Q&A: UNLV football coach talks Rebels, realignment and NIL

As Barry Odom sat at his desk Friday at the Fertitta Football Complex, two things stood out behind him.

Over his left shoulder, several wristwatches were on display. Odom’s not a collector or anything. But they are his reward for helping guide several teams to bowl games.

“They all have stories,” he said. “I don’t have a favorite, but they’re all different in whichever way they are. All could tell a decent story of a season.”

Odom hopes to add to his collection in his first season with the Rebels. The former Arkansas defensive coordinator and Missouri head coach expects to quickly contend for conference championships and bowl berths.

While the watches symbolize his success in the past, to Odom’s right, there’s a message from his 8-year-old daughter, Anna. Written on a cabinet in black marker, it says, “Never give up. Have a positive attitude.”

“That’s pretty good, right?” Odom said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a football player or 8 years old or just in life in general.”

As football season quickly approaches, the Review-Journal sat down with Odom to discuss several topics, including his goals for the Rebels, conference realignment and NIL (name, image and likeness) licensing for athletes.

Answers have been edited for clarity and length.

Review-Journal: How has your first offseason at UNLV gone so far?

Barry Odom: You know, the measurables that you can have really through academic success, classroom and study hall attendance, the work in the weight room, the gains — the strength room gains — we’ve had, and then the work you have a chance to do with your team when spring practice is over, I’d say every one of those we’ve hit the benchmark up to this point. We also know (Saturday) when we wake up, we’ll be 70 days out, and how fast that’ll be here. I’ve been using the term a lot with our team — we’re in a sprint because we’ve got so much to accomplish. We’ve got so far to go. We have made a lot of strides in every single area, from our body composition to the way our team is communicating and working together, it’s all positive things. But there’ll be a point when we’re judged for 3½ hours on a Saturday afternoon on what those habits look like.

RJ: How would you define a successful season for UNLV next season?

Odom: Ultimately, our goals are to win a bowl game and compete for a conference championship. If you do those things, the schedule will take care of itself. We’ve got the four nonconference games, then conference season starts and we’ll take them one game at a time. I want to have steady improvement, so that every week we’re playing a little bit better and a little bit better. No setbacks. The scoreboard will take care of itself if you prepare the right way. We have the ability to play together as a team, complement each other on both sides of the ball. We have enough skill and enough talent that I think our guys will understand if we prepare the right way from Sunday through until the time the ball is kicked off Saturday, we’ll be right where we need to be when the game’s over.

RJ: What have you and your staff been looking for in transfer portal prospects, physically and in character?

Odom: If you have an open roster spot, whether it’s through high school recruiting, junior college or portal transfer, you want someone to upgrade your roster in that position physically, be a team member, all those things go into it. There’s physical checkmarks and benchmarks that we have for every position that we’re looking for. That doesn’t mean they have to hit every single one of those, but if you’re short in one area, you better have a redeeming quality somewhere else that evens it out. I want guys, if we can, that have multiple years (of eligibility). I want them to be invested in UNLV, in this program.

RJ: Since arriving, you’ve stressed recruiting local talent. UNLV already has a couple of Las Vegas recruits committed. How has your outreach to local high school programs gone so far?

Odom: We’ve drawn a circle around 36 schools in the city, and it’s our job as a staff to be direct in the relationship piece and building it with the high school coaches in the area. There’s really good players here. There’s great high school coaches here. I want them to understand that everything that a prospective student-athlete wants to accomplish being a college football player, we can get done here. We’re going to get it done here. … We’re just scratching the surface on what that looks like. At the end of (Saturday) night, we’ll have had over 1,000 kids this summer attend a prospect camp on our campus. We’ve got a 7-on-7 tournament. We’ve got 18 local teams coming. I want the coaches to know this is their program. It’s an open-door policy for them. The tighter we are as a community with that mindset, the quicker our program is going to rise.

RJ: How important has keeping quarterback Doug Brumfield been during this transition?

Odom: The quarterback position, in my opinion, is the most important position in all of sport. If you’ve got a really good quarterback, you’ve got a chance in every single game. And if your quarterback doesn’t play well, it makes it really hard. They’ve got to be efficient with the ball. They’ve got to protect it. They’ve got to know when they can take chances. They can’t turn it over. They’ve got to be tough. They’ve got to be a leader. They’ve got to get us out of a bad play call when the defense stunts late. All of those things come down to the mental side of playing the position. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve had a lot of really good ones, been around a lot of really good ones. Doug has some of those characteristics. I think he’ll play really smart football. I think he’s got the physical skillset to be an exceptional quarterback. I’m excited to see his growth from where he left off this spring, what he’s done this summer and how he’ll continue to evolve during fall camp. He’s currently at the Manning Passing Academy, which is a huge honor to be invited.

RJ: Moving onto some bigger-picture questions, how has NIL changed recruitment since the last time you were a coach at Missouri?

Odom: I’m all for student-athletes having the chance to make extra money. I think it’s terrific. It’s long overdue. … If you look at it still as a four- to five-year commitment of being a great college football player, getting your degree, creating the most rewarding experiences you’ve ever been through that’s going to turn into the next 40 to 50 years of your life, that’s still the core of college football. The NIL component is a bonus. There’s opportunity here. There’s tremendous ways that student-athletes at UNLV can be opportunistic in NIL. I think that’s advantageous for us. I think it’s good for UNLV. I think it’s good for the city because the more investment we have in our teams, the more we’re invested in this city, it’s a win-win.

RJ: Where do you see UNLV fitting into conference realignment?

Odom: It’s real. I go back to when I left Missouri as the defensive backs coach and went to Memphis as the defensive coordinator. We went to the Big East Conference, and before we ever played a game, it dissolved. We went back to Conference USA, then we went to the American Athletic Conference. When I went through the transition at Missouri from leaving the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference, there’s never realignment not going on in discussion. Fortunately for me, I’ve been through it before. I’ve learned over those times, you control very little in any of that space as a head football coach. What I do control is making sure our student-athletes have everything they need, making sure our staff is in alignment, making sure we’re doing everything we can in those 24 hours to move this program forward. The realignment is going to happen one way or the other for my program and our program together. What does that look like? I have no idea.

RJ: Since the last time we talked, the Clark County coroner’s office announced a cause of death for Ryan Keeler. How is the team dealing with that and the tragedy of losing him during the offseason?

Odom: Ryan will never not be discussed in our program. He’ll never not be in our thoughts. In the short time we were together, it was very impactful. I think our team has understood and looked at how fragile life can be.

RJ: How are you settling into Las Vegas?

Odom: Vegas has been unbelievable in a good way to me and my family, and I’m so thankful for that. When I took the job, we didn’t really know anybody. A town, a city of 2.5 million people, you wonder, can I navigate, can I find my way? But it’s become a smaller town once you’re here. I’m anxious for road construction to get done or completed or maybe that may never happen, but we’ll take that for all the positive things going on. Tremendous place, again I look at the value of the ability to raise a family in this city, my wife and I are excited about that. We’ve got a son who’s a freshman at UNLV, a son that’s going to be a junior in high school, and then we’ve got a daughter who’s going to be a third-grader. So at every age group, we’ve got our feet somewhere. The support and the welcome has been overwhelming. I’m very thankful for that.

Contact reporter Andy Yamashita at ayamashita@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ANYamashita on Twitter.