New Missouri football coach Barry Odom has the task of rebuilding a program that went 5-7 last year and made national headlines by threatening to boycott a late-season game.
Odom also has a marketing opportunity following the relocation earlier this year of the NFL's St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles.
"An hour-and-a-half down the road, and you're in downtown St. Louis," Odom said last week on a teleconference, "and for us to be able to attract some who are missing out with the Rams would obviously be important for us and the relationships that we've got within that city. We've got to continue to develop those, and obviously I want the University of Missouri to be a team that the entire state follows.
"Without question, St. Louis and Mizzou need to be a team together."
St. Louis is without a professional football franchise for the first time since 1994. The Rams moved to Missouri from California in 1995 and had a lot of early success, reaching the playoffs five times in a six-year stretch from 1999 to 2004.
The Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans on a last-play tackle to win Super Bowl XXXIV after the 1999 season and reached Super Bowl XXXVI only to lose to the New England Patriots on a last-second field goal. St. Louis did not make the playoffs again after its trip following the 2004 season.
"Without question, this has been brought up to me a number of times, and I have been in meetings and conversations about the topic," said Odom, who was the Tigers' defensive coordinator and linebackers coach last season and worked in various roles for the program from 2003 to '11.
"I think it's important for us to realize how great of a city St. Louis is. In recruiting over the years for us, it's been tremendous."
Missouri is the only Football Bowl Subdivision program in its state, and the Kansas City Chiefs are the only remaining NFL team.
The Tigers averaged 62,095 fans per game at 71,168-seat Faurot Field in the 2011 season, which was their last as a member of the Big 12, and their first year in the Southeastern Conference resulted in a record 67,476 average. Georgia and reigning national champ Alabama highlighted Missouri's 2012 home schedule, which included nonconference visits from Arizona State and Syracuse.
Missouri averaged 65,285 fans in 2014, which marked the second straight season in which Gary Pinkel's Tigers won the SEC East, and last year's average was 65,120. The Tigers went 1-7 in league games last season, averaging just seven points per game in those seven losses.
Bama dismisses Baldwin
Charles Baldwin, a junior-college transfer offensive tackle who recently went through spring practice at Alabama, is no longer with the Crimson Tide.
"Charles Baldwin has been dismissed from the program for a violation of team rules," Tide coach Nick Saban said in a brief athletic department release.
Baldwin, a 6-foot-5, 297-pounder from Windsor, Conn., was rated by Rivals.com this past winter as a five-star talent and the nation's No. 2 junior-college prospect.
Dunbar hired
Saban also announced Thursday the hiring of Karl Dunbar as defensive line coach. Dunbar will replace Bo Davis, who resigned late last month.
"Karl is very familiar with our program from an organizational standpoint as well as the defensive scheme we run," Saban said in a released statement. "He is a fantastic football coach who brings a wealth of coaching experience while being a great asset in recruiting."
Dunbar was a strength coach under Saban at LSU and has spent 11 of the past 12 years as a defensive line coach in the NFL. He worked with the Buffalo Bills last season and the New York Jets the three seasons before that.
"The program Coach Saban has built at Alabama is second to none," Dunbar said, "and the opportunity to work for him once again is special."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.