MORGANTOWN, W.Va. • Like the man he replaced in December and the man he played under 20 years ago, Missouri football coach Barry Odom had to address a losing locker room after his head-coaching debut Saturday. West Virginia flattened his Tigers 26-11 in a game that rarely resembled the carnage that unfolded last fall but produced a familiar result.
“You’re never, ever, ever going to get me down,” Odom said after 60,125 at Milan Puskar Stadium watched Mizzou (0-1) lose a season opener for the first time in 15 years. “That’s the mindset our football team has.