Oklahoma football: Report: Sooners to hire Missouri LB coach Brian Odom

Soonerscoop.com is reporting Oklahoma has come to an agreement with Missouri linebackers coach Brian Odom, who will serve in a similar capacity at Oklahoma.

The news broke on Twitter Monday morning as speculation has gone back and forth on Odom’s potential status with the team for more than a week.

If the report holds up it would mean a homecoming for Odom, who was a member of the 2000 National Championship team as a freshman at OU.

Brian Odom has been at Missouri since 2017, before which time he coached under new defensive coordinator Alex Grinch as a defensive quality control assistant at Washington State. He served as the co-director of sports performance at Houston from 2012-14 and was a player development assistant at Arizona from 2005-11.

He is the younger brother of current Missouri head coach Barry Odom.

Grinch had high praise for Brian Odom when he was at Washington State. He told Saturday Down South the following in 2017:

"“He was vital to our staff. When you have someone who was a head strength coach like he was, he’s basically ran his own football program. It’s a unique deal, only something that a head coach and a head strength coach know about. To run a position room, that becomes a little easier with the background he has. Having that kind of perspective, in terms of motivating and dealing with players on a day-to-day basis, it’s a feather in his cap. Brian is a big detail-oriented guy. We’ll miss him here and I know he’ll do a great job at Mizzou.”"

According to the University of Missouri Brian Odom was vital in the Tigers’ defensive turnaround in 2018:

"Mizzou ranked 22nd nationally in rushing defense (122.9 avg.), up from 58th in 2017 (159.6), and also improved to 43rd in scoring defense in 2018 (24.4 avg.), up from 97th in 2017 (31.8 avg.), while also making a big jump in total defense, ranking 54th nationally in 2018 (379.0 avg.), up from 82nd in 2017 (414.1 avg.)."

Brian Odom’s hiring comes after longtime linebackers’ coach Tim Kish announced his retirement last week. He is the first assistant coach hire for Grinch, who will also have to find a secondary coach after Kerry Cooks took a job at Texas Tech this past weekend.