Heading into his 29th season as Head Coach of the Missouri Tigers, Brian Smith has announced it will be his final season. He’s tied for the longest tenured head coaches in active Division I wrestling, and the second longest tenured head coach across sports at Mizzou. His 12 conference titles surpassed legend Norm Stewart for most at Mizzou.
It’s hard to put into words his impact on the Mizzou program; from coming into a situation where it was near the chopping block, building the Tiger Style culture, navigating the conference changes, and turning Mizzou into a consistent team trophy contender and top ten team.
He has been Coach of the Year twice (2007 and 2017), along with Big 12 Coach of the Year three times (2012, 2022, 2023) and MAC coach of the year five consecutive times (2013-2017). He won conference championships in 12 consecutive seasons, starting with a Big 12 title in their last season (2012), nine MAC titles (2013-2021), and two more Big 12 titles upon returning to the conference (2022-2023).
Off the mat Mizzou wrestlers have earned 180 academic honors and are coming off a program best 10 Scholar All-Americans which tied for the national lead. That also made seven consecutive years they had at least five recipients.
Under his leadership the Tigers saw their first national champions with Ben Askren and Mark Ellis. That legacy continued with Max Askren, Drake Houldashelt, J’Den Cox, and Keegan O’Toole. He’s coached teams to two team trophies, 11 top 10 NCAA finishes, and 26 finishes in the top 20. He has a 354-130-3 (0.730) dual record, with his 354 wins leading in Mizzou coaching history and 52% of the program’s all time wins.
The plan was announced ahead of time for associate head coach Kendric Maple to take over the program starting next season. Maple has quietly been one of the best recruiters in college and seen success at Nebraska, Purdue, and Oklahoma before spending the past eight seasons with the Tigers.
It’s fitting that Coach Smith gets a chance at an established final season with it ending in St. Louis, where he led Mizzou to their first team trophy in 2007.