What Purdue Coach Barry Odom Said at the Podium During Big Ten Football Media Days

Barry Odom made his way to the big stage at Big Ten Football Media Days for the first time in his career on Thursday. The head coach is entering his first season at the helm for Purdue, and is hoping to steer the Boilermakers back in the right direction after a few rough years.

Here's what Odom had to say during his time at the podium in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Barry Odom's opening statement ...

Great to see everyone, I hope you've had a great summer, a wonderful summer. I'd like to start by saying I appreciate all the work you guys do covering the game of college football. I know it's tireless work, but the things you do, not only covering college football, but the Big Ten Conference, Purdue University, I'm thankful for that. We have so many stories to tell, and you guys have the opportunity to tell those stories.

After being in Vegas for the last two years, I know those of you still standing on Day 3 of Big Ten Media Days you're the real tested ones. Maybe you can make it through the rest of the day.

I look at the opportunities that come with Media Days, and I look at it as the unofficial start to our season. I look at the calendar, and we look at it as a staff in 37 short days, and we will have the opportunity for our first game in the 2025 Purdue football campaign. It's a sprint to get our team ready for Game 1.

We'll open up camp next week, and then, as you guys know, the days fly by and Game 1 will be on us.

Purdue head coach Barry Odom speaks to the media | Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images

I've been in the conference for seven months, this is year 26 for me (of my coaching career), and I've always had great respect for the Big Ten Conference. Even more so, seven months into our league. It's got great coaches, unbelievable players and student-athletes, and then you look a the leadership of our commissioner, Tony Petitti, and the things he's been able to do for us as head coaches. To be able to navigate us through this time, to lead and communicate during the changes has been amazing. I'm thankful for him and his leadership group.

As we all know, the Big Ten Conference and the footprint covers the entire country. The tradition, the championships, the game-day atmosphere, I believe it creates the best conference in college sports today.

I look at the opportunity over the last seven months of being at Purdue and it would not have been possible without the leadership of our president, Mung Chiang, and without the leadership of our director of athletics, Mike Bobinski and his assistant in the role of sport administrator, Tiffani Grimes. They have been at every single workout, they've been more invested than I could ever dream about, and I'm thankful for that and their vision.

We have had a seven-month period on the calendar of building our team and building our program and establishing our culture. I've always been able to bring down what the phases of the year look like. For us, in January, it was our winter conditioning program, and then we moved into a segment, the Winning Edge Program, that led into spring practices and then led into our summer ball program, and now upon us in fall camp.

We are evolving every single day as a team, and I believe we're making great progress. We established 16 core values of our team and our program, and we call it "the Purdue way." The way that we're building our program through toughness, consistency, and togetherness and teamwork and those values — it's a natural fit for Purdue football and all the great fans and donors who support our great university.

Purdue Boilermakers head coach Barry Odom looks down field | Alex Martin/Journal and Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

I'm really thankful for our coaching staff. We were able to assemble a group of guys who have been able to work together. We have a support staff that is unmatched for what our student-athletes need in today's world. There's strong alignment, tremendous vision, and work ethic every single day to create habits for our team. Our staff has blended really, really well together, and I believe that will prove to be a huge advantage for this team.

Hope, vision, and belief, and soon enough, we'll have validation on the things we've started building with this program.

We're always judged by our moments and our experiences. I look at the opportunity at Purdue, I didn't have anything to do with last year. I also didn't have anything to do with three years ago, when Purdue was in the Big Ten Championship. We will be defined by what we do, and if we take the approach from the day we got the job — every single day you take the approach to make Purdue football better and you find a way to consistently instill those habits in everyone around the organization, then by the time the season rolls around, we'll be ready to be the best versions of ourselves.

As I watch our team continue to build, we're showing the characteristics of a winning team. They have a high level of commitment, they've been very enthusiastic, and they've been hungry to thrive in the process of what it takes to play winning football. We're going to continue to work on creating the mindset, the attitude, the toughness, and the extra effort that is needed to play successful football in the Big Ten Conference. We're always searching to find more ways to give our team the advantage, the competitive spirit, the details, the habits, the consistency is so important to galvanizing the team and focusing on the consistency to play your best ball.

We believe in the process of playing your best football at every position, and it's our job as a coaching staff to get each position group and each individual prepared to play their absolute, very best early and often. It's a very process-oriented opportunity that we have. When you approach it that way, you get absorbed in the process, and then the results take care of themselves.

We certainly have very high expectations for us to be the very best that we can. We will continue to create an identity of our team, for our team, all based on habits, alignments, and being together.

We have measurable goals that we set out, we did it when we started in January. We look at academic progress, we look at grade point average, we look at strength gains in the weight room, quickness, explosive, and speed numbers, and our players have done a terrific job in all areas. We had a 3.24 cumulative GPA in the last semester. I'm excited about that. The responsibilities that come with that at Purdue, one of the most prestigious degrees you can get in all of America. Our guys are embracing that.

I believe we have the opportunity to play great complementary football. Our offensive coordinator Josh Henson and I have worked together for a number of years. He was at Southern Cal before we were able to get him at Purdue. He's done a great job building schematically offensively on how we want to be and how we're going to attack things.

Defensively, our coordinator is Mike Scherer, who I coached years ago. He worked with me at Arkansas and then at UNLV. He's done a great job.

And then our special teams coordinator is James Shibest. In my opinion, he will give us a huge advantage in the special teams play on how our team is built.

The bottom line of getting our team together in every aspect is a tremendous opportunity. We're excited about the future of Purdue football.

We were able to bring three players with us, they all have different stories on how they ended up where they are today.

Devin Mockobee is a senior running back. He's 1,200 yards away from being the leading rusher in Purdue football history. He's getting his mechanical engineering degree and is on pace to graduate in a couple of months. We're so proud of him.

Tony Grimes is a senior as well, he plays in the defensive backfield. He started for me at corner at UNLV and then transferred. He's become a great leader in our locker room.

And then CJ Madden, a defensive end that will end up being in the mix as a leader up front. All three of these guys have great stories on how and where they are today, and how they got there. They're a great reflection, not only of our team and program, but our university.

Thanks for your time, and I'd certainly be happy to happy any questions.

On how much he appreciates what he learned in Las Vegas

You look at opportunities, and when we got the job here at UNLV, the way the city embraced us — we won 20 games in two years. It was a great experience. We had unbelievable players who lived the process. The city got behind us and did everything they could to support us in a great way.

I got to the hotel room last night, opened up the window and I was staring at Allegiant Stadium. What great memories. I was thankful for our time here.

We embraced the city, and the city gave us back. We have tremendous friends here that we'll have for a lifteime. I'm so thankful for the opportunity that we had at UNLV and living in Las Vegas.

On the changes in college football with the transfer portal

As you guys know, the world of college football has changed more in the last three years than it has in the last 25 combined. Whether I believe in it or don't like the change, it doesn't matter. It's here. You adjust to it and you find a way to find advantages for your team and build your team.

We're going to be a high school recruiting team. I've always said that. We're always select and direct in attracting players through junior college or the transfer market. I think that's important to do. But you can't lose sight of how to build your team the right way. Having the right culture, the right habits, the right fit. Those things are always evolving.

We have a great team manager, our recruiting department and what they do, the personnel department and what they do, and then the assistant coaches. It's all together in making decisions and how you build the team.

So, I think the staffs have grown over the years on what that looks like. How you build a team every year is going to be a little bit different. We've certainly had a lot of turnover since we got the job at Purdue. It's very similar to the turnover we had when we were at UNLV. There's nobody that's immune to that.

For us, we have to build structurally the foundation of the program. That's not going to change in the recruiting process of how we go about our high school recruiting. And then you have to be select and direct on how you're building the rest of your roster.

On his understanding of NIL and how it helps him relate to players

It's changed everything. Years ago, it didn't exist. Then, all of a sudden, it's open market. Now there's a few more restrictions and guidelines on it, which I think is healthy for college sports, and I think it's healthy for student-athletes.

But I think the opportunity of learning from your experiences and also being aggressive in that world on what it looks like to build your team, it's been a process for us all to learn as you go through it. I'm a lot better today, in that world, than I was two years. I think every year you evolve as a coach and you become a little bit better through your experiences.

The ability to be vulnerable, to find out what you need in a support staff to help in your blind spots and also to build up your organization the way you need to so it is a smooth operating machine. I'm very thankful, because I've got great people on our staff and organization that, every single day, they're thinking, 'How can I make this program better?"

That's all-encompassing for our entire team and our entire staff on how we approach things.

Barry Odom's opening statement ...

On how much he appreciates what he learned in Las Vegas

On the changes in college football with the transfer portal

On his understanding of NIL and how it helps him relate to players

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