Barry Odom Flips Two Recruits To Purdue During Exit From UNLV

Mark Morales-Smith | 19 Hours Ago

Purdue football head coach Barry Odom addresses the media Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, during the welcoming of Odom at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind. / Alex Martin/Journal and Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It's a new day for UNLV football and there are about to be a lot of changes in the program. That comes with a change at head coach. There will be a lot of new faces in Vegas in 2025. That includes the former head coach taking some players and staff along with him to his new home.  

Former UNLV Rebels head coach Barry Odom has announced his exit from the program and will be moving on to coach the Purdue Boilermakers. However, he will not be going alone. He has already flipped two recruits from UNLV to Purdue. One of those players is his own son, three-star quarterback Garyt Odom. The other is linebacker Parker Meese. Both were recruited by Odom and will now follow him to his new job.

It is also expected that members of the coaching staff will follow him as well. Those moves are not expected to be announced until after UNLV plays in the Art of Sport LA Bowl against the California Golden Bears on Wednesday, December 18 in SoFi Stadium. That will conclude UNLV's 2024 season and then we expect to see major changes to their coaching staff including some coaches heading to Purdue with Odom. This shows a level of respect for the program and its players so they are able to compete in their bowl game without drastic changes and major distractions heading into it.  

None of this is anything out of the ordinary. It's quite common that when a head coach switches jobs he takes a number of his recruits and coaching staff members with him. Especially when they move on to a job at a bigger program. New head coach Dan Mullen is sure to lock up plenty of new recruits of his own and build his coaching staff. That's not to say that there won't be plenty of commits and some of the coaching staff retained as well.