COLUMBIA, Mo. • Four years ago at the University of Houston, Mack Rhoades promoted an internal candidate to take over as his head football coach. Tony Levine, the team’s special teams coordinator at the time, lasted just three seasons before Rhoades fired him.
Faced with a similar choice as Missouri’s athletics director, Rhoades explored “many, many” candidates this week to succeed coach Gary Pinkel, who announced his resignation last month. But first, Rhoades met with Barry Odom, the team’s defensive coordinator. Before Rhoades would travel the country to meet with other options, he had Odom over to his house for four hours.