Barry Odom Adds 3 New Assistant Coaches to Purdue Football Staff

Barry Odom isn't resting during the holiday season. The new Purdue football coach has been working hard on assembling a staff in West Lafayette, adding three new assistants over the weekend.

The Boilermakers hired Vance Vice as the offensive line coach, Cornell Ford as the wide receivers coach and James Shibest as the special teams coordinator. The three new additions round out Purdue's 2025 coaching staff.

All three assistants are following Odom from UNLV to Purdue.

Vice has served as the offensive line coach at UNLV for the past two seasons, but has been coaching the offensive line at the college level since 1999. He's had stops at Murray State (1999), Illinois State (2000-04), Utah State (2005-08), Louisiana Monroe (2009-11), Memphis (2012-15) and Virginia Tech (2016-21).

Ford had been the running backs coach at UNLV for the last three seasons. He was also on Odom's staff at Missouri from 2016-19, where he also worked as the assistant head coach and running backs coach. Ford has had stops at Toledo (1996-2000, 2020-22) and Missouri (2001-19).

Shibest's experience as a special teams coordinator dates back to 2000, getting his start at the Division I level at Arkansas. He worked with the Razorbacks from 2000-07 in a variety of roles, as well as special teams coordinator. Shibest has also worked as the special teams coordinator at Ole Miss (2008-11), Memphis (2012-15), Virginia Tech (2016-21) and UNLV (2023-24).

Odom is looking to rebuild Purdue quickly after a 1-11 campaign in 2024. All three new staff additions were part of a UNLV team that finished last season with an 11-3 record.