Never has Brian Smith shied away from competing during his 27 years as Missouri’s wrestling coach, and even though he joked that this season he might have gone too far in scheduling rigorous competition, there’s a method to his madness.

The #7 Tigers, who head to #6 Virginia Tech on Friday, will tangle with Penn State, Cornell, Iowa State, Illinois, Arizona State and Oklahoma State, among eight others. 

“I don't think we have an easy dual on our schedule,” said Smith, whose teams have won 335 out of 449 matches over his tenure. “I would have to think it's one of the tougher in the country.”

But it’s all about the finish and Smith knows from experience that a robust schedule has its rewards.

“The guys who are experienced are not going to be fazed by it — the Keegan O'Tooles and the Colton Hawks and guys like that. The young guys will adapt, and they'll get tough, and they'll be ready, and then when we hit Big 12s, they're not going to be shocked by anything,” Smith said. 

“And when they show up at the national tournament, they’re prepared for tough matches. Every week, we're going to be wrestling tough people. That's just something I think I've always done, but this year, when I looked at it, I'm like, ‘You dummy, you made a pretty tough schedule.’ It just fell that way.”

The Tigers opened with a 25-14 win at Northern Colorado and followed that by scoring 168.5 points and crowning four champions in their own Tiger Style Invitational. 

Smith he “definitely” saw good things in those two outings. 

“Our team is wrestling aggressively and is getting after scoring early in matches,” he said. “I think some small issues are we have to hand fight better and finish matches out. There were a couple matches that we didn't finish well, some of them we won, and some of them we didn’t at the tournament.”

Missouri’s lineup has some first-timers and Smith is aware that it’s a process. 

“We have to be patient as a coaching staff and bring them along and not forget that it's their first time, getting them over the hump and giving them confidence,” he said.

“But they're getting it. They're getting there, and they work hard in the room. I really enjoy this team. They like to train and get better. Every time I end practice, they keep going, and that's a good sign. They stay after and work on things, and they're working to get better.”

Taking On Tech

The Tigers will be a bit short-handed in Blacksburg as #15 Noah Surtin at 125 and #3 Rocky Elam at 197 are out with injuries, according to Smith. He’ll replace them with freshmen who have seven state titles between them — Gage Walker at 125, a four-timer from Oklahoma, and Aeoden Sinclair at 197, a three-timer from Wisconsin.

“The good thing of the five-date redshirt, those guys have opportunities to wear the singlet, get in some big events and travel with the team and compete and still then redshirt,” Smith said about Walker and Sinclair.

The match with Tech looks to have a number of toss-up bouts, including #11 Josh Edmond vs. VT’s #22 Sam Latona at 141; #14 Cam Steed vs. Tech’s #18 Connor Brady at 165, #18 Seth Nitzel vs. VT’s #15 Jimmy Mullen at 285 and even Missouri’s Sinclair vs. #11 Andy Smith at 197. The highlight bout should be Missouri’s top-ranked Keegan O’Toole vs. Tech’s #7-ranked Columbia transfer Lennox Wolak at 174. O’Toole has won two NCAA titles and placed third twice at 165 and this year he’ll shoot for his third title and fifth overall high finish at 174 pounds.

Rounding out the Tigers’ lineup are Kade Moore at 133, Logan Gioffre at 149, James Conway at 157 and #11 Colton Hawks at 184; Hawks is set to face #5 T.J. Stewart. 

For The Time Being, A Top-Heavy Lineup

With O’Toole, Hawks and Elam, upon his return, Smith knows the Tigers are a bit stronger at the top of the lineup. 

“But Cam Steed (165) is really good and we’ve known he’s been tough since he got there; he just has been able to make a lineup with Brock Mauller and the people that were there,” Smith explained.

“Yeah, that top half is good, but I do think our bottom half is just inexperienced. If you take Surtin out and Gioffre, those two have been to the national tournament, and then all the others are really newcomers, except for Kade Moore. And Kade only wrestled a month last year because of injuries. Josh Edmond kind of gets overlooked, but he's a consistent winner for us, and he's a kid that we expect to be on the podium.”

Smith sees the talent in the lighter weights and is far from concerned. 

“When they improve and get better and get that confidence, they're going to match up with our upper weights,” Smith said. “And I know it's gonna be a really good team at the end.”

A Bigger Big 12

Smith has seen every version of Missouri’s conference participation, from a five-team Big 12 to the Mid-American Conference, when the University of Missouri moved to the wrestling-free Southeastern Conference, and finally allowed back to the Big 12, which is now bigger with the addition of Arizona State.

He cited the addition of the Sun Devils, the job Damion Hahn is doing at South Dakota State, and what Doug Schwab is doing at Northern Iowa. 

“It’s (Big 12) definitely pairing up with the Big Ten,” Smith said. “There was a while there where the Big Ten was out there by itself. Now, when you look at Arizona State and then the teams that are returning to the Big 12, we go six, seven deep with really, really good programs that are well-coached and have a lot of talent.”

Smith said he would love to see a Big 12/Big Ten Challenge event in the future, matching the first-place teams, the second-place teams and so on in dual meets. 

“I think it would be a great dual-meet atmosphere if we did something like that,” he said. 

“It’s (Big 12) an exceptional conference with a lot of competition. The tournament this year is going to be great. I mean, a lot of national champs return with Keegan and (ASU’s Richie) Figueroa and (UNI’s Parker) Keckeisen, but it's just loaded. There's a lot of talent. So it's exciting.”