Tiger Style Explored: A Mizzou Wrestling Interview Series - Brian Smith (Part One)

Welcome back to Tiger Style Explored, a weekly Mizzou Wrestling interview series taking you inside the program in the coming months from the regular season to the NCAA Championships and beyond.

Here’s who I have talked with thus far.

125lbs starter, Noah Surtin | 141lbs starter, Josh Edmond | 157lbs starter, Brock Mauller | 174lbs starter, Peyton Mocco | 184lbs starter, Colton Hawks | 197lbs starter, Rocky Elam | 285lbs starter, Zach Elam

Assistant coach Kendric Maple | Assistant coach Tyrel Todd | Assistant coach Dom Bradley

The final part of this interview series is going to be a little bit different than what you’ve seen before. We are splitting up my interview with Coach Smith into three parts, as there is A LOT to talk about. This edition will focus on the 2023-24 season which just recently finished up at the NCAA Championships in Kansas City.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Let’s start with your overall thoughts on the NCAA Championships, what are your key takeaways from it?

Head Coach Brian Smith: The first day, the first round was probably really difficult. We lost a lot of tough matches. So losing [125, 133], those early losses, not getting wins. In the early rounds you get the point for advancement on the front side and a half point on the back side. And we had three weights that I really thought would score some points for us: 125, 157 and 174. So [Noah] Surtin and Brock Mauller and Peyton Mocco, and all three didn’t score points and that really hurt us as a team. So that round didn’t go as well, even though the other guys came through.

And then you have the Friday night round that really hurt us with the two guys losing heartbreakers in the All-American round, [Colton] Hawks and Josh [Edmond], and Keegan [O’Toole] losing. If those three win those matches, we’re probably finishing in fourth or fifth place, so you see the difference. Cornell had three All-Americans and finished second. We had three All-Americans and finished 11th, because we didn’t have a full team contributing points, and those three matches on that Friday night really hurt.

But as you know, Zach Elam battled his ass off and is the six seed and takes fourth, beats [Arizona State’s Cohlton] Schultz who he’s never beaten in his career. Just has a great tournament, beats the kid from Rutgers who was really tough, and [I’m] really pleased with the tournament that he had. You know, Rocky was the 12 seed and goes in there and takes sixth. And he was banged up a little, but becomes another four-timer (four-time All-American) for the University of Missouri. We don’t have too many of those, I think it’s like five [of them], but he becomes another four-timer. And that’s not easy to do.

And Keegan just, you know, gets the takedown to take the lead there. And then just, I don’t know what happened mentally, because he gives up the escape. They get in a scramble, go out of bounds, and then you could just sense that he lost his focus and gives up that leg takedown. It was just hard because he had wrestled such a good match and been so aggressive, but he falls short. But of course bounces back and takes third in the country and becomes another four-timer for the University of Missouri.

I want to talk a little about the outgoing seniors: Brock Mauller, Peyton Mocco and Zach Elam. Mauller and Mocco not necessarily having the tournaments they hoped for but Elam finishes fourth and as an All-American. What have they meant to the program, and what have they meant to you?

BS: Well, they’re that group that got to compete for a long time, and there was the good and the bad of it. Because I could sense their bodies wearing out at the end. You know, it’s a combative sport. And I think being in college six years, that’s a long time. I could sense towards the end, not so much with Zach but more with Mocco and Brock, that they were struggling with [the toll]. Mocco had injuries. He had an injury at Air Force, and up to that point he was lights out. And after that injury, it just felt like he never got back to it.

Brock got sick in the middle of the year, and it was just tough. It was a real tough end of the year, and I take a lot of that blame because I got to figure a way to not let it happen as much and try to keep our guys healthy. You know, the way we’re training and doing things, as a coach I got to take the responsibility of that. That we didn’t wrestle well at the end of the year. So I’ve got to figure that out and help my team, it’s something I got to do better.

