What D-1 Coach does alot with less

[H82Lose]

We are always marveling in the success at Penn St, great coach, great team, but they also recruit GREAT (from success). What I am curious to see who everyone thinks is a great coach and they really develop the kids under the radar. UNI? APP ST? What do you guys think? This is no knock on PSU or the Iowa's. For example, when Jon Jon was at APP ST, he was getting crazy offers from 2 big time programs his SR year. He was born in the APP ST program, was not highly recruited if at all, and end up AA (2 times?)

[PortaJohn]

Kolat, Erisman, Hahn.  Tim Flynn deserves a gold medal in this category.

[The_KC_Godfather]

Brian Smith...

[Konquest]

The Panther train literally built their own practice facility at an off-campus warehouse last season.  Yesterday they whooped #4 Nebraska.  Case closed.

[ionel]

LR - Erisman

[flyingcement]

Doug Schwab

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Tim Flynn

[Gus]

Army West Point has assembled a solid team top to bottom with some challenging requirements. Kevin Ward should be mentioned. 

[H82Lose]

5 hours ago, The_KC_Godfather said:

Brian Smith...

 

really? man, I don't know about this one. Smith has had some good talent in there, that were nationally ranked guys, right? 

[H82Lose]

4 hours ago, flyingcement said:

Doug Schwab

I agree 100%

[Truzzcat]

I think schwab is the best answer Ill throw Pat Santoro in the mix. Joel greenlee does a great job too at ohio.

[MNRodent]

[MPhillips]

33 minutes ago, Truzzcat said:

Joel greenlee does a great job too at ohio.

The pride of Athens Ohio.

[BruceyB]

53 minutes ago, H82Lose said:

 

really? man, I don't know about this one. Smith has had some good talent in there, that were nationally ranked guys, right? 

I'll admit you can probably say that in 2024, but that shouldn't discount the past. Before Brian Smith took over at Missouri, their best finish was 10th in the early 80s and there were very often finishing outside of the top 20.  Smith and his staff have been able to take solid, but often not "can't miss" recruits and consistently develop them into AAs, and national champions. Ben Askren was their first ever national champion in 2006, and that was really a big turning point for the national awareness of what was going on at Missouri.

Schwab and co. are obviously doing very well at N. Iowa, and this may be their best overall team during Schwab's tenure.

Pat Pop, Kevin Dresser, and Brian Smith would be my votes for guys that do the most with their recruits. They don't have the funding to play with the real blue blood programs, or many in the big 10 when it comes to the transfer portal, but they do an incredible job at developing their recruits, and have made their programs into very fun, and very relevant programs. It's not very often a school rises from relative obscurity to a consistent top 10 program.

There are a number of other coaches that I think are certainly in the discussion, but these would be my top three.

[MidwestMan]

16 hours ago, flyingcement said:

Doug Schwab

My pick.  The N Iowa program optimizes gritty tough wrestling and Schwab, and staff, take good wrestlers and make them better.  I just like their style and culture.  

Lot's of deserving mentions in the replies.  It's always easier to win with the hosses, but give me those "Lunatic Fringe" programs that grind and believe themselves to wins.  It's folktale wrestling to the core.

[Smsu150]

15 hours ago, H82Lose said:

 

really? man, I don't know about this one. Smith has had some good talent in there, that were nationally ranked guys, right? 

 During the early part of his tenure at Mizzou, Coach Smith had a lot of success with mid-tier recruits or with guys that really weren't on anyone's radar outside of the the state or bordering states.  He had several walk-ons that became AA's, most notably Mark Ellis, who he recruited off the football team.  Ellis was a multiple time AA and national champ.  

As the program got better, Mizzou began to get more top tier recruits E.g.: Cox, O'Toole, Elam

Coach Smith has also had a lot of success with home-grown talent over the years.  Some of those, such as national champ Drake Houdershelt, had little fan fair outside of the state prior tot their arrival at Mizzou.  

[Winners Circle]

21 hours ago, The_KC_Godfather said:

Brian Smith...

In the beginning, yes I would agree. Now, however, Mizzou consistently pull in top recruits (Mendoza, KOT, Rath, etc.).

[Winners Circle]

In the category of 'who does this at this current moment', I agree with Schwab, Kolat, Erisman, Hahn, Ward, Bentley, and Santoro. I'd also add Scott Moore (Lock Haven).

In the category of 'who has shown the ability of being able to do this in the past but built their program into a state where they are now getting top recruits', I'd put Brian Smith, Koll, and Dresser.

