Barry Odom Says Purdue 'On a Mission' After Disappointing 2025 Season
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — This wasn't the season Barry Odom envisioned when he took over at Purdue last December. The Boilermakers ended the 2025 campaign with a 2-10 record following Friday night's 56-3 loss to No. 2 Indiana. It's the second straight year in which the program failed to win a Big Ten game.
Frustrated after an embarrassing loss at Ross-Ade Stadium in the 100th Old Oaken Bucket game, Odom made it clear that this was an unacceptable season and that he's determined to get the train back on the tracks in West Lafayette.
"I'll get it fixed, and it'll be a lot of fun for everyone who has stuck with us," Odom said. "We'll be on a mission to find a way to get to a bowl game."
The wins didn't come for Purdue in 2025, but it was certainly a more competitive season than what the program endured during a 1-11 campaign last year. The Boilermakers had opportunities to win games against USC, Minnesota, Rutgers, and Michigan, but poorly timed penalties and critical turnovers proved costly at key moments in those games.
At the end of the day, close doesn't cut it in college football. Odom has acknowledged that it's a "results-based" business, and he has to put tallies in the win column.
His first season didn't go as he had hoped, but Odom is dedicated to restoring Purdue as a winning program in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers took baby steps this season, and they still have a major hill to climb.
Odom grateful for fans
Getting fans to file into Ross-Ade Stadium in the middle of a 2-10 season isn't easy, and Odom understands that. After a cold night in West Lafayette, the Purdue head coach mentioned his respect and gratitude for Boilermaker fans following a 53-point loss to the Hoosiers.
"A huge thanks to the fans at Purdue, they were with us all year long, and probably had every reason in the world not to be," Odom said. "We'll get this flipped into a winning program, and I feel such a deep responsibility to do it."
The last three seasons have been rather dreary for the program. In that span, Purdue has posted an overall record of just 7-29. It's been a tough slide for a team that, in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, won 17 total games and competed in the Big Ten Championship Game.
Purdue is quite a ways from competing for a conference title, but getting the program back into bowl contention would be a major step forward for Odom and his staff.
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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