Barry Odom’s first bowl game as Missouri’s head coach didn’t go nearly as well as expected. Outside of a strong start to the second half, the Tigers were mostly outclassed by Texas Wednesday night in the Texas Bowl, ultimately losing 33-16.

The tone for the game appeared to have been set when offensive coordinator Josh Heupel and offensive line coach Glen Elarbee abruptly left the program to take over UCF’s offense following Scott Frost’s decision to leave Orlando for Nebraska. For the game, Mizzou only managed to convert three of 14 third-down conversions.

Despite the setback, Odom spoke of the greater scheme his program is trying to teach the Missouri players.

“I want them to know that even though it hurts right now, they’re going to be better men, better fathers, better husbands, co-workers, all those things,” Odom said during his postgame press conference. “You do it the right way and good things are going to follow, I believe that with everything I’ve got.”

Odom then went on to say he believed his team was capable of beating Texas, however, noted their performance did not deserve to be rewarded with a win.

“Texas is a good team but we are a good team, too,” Odom continued. “We had some opportunities but you turn it over four times, gave up a couple explosive plays defensively, couldn’t get anything going in the run game, that kind of puts the game in the result that we got.

“That’s the recipe for getting beat like we did.”

You can check out Odom’s full postgame opening statements here: