What are the thoughts of people on this?

IMHO, Odom failed pretty bigly at Mizzou. Yes, he wasn't a flaming disaster. He went 25-25, 13-19 in the SEC. Drinkwitz looks substantially better, and he doesn't strike me as a coaching genius (solid coach sure, top tier no).

That said, Odom has been much more successful at UNLV. With the exception of a flukish win against Kansas this year (the week after KU's loss to us), he's basically beaten the teams his outfit is better than and lost to those his team is worse than. It's a solid but not spectacular resume.

All in all, this is a decent hire for Purdue. I was admittedly afraid they'd hire the coach from Ohio, who on paper looks like someone who gets a lot out of his talent. But Odom is better than several names on the Purdue list, as well. I do think his success will have a lot to do with his OC (and people seem to think the one at UNLV was good, tho it sure seems like that individual will be a strong candidate to replace Odom with the Runnin' Rebels). I'm not sold Purdue will get a big haul from the UNLV roster, either, playing in a decent MWC in a NFL stadium in Las Vegas strikes me as at least comparable to playing in West Lafayette, Indiana for the worst team in the B1G.

All in all, I'd give this hire a C+. I don't think it will be great, though I'd expect Purdue to elevate a bit from the Walters debacle.

Returning punts for the Bengals tonight