Missouri has officially fired football coach Barry Odom. PowerMizzou first reported the news this morning, and the school has now confirmed the firing.

In a statement, athletics director Jim Sterk thanked Odom for his diligent work and said Odom "represented our program with integrity," but he cited the Tigers' slide during the second half of this season as the reason for relieving Odom.

"As a program, we had tremendous momentum coming into the 2019 season with the opening of the new south end zone facility as well as other strategic investments in our football program," Sterk said. "However, we lost a great deal of that energy during the last half of the season. This decision was difficult to make but was necessary."

Odom, who worked his way up the ranks from graduate assistant to defensive coordinator at Missouri, took over as head coach when Gary Pinkel retired following the 2015 season. He went 4-8 in his first season and started his second year 1-5. But Odom's team reeled off six consecutive wins before a loss in the Texas Bowl to finish 7-6. The Tigers followed it up with an 8-5 campaign and a Liberty Bowl berth in 2018, though they had chances to win at least two more.

Missouri lost its season opener 37-31 to Wyoming this year, but bounced back to win five straight home games and enter the Associated Press top 25 on Oct. 13. Then the wheels fell off.

A 21-14 loss to Vanderbilt started a five-game slide in which Mizzou got progressively less competitive. The Tigers lost 29-7 to Kentucky, 27-0 to Georgia and 23-6 to Florida. The went nearly ten full quarters over that span without an offensive touchdown.

Tennessee dealt Missouri its fifth consecutive loss, 24-20 in Columbia, last weekend. The loss dropped the Tigers to 5-6 this season and 24-25 in Odom's tenure. A 24-14 win over Arkansas moved him to .500 overall in 50 games, but wasn't enough to save Odom's job. After he met with Sterk Saturday morning, Odom's firing was announced.