Utah State Basketball: Ryan Odom To Be Hired At VCU, Per Reports
The Aggies’ head coach has been a hot commodity in the head coaching market after leading Utah State back to the NCAA tournament.
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The expected departure appears imminent.
After leading the Utah State Aggies to their third Big Dance appearance in the last five years, head coach Ryan Odom became the focus of rumors that his days in Logan could be numbered as suitors came calling. Now, it appears his next destination has become clear.
Following Mike Rhoades’s move from VCU to Penn State, the Rams will turn to Odom to replace him, according to multiple reports. If confirmed, it would become Odom’s fifth coaching stop after serving as an interim head coach at Charlotte back in 2014-15, which was followed by a Sweet 16 appearance at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne, five years at UMBC which included the first win by a 16-seed in NCAA Tournament history, and two years at Utah State.
Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic noted that a deal could be finalized by tomorrow while pointing out that Odom also has a connection with current VCU athletic director Ed McLaughlin from their time together at American University in Washington D.C.:
VCU athletic director Ed McLaughlin worked at American in the early 2000s when Ryan Odom was an assistant coach there. Part of the reason this deal is going to move fast. https://t.co/0dgP5rNBEI
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) March 29, 2023
The resolution would appear to end speculation which also tied Odom to the USF job recently taken by Kennesaw State’s Amir Abdur-Rahim. It would also take him back to the mid-Atlantic region where he played as a student at Hampden-Sydney and served as an assistant for programs like American and Virginia Tech.
In two years at Utah State, Odom accumulated an overall record of 44-25. The 26-9 mark his Aggies posted in 2022-23 represents the single-best season of his nine-year career as a head coach, through which he has a 170-106 record.
