Barry Odom Brings Reasons for Optimism to Purdue Football

With a few exceptions, expectations have never been high for Purdue football in my lifetime.

Last season’s 1-11 record dropped the program’s winning percentage to .513. That’s still better than Big Ten peers Indiana (.422), Northwestern (.447), Rutgers (.492) and Illinois (.505) but nothing to brag about.

Purdue’s eight Big Ten championships match Northwestern for eighth place in league history. To put things in perspective, Woody Hayes of Ohio State and Bo Schembechler of Michigan won 13 league titles apiece.

Now add the perception – make that reality – that Purdue’s administrations past and present have been thrifty with the dollar when it comes to investing in football and other athletic ventures. That’s not a sustainable philosophy with today’s billion-dollar TV contracts, revenue sharing and legal/illegal Name-Image-Likeness deals.

In today’s greedy atmosphere, a few more national TV duds like Notre Dame (66-7 on CBS), Oregon (35-0, Fox), Ohio State (45-0, Fox), Penn State (49-10, CBS) and Indiana (66-0, Fox Sports 1) and the Big Ten’s TV partners might suggest severing Purdue’s membership.

That’s why it was surprising to hear from new coach Barry Odom about financial and resource promises he received before agreeing to take the Purdue job.

“Ecstatic would be a descriptive word on how I felt about what (athletic director) Mike Bobinski talked to me about in the interview process,” Odom said this past June. “It was very aggressive. Purdue is not going to take a backseat to anyone … in the revenue share. The Big Ten is setting the standard in college football on what that looks like. We will be as competitive as anyone.

“I know this. It’s year 26 for me in coaching and I couldn’t ask for a better leader in six months than what Mike Bobinski has done. We’ve locked arms every step of the way. What do we need to do to get Purdue football back? In those conversations he’s made every single thing happen.”

Purdue has agreed to distribute the maximum allowed revenue sharing cost of $20.5 million in the 2025-26 school year. While no specific percentages are being revealed by Bobinski, it figures that football will probably receive 70 to 75 percent of those funds. Men’s basketball, it is assumed, will get the lion’s share of what’s left over.

The second most difficult task facing Odom, after restocking a roster that lost 21 of 22 starters to either the transfer portal or exhausted eligibility, is convincing a fan base that often expects the worst-case scenarios to come true.

“There’s hope, vision and belief,” Odom said. “It’s part of my job to inspire those around me to want to believe in positivity. Let’s believe in we’re going to make it happen, not allow it to happen. When you get in crunch time, it’s the positive thinking of ‘we’re going to win this game,’ not ‘woe is me. Here we go again.’ I choose to look at opportunities and solutions rather than problems and issues. When you prepare the right way, things seem to fall your way when it comes down to the 50-50 ball or the last-second field goal. That you put your kids in position to be successful.”

At the first team meeting after taking the job, Odom was faced with the reality that most of the 2024 roster was out the door.

“There weren’t many guys in the room,” Odom recalled.

One who hadn’t left yet was quarterback Ryan Browne, who provided one of the few bright moments of 2024 with 297 yards passing and 118 yards rushing in the 50-49 overtime loss at Illinois.

“He was already really out the door but at least I gave him something to think about, about program direction, structure, coaching staff even though we didn’t have a coordinator or quarterbacks coach hired at that time,” Odom said. “I talked about philosophy. I could tell he was torn a little bit. I wished him the best. I told him I didn’t want to lose him. If things don’t work out or if you have a change of mind/heart at your new place we’ll be here. I tried to do that with all the guys I had a chance to talk with, who were already out the door when I got here.”

Browne committed to North Carolina on Dec. 19, 2024. After four months under new coach Bill Belichick, Browne had second thoughts and returned to West Lafayette. Either Browne or Arkansas transfer Malachi Singleton is likely to start opening day against Ball State.

