COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri System Board of Curators today approved the initial contract terms for newly-minted Head Football Coach Barry Odom.  The Board approved a memorandum of understanding, which outlines a majority of the contractual points, with additional details yet to be determined related to potential incentive compensation.  The memorandum stands in place of the fully-executed contract, until that is finalized.

Terms of the agreement call for Odom to be paid $2,350,000 guaranteed annually, which includes a base salary of $450,000, plus a guaranteed non-salary compensation amount of $1,900,000.  The last figure covers guarantees of $475,000 each in four different categories related to operating the football program: radio appearances, television appearances, apparel rights, and public relations and stewardship appearances.  Odom will also receive an annuity payment in the amount of $100,000 per year ($500,000 total) contingent upon his being in good standing on the final date of his contract period.

“I’m very grateful to Mack Rhoades, Chancellor Hank Foley, President Mike Middleton, the Board of Curators and the entire university administration for this opportunity,” Odom said. “Through this process they have shown an unwavering commitment to provide us with the resources we need to attract and retain an elite staff and support our student-athletes in order to compete at the highest level.”

Odom’s final contract will also include a highly-competitive incentive structure worth up to $1.5 million in additional compensation per year.  The mutually agreed upon performance incentives will be related to academic performance, social responsibility, athletic performance and coaching recognition.  Those are still to be determined, and will be released with the fully-executed contract when available.

The contract went into effect on Dec. 3, 2015 and runs through Feb. 28, 2021, with a mutual option for a two-year extension.

Odom would receive a $250,000 non-salary compensation increase should his Tigers win a conference championship, as well as a similar $250,000 increase should Mizzou participate in a “New Year’s Six” bowl game (i.e., Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose, Sugar).  Those increases would be added to the non-salary figure a maximum of one time each for the remainder of the contract term.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Football senior LB Kentrell Brothers (Guthrie, Okla.) earned a trio of All-America honors over the course of Wednesday and Thursday (Dec. 9-10). Brothers was named First Team All-America by both Sports Illustrated and CBSSports.com and landed second team honors from the Walter Camp Foundation.

Brothers is the first Mizzou LB ever to be honored as a first-team All-American by any publication and just the second Mizzou LB ever to earn any All-America distinction, joining Sean Weatherspoon who was a third team honoree by the Associated Press in 2008.

Walter Camp is the first of the five major organizations recognized by the NCAA for consensus All-American distinction to announce their All-America honorees. The other four (Associated Press, Football Writers Association of American and the American Football Coaches Association) will be announced in the coming days.

Brothers put together one of the most prolific seasons in MU history in 2015, and was named a first-team All-SEC performer for his efforts.  The tackling machine ended the season with 152 total tackles, which leads the nation (next-most is 140), while his 12.7 tackles per game mark is also tops in the country.  He is also second in the nation in 2015 with three blocked kicks on the year.  The 152 tackles ranks as the 4th-most in Mizzou season history, and gave him 358 for his career, which puts him 8th all-time on the MU career chart. He became the first Tiger in the Gary Pinkel era with seven consecutive games of 10+ tackles to close the season. He broke the 15 tackle mark four times in 2015 and added 12.0 tackles for loss, two interceptions and was second in the nation with three blocked kicks.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A trio of Mizzou Football standouts were named All-SEC Freshman Team selections as the league announced on Thursday (Dec. 9). DT Terry Beckner, Jr. (East St. Louis, Ill.), DE Walter Brady (Florence, Ala.) and P Corey Fatony (Franklin, Tenn.) were the three Mizzou players selected to the All-SEC Freshman Team. Mizzou’s three All-Freshman honorees rank as the third-most of any team in the SEC, trailing only Alabama and Texas A&M, who each had four.

Mizzou has now had five players land on the All-SEC Freshman Team since joining the league for the 2012 season and this is the first time since 2013 Mizzou has had an All-SEC Freshman honoree.

Beckner was one of the nation’s most dominant freshmen as a DT before being sidelined by injury on the first play vs. BYU on Nov. 14. In what turned out to be just nine games worth of work, Beckner tallied 27 total tackles (13 solo) while tallying eight tackles-for-loss and three sacks. His eight TFLs were the most among Mizzou interior linemen and he was playing his best football before getting hurt vs. BYU. In the previous four games prior to BYU, Beckner tallied five of his eight TFLs, 18 (10 solo) of his 27 tackles and all three of his sacks. He was one of eight true freshmen to see the field for Mizzou in 2015.

