Midway through last season, Mizzou head coach Barry Odom took over defensive play-calling duties for the Tigers, replacing defensive coordinator DeMontie Cross.

After a Week 2 loss to South Carolina this season, Odom fired Cross and added coaching the inside linebackers to his long list of responsibilities.

Following an embarrassing loss to Purdue this week, Odom admitted that he might be doing too much with some of the defensive play calls:

He seems to mean that some of his play calls have been overly complicated for the struggling unit, not that he has taken on too many responsibilities.

Either way, he’s probably right. When a defense is struggling like the Tigers are right now, it’s best to keep things on the simple side.

Unlike the pre-2016 Missouri Tigers, this year’s defense is never going to be elite, so the focus should simply be to limit the opponents’ points to give what should be (but hasn’t been so far) a talented offense more possessions.

The Auburn Tigers (who have offensive concerns of their own) come to town this weekend, so we’ll have to wait and see what sort of approach Odom’s defense takes on Saturday night.