How Brian Odom Wound Up at Washington as Its Linebackers Coach

Brian Odom likely didn't have to do a tap dance much at all during his hiring process to become the University of Washington linebackers coach.

Pull out three references that HR could call. Explain why he left his previous jobs. Detail what he would bring to Montlake

Odom, it seems, was just another ready example of Kevin Bacon's Six Degrees of Separation, where everyone in this world supposedly is connected to each other in some manner after you cut through a certain number of layers of people.

Husky coach Jedd Fisch said he hired Odom because this guy had developed talent and recruited well at Oklahoma and USC, had been a Sooners player himself and, oh yeah, most importantly, he had coached alongside Fisch's new UW defensive coordinator in Ryan Walters on the defensive staff at Missouri.

"They all love his work ethic," Fisch said of Odom.

Things really start clicking when the Missouri connection is brought up. Let's go back to the beginning and show how this played out, with how that SEC school ultimately supplied the Huskies with their latest full-time defensive coaching hire after relying on former UW assistant to build things up in Columbia.

In 2015, Gary Pinkel was the long-time Missouri football coach, overly successful and facilitating the Tigers' move from the Big 12 to the SEC..

Remember him?

In his previous coaching life, Pinkel spent 13 seasons at the UW as an offensive coordinator, a quarterbacks coach and a tight-ends coach for the legendary Don James.

For that 2015 season, Pinkel hired Barry Odom -- Brian's older brother -- from Memphis to be his defensive coordinator after that Odom previously had worked for Pinkel at Missouri as a graduate assistant, director of recruiting and a safeties coach.

Still following along?

From Memphis, this elder Odom brought Walters with him to be his safeties coach.

In 2016, Pinkel retired at Missouri, Barry Odom was promoted to head coach and Walters was elevated to co-defensive coordinator.

A year later, Walters became Missouri's full-time DC and Brian Odom joined the staff as the Tigers' outside linebackers coach. These guys worked together during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Walters eventually became the Purdue head coach in 2023 and 2024 and got fired.

Brian Odom went to work for Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma and USC, and eventually got let go himself as everyone blamed the Trojans' troubles on the defense.

A lightning rod for that argument was the UW's 52-42 victory over USC in 2023 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a game in which the Huskies churned out 572 yards of total offense, with Michael Penix Jr. throwing for 256 and Dillon Johnson rushing for 256.

Along the way, Brian Odom served as an interim defensive coordinator at three different schools, USC included, and got some play-calling experience.

"We just felt he would be a perfect fit for the development of our linebackers," Fisch said.

Odom comes to the UW after a season as the North Texas defensive coordinator.

He will answer directly to Walters, who arrived in Seattle from Purdue.

And remember Barry Odom, Brian's brother?

Aftertwo seasons as the football leader at UNLV, Barry Odom took over as the Purdue head coach, replacing Walters.

As Kevin Bacon would say, six degrees of separation, baby.

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