Inside The Huskies

Huskies Could Be on the Verge of Hiring Former USC Linebackers Coach

Brian Odom reportedly is in line to replace the departed Robert Bala for the UW.

Dan Raley

Brian Odom appears set to join the UW coaching staff and head up the inside linebackers.
Brian Odom appears set to join the UW coaching staff and head up the inside linebackers. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

Sixteen months ago, Brian Odom had the University of Washington football team to thank for a sudden job promotion .

A day after the Michael Penix Jr.-led Huskies scored at will in a 52-42 victory over USC in Los Angeles, the Trojans fired Alex Grinch and promoted Odom and one other to be co-defensive coordinators for the rest of the season -- a job that didn't last long for him.

Odom, 43, now appears to be on t he verge of joining the UW staff, with ESPN's Pete Thamel on Saturday reporting that he soon will be hired by the Huskies to coach their inside linebackers, replacing Robert Bala, who recently was hired by Florida as its co-defensive coordinator and LB coach.

Either way it turns out, Odom, the younger brother of newly hired Purdue head coach Brian Odom, has to be happy to be out from under the turbulent atmosphere that continues to surround the USC coaching staff.

Odom lasted just two more games with the Trojans after that aforementioned job promotion before he, too, was let go.

An Oklahoma native, Odom will come to the UW from North Texas, where he spent last season as the linebackers coach for a team that finished 6-7 capped by a 30-28 loss to Texas State in the First Responders Bowl in Dallas.

He became a full-time outside linebackers coach for Missouri in 2017-18, spent three seasons at Oklahoma and followed coach Lincoln Riley from the Sooners to USC for two seasons before going to North Texas.

Whoever gets the UW linebacker job will have plenty of work to do for the upcoming season in replacing graduated starters Carson Bruener and Alphonzo Tuputala with a mix of portal transfers, returning players and incoming freshmen.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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