Missouri football Head Coach Barry Odom fired defensive coordinator DeMontie Cross Sunday, which was the equivalent to blaming a poor sound system for a high-speed crash.

Firing coordinators in-season is nothing new in college football.

Sometimes the coordinator is just bad at his job, sometimes the coach just needs to make a change to shake things up.

But coming from a former defensive coordinator like Odom, someone who has been calling defensive plays since midway through last season, this move wreaks of desperation.

And I don’t blame Odom for feeling desperate.

His Missouri teams are 5-9 under his watch, and trending downward.

The defense and special teams are bad.

And after an explosive 72-point performance against FCS foe Missouri State in week one, the offense fell to earth against South Carolina in last week’s 31-13 loss.

It’s times like these where sacrificing a coordinator to try and salvage a season makes sense, unfortunately.

But a defensive-minded coach (someone facetiously referred to him as the Head Defensive Coach) like Odom isn’t fooling anyone by firing his defensive coordinator.

Sure, Cross shares some of the blame for the lackluster performance.

But his dismissal does nothing for Mizzou’s defense.

His promotion to defensive coordinator last year was a promotion in name only.

This was Odom’s defense when he was hired as defensive coordinator in 2015.

It was his defense when he replaced former Head Coach Gary Pinkel in December of 2016.

It will be his defense until he quits or gets fired.

The only positive Mizzou fans can take away from this is that we know Odom is self-aware.

He seems to realize that no matter how silly the decision was, he had to do something.

Because the next coaching change at Mizzou could leave Odom jobless.