Barry Odom’s debut last season at SEC Media Days as Missouri’s coach, a self-described dream job, was blindsided by the unexpected news that athletic director Mack Rhoades was leaving for Baylor.
Odom was perhaps the only person in the building who knew it was coming, but the timing — a half-hour before he debuted in the main ballroom in front of newspaper scribes from throughout the country — couldn’t have been worse.
“I remember having a meeting the day before with our director of athletics,” Odom said. “After that meeting, I’d gone home and he called me back and said, ‘Hey, we need to talk.