I am in no way trying to discredit what JS has meant to the sport of wrestling. What I do want to discuss is his coaching legacy. John has always been a higher than thou figure in the world of wrestling. What he has achieved and his accolades are the best in US history and no one will argue against that. What I would argue is that it has been a verrrry long time since we were national champs. Almost 20 years which I believe may be our longest drought. I know John was very reluctant to adapt to the RTC and NIL worlds and that has put us a decade behind. What I want to magnify are the coaches who were in the room during that early 2000s 4peat. Cormier, Roller, Poppolizio, Pat etc. Pat resigned in 2006 then our team success declined, Roller went to MMA, Cormier went to the Olympics then MMA and Pop went to NCSt. I am generally curious for those that know, were we just a product of our coaches in the room during that 4 year run? Those coaches are some old school tough SOBs. I am sure they made Johny, Pendleton, Rosholt, Espo etc tough as nails and led to them being at the top of the podium. I am not trying to discredit Coleman, JO, Heil, Deiringer, Perry etc because those champs will forever be recognized, they just were not on an elite team. It sure seems like a long time since our team was elite, even with numerous top 3 finishes. We have had a ton of injuries over the past 15 years, many which derailed numerous stars. I am really excited about DT's newfound energy as I personally felt it was needed years ago to make a change. Hopefully this is the next step for some more national titles!
John Smith Legacy
- Thread starter PokeBloke
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MustangPokeFan
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It had absolutely nothing to do with losing those coaches. It has everything to do with recruiting. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s every wrestling obsessed kid had a poster of John Smith on his wall and wanted to go to OSU. Then Cael Sanderson went through college without losing a single match and winning four NCAA titles, and suddenly every kid had his poster on their wall and when he went to Penn State, that’s where they wanted to go.
Hopefully the very same thing is getting ready to happen here with David Taylor because he is the wrestler high school kids want to be now. It’s the exact same scenario now. It’s all about recruiting, not about coaching. Coach Smith didn’t suddenly forget how to coach after winning four national titles in a row, he just stopped getting the top wrestlers for the aforementioned reasons. Once the RTC is established and our new 40 million dollar facility is started, DT is going to start pulling the elite of the elite like PSU has been doing. Getting Kennedy and Gilman didn’t hurt either, they are tight with DT and also highly respected.
What is also important to me is we just had a legend retire whose integrity, morality and adherence to the rules were of the highest standards. Even the AD said “he’s the one coach I never had to worry about doing the wrong thing”. DT is coming from a program with those same standards with regard to faith, integrity and adhering to the rules. We couldn’t have picked a better successor to Coach Smith, and by the way Coleman is plenty qualified to coach the team at a high level. The difference is he would not have moved the needle substantially in recruiting the way that DT will….again, it’s about getting the best wrestlers! We used to do it and we’re about to do it again!
Hopefully the very same thing is getting ready to happen here with David Taylor because he is the wrestler high school kids want to be now. It’s the exact same scenario now. It’s all about recruiting, not about coaching. Coach Smith didn’t suddenly forget how to coach after winning four national titles in a row, he just stopped getting the top wrestlers for the aforementioned reasons. Once the RTC is established and our new 40 million dollar facility is started, DT is going to start pulling the elite of the elite like PSU has been doing. Getting Kennedy and Gilman didn’t hurt either, they are tight with DT and also highly respected.
What is also important to me is we just had a legend retire whose integrity, morality and adherence to the rules were of the highest standards. Even the AD said “he’s the one coach I never had to worry about doing the wrong thing”. DT is coming from a program with those same standards with regard to faith, integrity and adhering to the rules. We couldn’t have picked a better successor to Coach Smith, and by the way Coleman is plenty qualified to coach the team at a high level. The difference is he would not have moved the needle substantially in recruiting the way that DT will….again, it’s about getting the best wrestlers! We used to do it and we’re about to do it again!
Great insight and reply!! Makes sense! To me it just never looked like we had an identity the past few years but like you said when our best guys have been hesitant in big matches that goes back to confidence and success and we haven’t had a ton across the board. There is a lot of parity in collegiate wrestling and it’s fun to see 16+ teams represented in the finals as opposed to 3-4 teams