As good as Beckner was along the defensive line, Brady may have been the most productive freshman defensive lineman in the nation in 2015. He tied for the team lead in sacks (seven) and was second on the team with 12.5 tackles for loss with an interception, two pass break-ups, seven quarterback hurries and a fumble recovery. His seven sacks led all freshmen nationally and he ranked eighth in the SEC in that category. His 12.5 TFLs ranked 14th in the SEC and no freshman in the SEC had more sacks or TFLs than Brady. He was a Hendricks Award Watch List honoree midway through 2015.

Fatony, who earned the team’s Special Forces Player of the Year, was tremendous as the team’s starting punter. Fatony set the Mizzou single season record with 81 punts, passing a record that had stood at Mizzou since 1995. He was named to the Ray Guy Award Watch List and was the Ray Guy National Player of the Week following Mizzou’s game against Florida (Oct. 10) in which he punted nine time while averaging 47.8 yards per punt with a career-long of 61 yards, pinning the Gators inside the 20 four times with three kicks over 50 yards. He finished the season ranked first among freshmen nationally in net punting, averaging 42.9 yards per punt.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Former Mizzou Football head coach Gary Pinkel has been selected for enshrinement into the Missouri Sports Hall Of ­Fame, as announced by Jerald Andrews, the President and Executive Director of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, on Wednesday (Dec. 9). Pinkel will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on January 31 in Springfield, Mo. Also of note to Mizzou fans, former Track & Field standout Natasha (Kaiser) Brown and the 1966 Mizzou Football team that won the Sugar Bowl will also be enshrined in the 2016 class.

The Enshrinement is 5 p.m. Sunday, January 31, at the University Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Springfield. An 11 a.m. reception presented by Meeks The Builder’s Choice is scheduled at the Hall of Fame, 3861 E. Stan Musial Drive. Afternoon activities begin at 4 p.m. with a reception at University Plaza, and the program will follow immediately afterward. Individual tickets are $150, and a table of 10 is $1,500. For tickets, call the Hall of Fame at 417-889-3100.

Pinkel, 63, transformed Mizzou into a national program after taking over on Nov. 30, 2000, and will conclude his career as the winningest coach in school history.  He’s amassed a 118-73 record at Mizzou in 15 seasons, and his 191 career wins stand as the 19th-most all-time in NCAA FBS history.  Under his guidance, Mizzou won five conference divisional titles (2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014), reached 10 bowl games (winning six) and had five teams post a final top-20 national ranking (including two top-five finishes).  His Tigers posted winning seasons in 10-of-15 years, following a stretch where Mizzou had only two winning seasons in the 17 seasons (1984-2000) prior to his arrival.  He was named the National Coach of the Year in 2007 by FieldTurf, and won conference coach of the year honors in 2007 (Big 12) and 2014 (SEC).

Two times, Pinkel likely had his Tigers one win away from playing for a national championship, as wins in the 2007 and 2013 conference championship games could have propelled MU into title game appearances.  In 2007, Mizzou surged to the school’s first-ever number one national ranking since 1960 after a watershed win over rival Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 24, 2007, when the Tigers were ranked fourth and the Jayhawks second coming into the game.  That team would eventually end the season with a school-record 12 wins that included a Cotton Bowl title and final national ranking of fourth.

Pinkel worked perhaps his finest coaching job in 2013, one year after Mizzou joined the vaunted Southeastern Conference and suffered an injury-plagued 5-7 season in 2012.  Picked to finish sixth in the SEC Eastern Division by pre-season pundits, the Tigers jumped out to a 7-0 record and finished 11-1 and East Division champs.  They would go on to a 12-win season, with another Cotton Bowl title, and final national ranking of fifth.

Pinkel’s emphasis on molding young men into successful student-athletes was evidenced by the great achievements they had in the classroom.  Mizzou has improved its NCAA Graduation Success Rate for nine straight years, and has graduated 97 percent of its seniors the past five seasons.

Getting athletes to the next level has been another mark of success for Pinkel and his program.  In his time at Mizzou, 32 Tigers were selected in the NFL Draft, including seven in the first round.  Mizzou had 12 players taken in the first round of the NFL Draft in the previous 64 years combined (1937-2001) prior to Pinkel taking over.

— Mizzou Athletics —