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LOGAN — Weeks after leading Utah State to an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, Ryan Odom is headed back east.
After just two seasons in Cache Valley, the Aggies head coach will take the head coaching job at Virginia Commonwealth University, according to Dick Weiss of New York Daily News. The hiring wraps up a week-long saga of rumors and speculation.
Neither VCU or Utah State has formally announced Odom's hiring at the time of this writing.
News broke on Wednesday evening that Odom had applied for the job at South Florida. On Friday afternoon, Jeff Goodman of Stadium.com reported Odom had emerged as a "front runner" for the position. Utah State, which was committed to Odom as its head basketball coach, offered him a contract extension and pushed hard to keep him.
A university spokesperson told KSL.com last week that "President (Noelle) Cockett and interim athletic director (Jerry) Bovee are committed to retaining Ryan Odom as the USU men's basketball coach. They look forward to further discussions with him about his continued success at USU."
In the end, though, neither South Florida nor Utah State gets Odom.
The VCU job opened up when Mike Rhoades was hired by Penn State earlier this week. Odom will take over another basketball-rich program in VCU, which has made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances since 2000, including a run to the Final Four in 2011.
Odom is well-acquainted with the area; he played college basketball at Hampden-Sydney College, which is just over an hour away from Richmond, where VCU is located. Odom was an assistant under Greenberg at Virginia Tech for six seasons and has lived in the Mid-Atlantic region, whether it be Maryland, Virginia, or North Carolina, most his life.
Meanwhile, Utah State begins its second head coaching search in three seasons.
Odom leaves at the tail end of his second year of an $800,000, five-year deal at Utah State. His buyout is 50% of what is the remaining salary owed if breached within the first two years, according to his contract, which means the university is owed $1.2 million if the buyout goes though prior April 1. After that date, which marks the start of Odom's third year under contract, the buyout decreases to 35% of the remaining salary, or $840,000.
After five seasons at UMBC, Odom was hired by Utah State in April 2021. In his two seasons in Logan, he went 44-25, with an NIT and NCAA Tournament appearance.
The 2021-22 season was defined by narrow defeats, as the Aggies lost seven games by a single possession to finish 18-16 and sixth in the Mountain West. Boasting quality wins over Oklahoma and San Diego State, however, helped the Aggies earn a home game in the NIT against Oregon.
The encore superseded expectations. Ranked eighth in the Mountain West preseason poll, Utah State finished second in the conference and earned a 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Engineering a dynamic offense that boasted dynamic scorers junior guard Steven Ashworth and transfer forward Taylor Funk, Odom's squad boasted wins over Oral Roberts, Nevada and Boise State as it reached the Mountain West Tournament championship game.
Odom took over from Craig Smith, who went 74-24 at Utah State and got the Aggies to two Mountain West championships and an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament before bolting to Utah.
Odom was held in high regard by his players at Utah State and was often credited for instilling confidence into his team.
After the Aggies lost to Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Odom gave a heartfelt speech in the postgame press conference to help console his team.
"I think you can see these guys have genuine love and care for one another, a brotherhood," Odom said. "It's hard to end our season. These guys have given the coaching staff and Cache Valley, the state of Utah for that matter, anybody who loves basketball a tremendous amount of joy this season for how they handled themselves, not only on the court but off the court. They're always smiling, they're always looking to help one another and it's what being on a team is all about. You develop these memories that last a lifetime."
Now, after two years in Cache Valley, he'll continue making memories closer to home.
