Graney: Barry Odom changing the mindset at UNLV

Barry Odom is a really good football coach. We’ve seen that this season with his first UNLV team, now 6-1 and bowl eligible.

It’s the first time in a decade the Rebels will live for a postseason berth. Yes. It’s been a minute.

But perhaps more impressive than on-field results has been the attitude Odom instils in his team. A winning one.

Never settle. Always believe. Don’t live in the past.

UNLV football was so bad for so long, it was commonplace just to accept the program as the butt of all jokes. To scoff at the idea things really could improve overnight. But they have. Just as much above the shoulder pads as below them.

“I love their demeanor,” athletic director Erick Harper said. “They’re playing with a lot of confidence. Their body language never changes when they get down. They’re not going to be intimated by any team.”

Better teams ahead

It’s true the Rebels are about to face the more difficult part of their Mountain West schedule beginning at Fresno State on Saturday night. It’s true there are much tougher opponents on the horizon than what the Rebels — 3-0 in league — have played in the conference.

But don’t for a second believe Odom won’t have them prepared.

And that includes how they view each opportunity.

He talks about chasing championships, about a chance to do something special. How he and his team will never run from such a challenge. And his players have bought into such a message. And that’s paramount to any team’s success.

They don’t want to win at UNLV anymore.

They expect to.

“You learn from your experiences, and I’ve been on both sides of it,” Odom said. “I’ve started a season 1-5 before and ended up getting into a bowl game. And I’ve started 5-1 and ended up 6-6. So you take from those lessons. Every team is completely different. And I think you educate, you talk, you communicate, you’re open, you’re honest.

“I would sure be a fool to think that they don’t hear the noise. How do you take that, use it as motivation and then also continue the pursuit of being our best?”

What’s their ceiling this season?

Why not playing for a conference championship and as prominent a bowl berth as possible? Why shouldn’t that be the goal?

Maybe it doesn’t happen. Maybe the Rebels crash back to earth after facing teams such as the Bulldogs and Wyoming and Air Force.

But no matter what the final record says, things are different at UNLV under Odom. And we’re not just talking about how they actually now compete — and win most snaps — on special teams. Which is a small miracle if you watched this team in recent seasons.

The Rebels played Michigan about as tough as its other seven opponents, probably because that weird analyst within the No. 2 Wolverines program didn’t buy tickets to the UNLV-Vanderbilt game to steal signs.

Or that we know of.

It was after that 35-7 loss to Michigan when Odom said his team was in all likelihood out of national championship contention. He was joking, but you get the point. Always encourage your players to reach for the stars, no matter how unattainable it might be to touch them.

The correct mindset

“It’s great to become bowl eligible, but it was a big emphasis that that’s kind of the bare minimum of our standards,” senior center Jack Hasz said. “Each week, from here on out, we have to get to 1-0, then eventually, by the end of the season, we’ll be holding the trophy overhead. We can’t overlook anybody. It’s a new game, a new opponent, so we just have to keep striving along with it.”

What’s their ceiling? Whatever they make of it.

But know they’ll have the correct mindset when chasing those championship dreams.

Barry Odom has made sure of it.

Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.