach at New Mexico State, and Bobby Hauck is back at Montana, where he became the all-time winningest coach at the FCS school.
Odom could have been just another coach who arrived in Las Vegas with a strong resume but failed to win more than a few games. Instead, he has quickly turned the program around and injected new energy into it.
UNLV attracted crowds of over 40,000 fans to two games this season at Allegiant Stadium and averaged a program-record 32,202 fans for home games. The Rebels have carved out a spot in a city already home to major sports franchises like the NHL’s Golden Knights, the WNBA’s Aces, and the NFL’s Raiders.
“I was concerned,” Odom said. “Was there enough space in Vegas for a college football team? And the answer is a resounding, ‘Absolutely, yes.’ Our team, our players have created that.”
However, this success could also be a problem for UNLV. Odom has surely caught the attention of athletic directors across the country who are looking for a new coach. This puts pressure on UNLV Athletic Director Erick Harper to find a way to keep Odom.
For now, the Rebels are focused on their big game against Boise State and possibly the playoffs.
Their season could have been derailed when quarterback Matthew Sluka left the program after three games due to an issue involving name, image, and likeness rights. But Odom’s steady leadership, attention to detail, and trust in Hajj-Malik Williams to step in as quarterback helped the Rebels stay on track.
“He talks about habits, and those things can be overlooked as not being important,” Williams said. “But when you really focus on your habits, when you look up, you have opportunities like we have now.”