But they’ve meant a lot to the program. When you look at, Mocco’s in his Ph. D program and all three of them were graduates and [in] grad school. Brock is a [three]-time All-American, Mocco was an All-American, Zach being a two-time All-American. You don’t have too many classes with guys leaving and you have three All-Americans from a class. I always said if you can have two [All-Americans in] a class you have a good group; this was three. And just outstanding individuals, the way they train in the practice room, the way the younger guys look up to them. You know, all three of them, the way they do things.

One of my assistants was just telling me that Brock was rooming with one of the younger guys this weekend and Brock was having talks with him. ‘You have a lot of ability like I do, you gotta go do something with it,’ and really pumping and still coaching him up even though he’s out of the tournament. And so I really liked that. Zach wants to stay on and help with the heavyweights. Mocco will go on and do some stuff withhis engineering degrees. But they’ll all stay involved somehow with the program in some way or another, whether it’s financial support or just always caring about the program. They were just that way, they were great individuals for the program.

Looking at the year as a whole, is there a lesson or takeaway in particular you’ve come away with which you want to apply in the future?

BS: I don’t know if it’s a lesson, it’s just trying to figure things out, like what happened. When we had twenty-something guys out with the flu, you know, that’s not coaching. I mean, I can’t coach how to not get the flu. We are always telling our guys we have vitamins we try to get, we’re always preaching about sleep and all the important things. But when a flu bug comes through, the type of sport we are where they’re sweating on each other every day, it’s hard to get [out] once it gets in. We were on a bus and somebody was really sick, so by the time we got off the bus, everybody had pretty much come down with it. So there’s not much you can do about that.

There’s ways to make it better. But the injuries and things, we got to look at and get everybody healed up. I’m going to deal with the strength coach, with conditioning and the strength program, on how we can do the little things better, how technically we’re gonna get better. There’s lots of things we look at and break it down, and then we start working on it immediately in the spring and get going.

But yes, it was a disappointing second semester. I think it was right after the the win over West Virginia, it felt like, ‘Man, we just couldn’t get things to click again.’ We lost a heartbreaker to Cornell and people were like, ‘Oh, you lost to Cornell,’ and of course they’re second in the country. We’re one match away from winning that and didn’t have our starting 49 pounder in that match but it just felt like, ‘Man, we let that one slip away.’ And then we had the issues with Oklahoma State with Kade being out.

And then it was just difficult, it just felt like we never got it back after that point. And then [we] had everybody sick. We had a big win over South Dakota State and we saw they’re a really good team, they had four All-Americans, but I just felt like we never got it back. And that’s on me, I got to figure that out as a coach and with my staff to not let that happen again. So that’s one of the things [we’ll] really examine and look at, and I’ll bring my trainer, doctor and everybody in how can we do it better.

The second half of the season did not go how many hoped for, but it was not without its positives. What are some of those key positives you can look at moving into next season based on what you saw this year?

BS: Josh Edmond really grew up second semester. There was a really 50/50 call there and the referees both made the call and then changed it. And he was that close to the podium and beat some really good people. He beat the kid from Virginia Tech that beat him in the dual, and just went out and beat him by like eight or nine points match. But [he] just wrestled well at the Big 12’s and nationals, and that confidence from there is going to take him into the next season. He has two years left with us, he’s got to be on the podium the next two years. He’s too talented.

He’s really grown up and matured and [he’s] starting to know what he can do best, he’s got to make it happen. But I was really pleased with him. And then Colton Hawks really stepping up and, you know, [was] a riding time point away from being on the podium too. He learned how to win big matches at nationals now, win big matches at the Big 12, beating [Iowa State’s Will] Feldkamp and a couple others. He’s got to continue to make those strides so he’s a top-five kid next year. You know, he’s that good. And then Rocky’s keeping his body healthy. You know, he didn’t have the season he wanted but he still gets on the podium and takes sixth place all banged up. His knee was hurting, his back was hurting. He’s got to find a way to keep himself healthy, you know, he could win the national tournament next year. So that’s got to be his goal next year.

