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Ranking every SEC football coach ahead of SEC Media Days: Where does Butch Jones stand?

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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COLUMBIA, MO – OCTOBER 29: Missouri Tigers head coach Barry Odom watches his team warm up prior to a game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Memorial Stadium on October 29, 2016 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, MO – OCTOBER 29: Missouri Tigers head coach Barry Odom watches his team warm up prior to a game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Memorial Stadium on October 29, 2016 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) /

This is probably unfair to Barry Odom. He walked into a mess with the Missouri Tigers following Gary Pinkel’s resignation and the controversy surrounding the campus protests in 2014.

As a result, it’s no surprise the team, two years removed from back to back SEC East championships, slipped to 4-8 on the year and 2-6 in the conference.

However, the team still under-achieved. Odom’s unit lost a game to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, which is unforgivable.

At this point, his only record as a head coach is that 4-8 record in a year that he lost to MTSU. So it’s obvious why he’s last in the conference when it comes to our coach rankings.

To be fair, though, he does have a great chance to turn it around.

Odom had a decent finish to the season, winning two of his final three games with upsets over the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Vanderbilt Commodores.

He also almost beat the Georgia Bulldogs earlier in the year. So Odom showed flashes of potential.

If he could somehow build on that and just get to a bowl game this year, he would shoot up this list. That close game against Georgia and the loss to MTSU are the only reason last year’s team didn’t make it to 6-6.

But for now, Odom’s an unproven coach at a program that’s probably in the worst shape of any in the league. And he also had a horrendous loss his first season at the helm.

As a result, we have Barry Odom ranked dead last among SEC coaches heading into 2017.

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