John Smith has been the head coach of Oklahoma State wrestling since 1992. At 54, he’s likely still got some gas in the tank and will continue to coach for the Cowboys for some time. But eventually he’ll hang up the sweater-vest, and I thought it’d be interesting to think about some possibilities that could end up being the replacement for coach Smith. This list is in no particular order.

1. Zack Esposito

Currently the associate head coach and already in the room alongside coach Smith, Esposito has been in Stillwater since the early 2000s. Esposito arrived in Stillwater as a wrestler in 2002 and was a part of all four NCAA championship teams from 2003-2006. He then became the club coach and eventually an assistant before working his way up to the associate head coaching position. 

OK State Depth Chart & Long-Term Projection

The pros with Esposito are all of his experience and time in Stillwater, but the thing I think could keep him out of the head coaching position in Stillwater is his likelihood to land another head coaching position before John Smith retires. A job as an assistant at Oklahoma State is better than some head coaching jobs across the country, but when jobs open, Esposito is often mentioned. I would expect him to see out the years with the next two recruiting classes coming in but if they win some titles in those years, which many expect, one would think other schools might come calling for Esposito before coach Smith decides to hang things up.

2. Chris Perry

Some view Perry as the “heir apparent” to the head coaching position at Oklahoma State, with the expectation that Esposito will get picked up as a head coach somewhere else before John Smith is ready to hang the whistle up. Perry has been instrumental in the recruiting renaissance at OSU the last few years, but at this point it would be hard to say that Perry has the experience comparative to the other candidates out there. Given a few years of grooming by coach Smith, though, it’s a very real possibility. 

3. Tyler Caldwell

If OSU were to make an internal hire, this would likely be the third order of how it could play out. Theoretically, if John Smith were to retire tomorrow, one would presume that Esposito has a strong chance to replace him. If it’s a little down the road, then we’re probably looking at Perry, if it’s even further down the road and Perry and Esposito are both coaches somewhere else, then maybe Caldwell is the assistant and the next in line to take over?

Similar to Perry, at this point Caldwell probably needs a bit more coaching experience before he’s in line for a head coaching job, but since he’s taken over as recruiting coordinator, the recruiting rise at Oklahoma State has been remarkable as he’s pieced together the #1 class for 2020 and looks to be in line to have #1 for 2021.

4. Chris Pendleton

Pendleton was just hired as the head coach at Oregon State. Naturally, it will be a bit of a “wait and see” to know what kind of head coaching job he will do and would presumably do at OSU but the resume as an assistant is there. He coached alongside Mark Branch at Wyoming for a long time, he was at Arizona State during Zahid Valencia’s reign over 174 and often credited with most of his development, and he’s got recruiting connections all over the state of California that should serve him well at Oregon State. If he restores Oregon State to some of its former glory, as many expect him to, he’ll certainly have a seat at the interview table when Smith retires.

5. Kevin Ward

I’ve talked about it in various posts here about former OSU wrestlers as coaches and things of that nature, but Kevin Ward might be the most underrated coach in all of college wrestling. He quickly built Ouachita Baptist from the ground up into a Division II powerhouse and since taking over at West Point has proved he can do it at the DI level as well. In just a few years he’s put together over half of Army’s wins in the history of the Army-Navy rivalry! He’s produced numerous NCAA qualifiers, and seems to still be on a steady rise with the program. Again, this somehow seems to slide under the radar a bit nationally, but Ward has been great. He may become a mainstay that continues to develop Army into a power and may eventually find an even higher profile head coaching job.

6. Coleman Scott

There are six wrestling programs in the ACC; half of them are coached by former Oklahoma State wrestlers with Glen Lanham at Duke, Pat Popolizio at NC State, and Coleman Scott at North Carolina. Scott was an NCAA champ for the Cowboys in 2008 and won an Olympic bronze in 2012. 

Scott took over at North Carolina in 2015 and has already made some strides in building out his program. He’s now really starting to recruit and it will be interesting to see if his program continues its rise as he gets more of “his guys” into his program. He and his wife were in Stillwater for years and I have no doubt they’d be interested in coming back if the position opens back up.

6. Pat Popolizio

Popolizio has completed one of the more remarkable program builds in all of college wrestling. NC State hired Pat in 2012 and he’s comfortably been the most successful former OSU wrestler as a current head coach. He’s won team trophies at the NCAA tournament, crowned individual NCAA champs, and won two ACC titles. 

He’s even rallied fans around his program at an incredible level. Just look at this side by side photo.

It’s crazy to think this was year one...wrestling is growing faster than ever in Raleigh. Love the passion that @packwrestle #WPN fans have. #tbt #doubledown #packmentality pic.twitter.com/zNchU36Lqa

— The Skip ??⚫️ (@pat_popolizio) May 21, 2020

Again, there’s no doubt he is the most successful coach from Oklahoma State in recent memory. I think any big-name program would take a look at him if their job opened up. Weirdly, I think his success is the one thing that would probably keep him from ever coming back to Stillwater. He’s already in a contract with NC State until 2025. He’s got fans bought in, he’s got a bunch of guys that he recruited and developed in the room, and he’s been there for eight years. Have to think it would take a lot to peel him away from NC State.

7. Alex Dieringer

In one of the bigger offseason stories for Oklahoma State, Dieringer announced and made his move to Michigan. He was a volunteer assistant last year at OSU while still competing and it looks as though he’ll go into coaching full time eventually. He was a Hodge winner, a three-time NCAA champ, and easily the best wrestler in recent Oklahoma State history.

Ultimately Dieringer would have to hang up his wrestling shoes, go into coaching full-time, and build a resume as a coach a bit before making any sort of move to become a head coach at OSU. But it’s undeniable in wrestling that the top wrestlers usually translate into being the top coaches, so it’s definitely conceivable to see Dieringer find his way back to Stillwater eventually as a coach.

8. Daton Fix

I have no idea what Daton’s plans are after college. He’s just going to be a college sophomore next year, so putting him on this list is a bit of a stretch. But he’s clearly the face of the program right now and will likely be for the next few years. At this juncture we really have no idea how long coach Smith will continue to coach. So if he continues for a while and Daton goes on to win a few NCAA titles and a few World/Olympic medals, then maybe years down the road, he’s ready to take that on?

9. Neil Erisman

Erisman is taking on a really interesting task as the head coach of a brand-new program at the University of Arkansas Little Rock. He’s obviously a really young head coach with a lot to prove, but if develops UALR into a power quickly, he’ll definitely get a seat at the interview table when John Smith hangs the whistle up.

A few notable omissions:

Mark Branch: Here’s why I left Branch off . . . he’s kinda old. He’s a great coach, an OSU legend, etc., but you have to think Smith will hang on for a while and I just don’t see OSU going and hiring a guy who will also likely be pretty close to the end of his career at that point.

Anyone that didn’t attend OSU: There are a lot of great coaches out there that didn’t wrestle for OSU. Traditionally OSU has just not hired many guys that didn’t go to Oklahoma State. In fact the only one in the history of the program is Joe Seay. Extending beyond that the football coach, the baseball coach, and golf coach all went to OSU as well. I just don’t find it very likely that Mike Holder would go with a guy outside of Oklahoma State for this position.

Seth Duckworth is a Stillwater-based writer who covers Oklahoma State University wrestling for Pistols Firing Blog, the best OSU news and community site on the internet. Follow Seth on Twitter.