And then Noah Surtin had a great season, you know, [had] an injury and still [was] losing tough battles to some of the tough top guys. I’m looking at the South Dakota State kid placing, the Wyoming kid placing, and those are people he beat during the year. He’s got to have that match, you know, he’s got to put that together at the national tournament. And that’s his goal now, he’s got to make it happen. This is his last run coming up.

It’s a disappointing season. But [despite the] disappointment, we still had three All-Americans, I had to get reminded about that. We still finished 11th in the country. [I’m] not happy, our standard is higher. But it wasn’t a complete collapse. There were some people that had outstanding tournaments, so [I’m] really happy with that. But we got to make the other five step up for us.

I think a lot of Tiger Style fans still have lots of questions about the final minute of Josh Edmond’s blood round match. Can you walk us through what happened during that third period and your thoughts on that?

BS: Well, the mistake Josh made is he scores the takedown to take the lead, and I think he was up by two at that point. He scored that takedown late, with 27 seconds to go, and then he lets the guy out and gives up a takedown. And then I thought he got out, they called it a reversal, which would have put us up like 5-4 after all that craziness or 6-4 or whatever it may have been. And he’s on top of the guy and he rides him out for the 13 seconds because the ref was right in his face and said “two reversal” so he just held him down, the time ticks away. They actually blew the whistle with one second [left] to call a stalemate.

They get up and Minnesota is about to throw a block, and they said ‘All right, we’ll look at it,’ this and that. And they’re saying he had a whizzer, but he was flat on the mat and we were controlling him, [Edmond] even had his left back ankle hooked. They change the call, and then after that they were going to put Josh down with one second down by a point. And we’re like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, you gotta go back to dead time.’ And so Josh gets up, turns around and throws him and has control of him on his back with his foot in, and I thought it was a reversal. And they said ‘No, it’s one point.’ So then it goes [to] overtime, and we get in some crazy scrambles and end up losing.

So it was difficult, there were some tough calls in there, but it got really confusing. And the table and the calls and all the things, it’s frustrating, but Josh has to win that there. He had opportunities to win it in there and you can’t let it come down to a referee. Like when he took him down that first time, he should have ridden him out and he knows that. That’s something we teach in the room. They were close to the edge, he should have driven him out and won the match 4-1. But instead he gave up an escape and a takedown. You know, with the overtime takedown and crazy flurries, [it’s] disappointing that he didn’t get it. But he’s got to learn from that and grow from that. And decide ‘I’m not going to let it come to a referee’s decision, I’m going to finish that match strong and ride him out.’

Another wrestler I want to talk about is Kade Moore. Looking back at the Cornell dual, he was up 7-2 on national champ Vito Arujau before losing a close 10-9 match. Then that was his last regular season match and he comes back for the championships. Can you talk about his year and what you’re looking for from him in the offseason?

BS: He’s got to learn to keep himself healthy. And some of that was out of his control, but he didn’t wrestle ‘till December 7, I think it was at the Cougar Clash. So he wrestled for [two months]... and then I don’t think he wrestled again ‘till the Big 12’s. So he wrestled for [two months] in a four month season, and then the championships month he got to wrestle. But as a freshman, your first time starting, getting matches is so important. He only had a few, and I think that really hurt him.

You start to learn about your identity and what works, he didn’t really get that. And so it’s difficult to get in a groove. It’s hard when you’re going at that point (returning for the championships), every match is a big match. And he didn’t get to go through the grind of it, to learn what you know, what you’re good at and what you should be doing, and how to make adjustments and all those things. So I’m looking for him this next season to wrestle a full season. You know, he’s got to be able to get in there and stay healthy. And go through the grind a little bit, learn about himself and what works and what’s not and grow from it. And then you make improvements throughout the year so you’re ready to hit the Big 12’s and qualify on your own and get out there and become an All-American, because he has that talent. But he’s got to stay healthy during the year.

Make sure to check back in soon for part two of this interview next week. We’ll talk about the offseason and looking towards next year, including a possible change in weight class for Keegan O’Toole.