Southern 'getting close' to an agreement on contract extension for football coach Dawson Odums

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- An agreement on a contract extension between Southern Univsersity and football coach Dawson Odums is imminent, as the two parties are nearing a deal that would keep him at the school through several more seasons.

Odums, whose current contract is set to expire after the 2017 season, did not return a request for comment, but his agent, Burton Rocks, confirmed in a text message that the two sides are “getting close” to an extension with just a few details to be ironed out.

The extension talks would take Odums through the 2019 season and as of 6 p.m. Thursday, the talks were "in the fourth quarter" and hopeful to be finalized soon, Rocks said.

The sixth-year Southern coach was set to earn $180,000 this season, the last in a three-year arrangement he signed in January 2014. That 2014 agreement netted Odums a 25-percent raise.

After some disappointing years under his predecessor, Stump Mitchell, Odums has returned the Jaguars to prominence in the Southwestern Athletic Conference despite some challenges brought on by NCAA sanctions.

Southern was an utterly dominant team for a large portion of last year, going 8-0 in league play before a clash against also-undefeated rival Grambling in the Bayou Classic. Grambling won that contest en route to the black college national championship.

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