Takedown Report

OSU Wrestling: Making an All-Time Lineup from the John Smith Era

It’s hard to imagine John Smith will never put together another lineup for Cowboy Wrestling.
Smith retired after leading Oklahoma State for 33 seasons. During his tenure, Smith coached 153 All-Americans, 33 individual NCAA champions and two Dan Hodge Trophy winners. Since those numbers will no longer be added to, I thought it was a perfect time to create an all-time lineup from the John Smith era.
Here’s how it worked: I filled out a lineup just like a coach would for a dual using 10 of the greatest wrestlers to compete under Smith. However, weight classes have fluctuated since Smith started his three-plus decade coaching career, so I used modern-day weight classes and used the weight that was closest to where that wrestler found the most success.
Below is the full lineup, followed by an explanation of why I chose who for each weight.
125: Eric Guerrero
133: Johnny Thompson
141: Dean Heil
149: Jordan Oliver
157: Pat Smith
165: Alex Dieringer
174: Chris Perry
184: Daniel Cormier
197: Jake Rosholt
285: Steve Mocco

125: Eric Guerrero

Guerrero would be the first to step on the mat for this lineup in a dual, and, boy, what a start. Speaking of duals, Guerrero has the fourth-most dual wins in OSU history with 69. Overall, he was 117–13 in his career as a four-time All-American. He placed fifth as a freshman before finishing his career with three NCAA titles in a row. Guerrero was dominant during that stint, too, with 74 bonus-point wins (10th-best all-time), 28 of which were technical falls (second-most all-time). In this theoretical dual, it’s almost a lock the Pokes would start this thing with more than three points.

133: Johnny Thompson

The recency bias urged me to put Daton Fix here, but at the end of the day, Thompson won a pair of NCAA titles while losing only once in the finals. Thompson was a four-time All-American, … more at … Pistolsfiringblog.com/osu-wrestling-making-an-all-time-lineup-from-the-john-smith-era

June 30, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized