Sooner than maybe anyone anticipated when he was fired last Nov. 30, Barry Odom will be back at Mizzou on Saturday, where he’ll be dressed in red as the Arkansas defensive coordinator. Odom, 44, spent nearly half his life at Mizzou as a Tigers player, staffer, assistant coach and head coach, but now he’s on the enemy sidelines — actually the enemy press box, where he’ll coach Saturday’s game from the sixth floor of Memorial Stadium. Missouri coaches and players repeated the phrase “it’s a players’ game” all week to draw the attention away from Odom’s homecoming, but the subplot was impossible to avoid heading into kickoff.
Five things to watch: Mizzou vs. Arkansas
