The Missouri Tigers host Southeast Missouri State — the No. 20 team in the FCS rankings — on Saturday night.

The game shouldn’t be too close, as the Tigers are a Power 5 team, but the Redhawks are still a talented squad.

SEMO coach Tom Matukewicz is quite familiar with the big in-state program, and had a strong assessment of the team coach Barry Odom took over following Gary Pinkel’s retirement in 2015 (via STLToday.com):

“The biggest thing is just the respect I have for Coach Odom,” Matukewicz said on this week’s Ohio Valley Conference teleconference. “When he took that job, I mean, it was a dumpster fire to be honest. People were having walkouts and riots on campus. Then he takes it over and now all of a sudden they get a bowl ban (from the NCAA) that had nothing to do with anybody who was there. They didn’t lose a soul (to transfers). It tells you what he’s building up there. Those guys are connecting. I love the culture and the team he built.”

Indeed, for all the good Pinkel did for the Mizzou program on the national scale, he left it in turmoil as he retired to battle cancer.

Odom has improved his record every season, and even with a disappointing Week 1 loss at Wyoming this year, big things are expected from his Tigers.