Missouri Tigers coach Barry Odom was fired Saturday, one day after his team won 24-14 at Arkansas to finish the season at 6-6.
“As a program, we had tremendous momentum coming into the 2019 season with the opening of the new south end zone facility as well as other strategic investments in our football program,” Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk said in a statement.
“However, we lost a great deal of that energy during the last half of the season. This decision was difficult to make but was necessary.”
Odom’s Tigers snapped a five-game losing streak with the win, but it was little consolation for a team that started the season 5-1.
Sterk said the program would begin a national search for Odom’s replacement.
“A national search is underway and confidentiality during the process is critical,” said Sterk. “Thus, I will have no further public comments regarding the search process until the announcement of our next head football coach is made.”
Earlier in the week, the NCAA upheld Missouri’s 2019 bowl ban that was given as a result of a tutoring scandal spanning the middle part of this decade.
Odom, who played linebacker at the school, went 25-25 and 13-19 in SEC play since taking over the head coaching job in 2015.
Odom, 43, has worked in some capacity within the Missouri football program since 2003.
