During the 2016 and 2017 seasons, Josh Heupel was the offensive coordinator at Missouri, leading an offense with star QB Drew Lock that put up a lot of points.
His boss was Barry Odom, who is now the defensive coordinator under Sam Pittman at Arkansas.
Heupel, who is now the head coach at Tennessee, was asked about Odom during SEC Media Days on Tuesday and had nothing but praise for the ex-Mizzou head coach (via 247Sports):
“Bright, passionate, extremely competitive, tough, disciplined — those are the things he brought while I was there at Missouri. Watching him from afar at Arkansas, I thought they took strides as the year went on defensively,” Heupel said.
Odom seems to have the respect of his defensive players at Arkansas. The Razorbacks have plenty of talent on that side of the ball, and Odom also added a couple of his former Mizzou players via the transfer portal this offseason.
Heupel and Odom won’t get to meet on the field this year (barring an unlikely meeting in the SEC Championship Game), but it is clear there’s still a lot of respect between Heupel and his former boss.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
