How Oklahoma State wrestling assistant coach Coleman Scott helped rejuvenate Cowboys

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The look of comfort in John Smith’s eyes answered the question before the Oklahoma State coach ever spoke.

What has assistant coach Coleman Scott’s return to Cowboy wrestling meant to the program?

“Man, my life’s so much easier,” Smith said in the ultimate salute to his understudy, who came back to Stillwater after nine years away, the last eight as the head coach at North Carolina.

As the Cowboys enter the NCAA Championships, set to begin Thursday at T-Mobile Center, they’re considered among the contenders for a top-three finish.

After taking 14th and 18th the last two years — the latter marking the worst finish in Smith’s legendary 33-year coaching career — this season has been a stronger-than-expected revival.

The reasons for the turnaround are many, from the young wrestlers’ emergence in the lineup to the urgency of the veterans who see the end coming.

But Scott’s influence can’t be ignored.

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“You take a guy that’s a head coach for eight years at a tough place, North Carolina … trying to build a program, you experience a lot of things that we don’t go through, and those experiences are what he brought here,” Smith said. “New ideas, new opportunities that we didn’t realize we had.

“I think the message he helped bring here, a lot of these guys jumped on, so he’s been a blessing for us, to be able to come out of this two-year slump and go forward.”

Scott was an OSU legend on the mat. A four-time All-American and 2008 national champion before winning the bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics.

Yet after a couple years as a volunteer assistant for Smith, his coaching career took him away from Stillwater. He spent one year as an assistant at North Carolina before he was promoted to head coach.

Over eight years in that role, he had a record of 75-49, coached 16 All-Americans and nine conference champions. His .605 winning percentage was the second-best by any coach in program history.

But when it comes to wrestling, North Carolina isn’t Oklahoma State, and when Smith called, Scott couldn’t say no.

“I was loving life, doing my thing out there,” Scott said. “Really enjoyed my time and was grateful for the time I had out there.

“But the call from Coach, explaining what he’s doing, what his mindset was — he had me from there.”

Scott and his family — he and his wife, Jessica, have three children — were happy in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

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“My wife’s from Oklahoma City, but my kids had pretty much been raised in Chapel Hill,” Scott said. “We had put some roots down and had some great friends and families there. That was a huge part to us — what’s best for our family? Not me, I’m done competing, I’m done doing my thing. It’s not about me.

“I wanted to make sure my kids were involved in the decision and my wife was involved in it.”

As a coach, Scott gained perspective in North Carolina, where he learned how to recruit to a program that wasn’t a blueblood of the sport like OSU. He had to adapt more quickly to the changes in the landscape of college athletics. And at OSU, those experiences have opened avenues for new approaches to running the Cowboy program.

“Not much has changed here,” Scott said. “Coach Smith’s drive is always there. What he wants to do, how he wants to do it. He wants to win and he wants to do it the right way.

“What’s changed is college athletics. When I was here, it was a lot, I would say, simpler. No (name, image and likeness), no social media. It was more about the student-athlete, and competing and winning. There’s a lot more to it now.”

And when Smith talks about how much easier his life has become since Scott returned, those are some of the things he’s referring to. Scott can take some hefty elements of Smith’s head-coaching plate.

“I think the biggest thing is just me being able to have an open conversation with what I see, what I think, what I’ve seen the last nine years and some stuff we did,” Scott said. “He’s very open to listening and implementing and doing. That’s been, for me, the best thing, just being able to have those conversations, and him having that open mind that, hey, we could change a little bit here.”

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Scott’s impact has been felt in the wrestling room, too. Super-senior and national championship hopeful Daton Fix recalls sitting in Gallagher-Iba Arena watching Scott wrestle as a Cowboy, and having him in the room has been a surreal experience.

“He’s been awesome to be around,” Fix said. “He’s a great coach, great motivator. I’ve always looked up to him, so it’s been awesome to get to wrestle for him.

“Whenever you have the same people around all the time, you can get stuck in a rut. It was nice to bring someone in who has a little bit different perspective. I think that’s what he did, and he’s helped a lot.”

Scott is both confident and comfortable enough in his role to be a strong voice in the room.

“A good leader makes everybody around him better,” senior Luke Surber said. “There’s not really one thing he’s brought, but his presence is very uplifting, and he’s also super-intense. It’s been great having him and learning from him.”

Maybe it’s simply the resurgence of his program, but Smith, now 58 years old, has looked reinvigorated this season, too. And Scott’s presence clearly has been a significant factor.

“A lot of it is that he’s just aware of being a head coach,” Smith said. “He’s aware of the stresses and the strains. He sees where he can help and he does a lot of things I don’t even know.

“It’s been good, real good.”

NCAA wrestling championships

WHEN: Thursday-Saturday

WHERE: T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State wrestling: How Coleman Scott helped rejuvenate Cowboys