Gene Chizik heaps praise on Barry Odom after Arkansas's upset win over Mississippi State
The Arkansas Razorbacks pulled off the upset of the weekend in the SEC, taking down Mississippi State 21-14 and snapping a 2-year long SEC losing streak.
Holding Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense to only 14 points is a heck of a defensive effort from the Hogs, and DC Barry Odom has been getting lots of praise.
On “SEC Football Final” on Saturday night, former Auburn coach Gene Chizik heaped praise on Odom, saying he had his guys ready to play (via 247Sports):
“That’s the trademark that I see Barry Odom putting on this defense right now,” Chizik said. “These guys will strike. They know where they’re supposed to be. They’re playing a reaction game and they are knocking folks around. … This is the best defensive performance, two weeks in a row, not just tonight. I saw it start last week against Georgia. We saw Georgia today play pretty good offense against Auburn. We didn’t know, was it a bad Georgia offense? Arkansas’ defense had a lot to do with the way Georgia looked last week and they had everything to do with that win today. They were fast. They were physical. They never let the ball get behind them. These guys played and had fun today … incredible effort by Barry Odom.”
Arkansas is undoubtedly a better team this year than it has been the past 2 years under Chad Morris. Sam Pittman picked up his first win on Saturday night, and now fans are wondering how many wins the Hogs can get.
With Odom’s defense in place, the Hogs figure to be more competitive in every game this year than they have been in years past.