“He had some clarity now as to who our coordinator was, our position coach was,” Odom said. “I think the conversations he had with people still on the roster played in our favor. I had seen enough tape on Ryan from last year. I really liked his genuine makeup from the one conversation I had with him before he left. So we started recruiting him actively at that point.

“Ryan to me showed competitive spirit in the opportunities he had last year. You look at arm release, ability to make most throws, athletic ability. It appeared to me on film he had some toughness. All of those things you look at how important they are, I think he’s got a big upside.”

Browne probably also was sold on Odom’s philosophy of loading up on the offensive line, a disappointing facet of Purdue’s starting lineup a year ago.

Offensive linemen Jalen St. John, Mason Vicari and Hank Purvis were among the players to transfer in from UNLV. Canadian behemoth (6-3, 305 pounds) Giordano Vaccaro transferred from the University of Manitoba. SEC All-Freshman guard Bradyn Joiner (Auburn), former Georgia tackle Marques Easley and ex-Kentucky lineman Marc Nave join holdovers Joey Tanona and Bakyne Coly. Also a contender to start is former Carmel standout Ethan Trent, who was awarded a scholarship during the spring by Odom.

“I’m always going to oversign, if they’re good enough, offensive and defensive linemen,” Odom said. “If you can’t run the ball and you can’t protect the quarterback, you have no chance to have any success. Defensively, if you can’t stop the run you’re not going to be a good defense.

“In my opinion, you better find five guys you feel like are your starters. You better find No. 6, 7 and 8 that are going to play meaningful snaps. And if you don’t have three centers that you can win with, it’s going to be really hard. If you don’t have a really good center that can start the play off, then a lot of plays can get wrecked. I was willing to do what we had to do from a roster space standpoint to try to get those spots right.”

Before Odom was greeted by mostly empty seats at the first team meeting, he knew a similar strategy to his rebuild at UNLV was going to be necessary.

“I knew that it would be a complete, at some positions, roster change and overhaul,” Odom said. “I’m not new to the fact. We had 55 my first year (at UNLV) and 50 the next year. I knew what we needed to do to put together a team for 2025. We were very deliberate about that. Our coaching staff did a nice job of identifying players they thought could come here and help us win, that fit what we were looking for.

”I think it’s so important that we signed a lot of high school guys in this year’s class. Next year’s high school class is going to be a lot bigger than this year’s high school class. I believe in the foundational approach. You’d like to get to the point where (the transfer) number is not nearly as high. But then also if you recruit a bunch of guys through the portal that you’ve got for eight months, then you are going to replace them with somebody.

“Then how do you build a team together? How do you take those 24 post-spring signees and blend them with the new guys plus the high school guys plus the returners? There’s no book on that.”

A stark example of a position upheaval from 2024 to 2025 is the Purdue secondary. Veteran college football writer Tom Dienhart of GoldandBlack.com observed recently that the unit has four fifth-year seniors and four sixth-year players. Former UNLV star Tony Grimes heads a unit that features newcomers from Memphis, Colorado, TCU, Houston, BYU and Central Arkansas.

Time will tell whether Odom and his staff will be able to meld 82 newcomers with a handful of holdovers from the Ryan Walters regime. Almost certain is that Odom’s core philosophies will produce a better effort on the field.

“The core beliefs in our team, bottom line: Knowing your assignments, playing with energy and enthusiasm, playing tough and physical, and being a six-second competitor,” Odom said. “If you do those four things, you’re setting yourself up for success. A guy who won’t play hard won’t be on the field. That’s a non-negotiable for me. We’re not going to have guys who won’t give tremendous effort. Let’s put on tape we’re the hardest playing team in college football. When you do that, it erases a lot of deficiencies.

“Do we have a long way to go in that department? Absolutely. Will we get there? You’re dadgum right we will.”

Kenny Thompson is the former sports editor for the Lafayette Journal & Courier and an award-winning journalist. He has covered Purdue athletics for many years.