[H82Lose]

26 minutes ago, Smsu150 said:

 During the early part of his tenure at Mizzou, Coach Smith had a lot of success with mid-tier recruits or with guys that really weren't on anyone's radar outside of the the state or bordering states.  He had several walk-ons that became AA's, most notably Mark Ellis, who he recruited off the football team.  Ellis was a multiple time AA and national champ.  

As the program got better, Mizzou began to get more top tier recruits E.g.: Cox, O'Toole, Elam

Coach Smith has also had a lot of success with home-grown talent over the years.  Some of those, such as national champ Drake Houdershelt, had little fan fair outside of the state prior tot their arrival at Mizzou.  

Fair, so we are talking 10 years ago(ish). 

[BruceyB]

7 hours ago, MidwestMan said:

My pick.  The N Iowa program optimizes gritty tough wrestling and Schwab, and staff, take good wrestlers and make them better.  I just like their style and culture.  

Lot's of deserving mentions in the replies.  It's always easier to win with the hosses, but give me those "Lunatic Fringe" programs that grind and believe themselves to wins.  It's folktale wrestling to the core.

I pictured Ryder Downey the entire time I read this.

[BruceyB]

3 hours ago, Winners Circle said:

In the category of 'who does this at this current moment', I agree with Schwab, Kolat, Erisman, Hahn, Ward, Bentley, and Santoro. I'd also add Scott Moore (Lock Haven).

In the category of 'who has shown the ability of being able to do this in the past but built their program into a state where they are now getting top recruits', I'd put Brian Smith, Koll, and Dresser.

I hope Koll sticks around at UNC for some time. His interview after taking the job was really inciteful as to how he was able to turn Cornell from basically an irrelevant Ivy-League program to a national contender.. and the obstacles at UNC sounded much easier to overcome than they were at Cornell. He has his own blueprint, so it will be interesting to follow. Selfishly, I was hoping most of his recruits that he got to commit to Stanford would follow him to UNC to expedite the process, but I'm curious to see what happens there. I won't be surprised to see them become a top 5 team in the next 5 or so years.

[BAC]

On 1/6/2025 at 1:41 PM, Jimmy Cinnabon said:

Tim Flynn

This would've been the right answer a decade ago, during his Edinboro years, but now his teams at WVU seem more middle-of-the-pack.  Honestly, I expected more.

Agree with most of the other names given, but Schwab takes the overall prize by a landslide.

[BruceyB]

1 hour ago, BAC said:

This would've been the right answer a decade ago, during his Edinboro years, but now his teams at WVU seem more middle-of-the-pack.  Honestly, I expected more.

Agree with most of the other names given, but Schwab takes the overall prize by a landslide.

I don't mean this disingenuously, but what puts Schwab above many other coaches in your minds? Outside the recency of the big win over Nebraska, UNI has been able to cultivate some studs over the years (primarily at 184, shoutout Lee Roper), but they haven't really shown the ability put together a solid 125-285 lineup (before now). I do think UNI deserves extra credit for their success despite most kids opting to Iowa or ISU over UNI. I'm not disagreeing, just curious to why many of you would say Schwab is #1. 

FWIW, I think Kish deserves to be mentioned. The growth that NDSU had during his time their was pretty remarkable. I would love it if he could restore OU like Dresser has done with ISU. The sport is better when OU is relevant.

[Wrestleknownothing]

 

55 minutes ago, BruceyB said:

I don't mean this disingenuously, but what puts Schwab above many other coaches in your minds? Outside the recency of the big win over Nebraska, UNI has been able to cultivate some studs over the years (primarily at 184, shoutout Lee Roper), but they haven't really shown the ability put together a solid 125-285 lineup (before now). I do think UNI deserves extra credit for their success despite most kids opting to Iowa or ISU over UNI. I'm not disagreeing, just curious to why many of you would say Schwab is #1. 

FWIW, I think Kish deserves to be mentioned. The growth that NDSU had during his time their was pretty remarkable. I would love it if he could restore OU like Dresser has done with ISU. The sport is better when OU is relevant.

Kish is a pretty good answer. Oklahoma has 8 guys ranked in the top 33. Granted only Willie McDougald and Gaven Sax are in the top 16, but I cannot recall OU having this many ranked guys recently.

[Gus]

36 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

 

Kish is a pretty good answer. Oklahoma has 8 guys ranked in the top 33. Granted only Willie McDougald and Gaven Sax are in the top 16, but I cannot recall OU having this many ranked guys recently.

They have had good depth most of the last five year. Their failure has been to have top 10 guys. They have consistently had guys in the 20-33 range.