Oklahoma State University Athletics
Smith, Cowboys Meet With Media For First Time to Discuss Upcoming Season
October 26, 2022 | Cowboy Wrestling
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State wrestling head coach John Smith and wrestlers Luke Surber and Travis Wittlake met with members of the media for the first time this year ahead of the upcoming 2022-23 season. Coach Smith and the Cowboys discussed where the team is at this point in the preseason, weight changes, and more ahead of the season opener on Nov. 12 in Pennsylvania. Here is some of what they had to say:
Head Coach John Smith
On where the team is at ahead of the season:
"You have to win matches to be competitive in dual meets. There are still a couple of weight classes that we need to build up and make sure that we recognize it takes a real effort to be competitive in dual meets. As we saw last year when you are down one or two guys it's hard to win dual meets. I think the one thing we need to do is make sure we are developing our weights. You go through our lineup, and you see some uncertainty. You see some guys ranked from 10 to 20 and we can't be there, we need to be developing them into a position where they can score points at the end and have success this season. We have to develop guys this season."
On improving last year's struggles from the down position:
"We've put a lot of energy into working on bottom. That's something that can't happen this year. We go through a moment in time where we have a couple of people struggling to get off bottom and there's no improvement, that's on us as a staff. I'm not saying we won't see that, but we shouldn't be seeing it every week. It's no different than getting takedowns and getting taken down, we need to make sure we are teaching and continuing to improve these guys with each week as we go through the season."
On the differences between this year and last year's team:
"I see a little bit more maturity than I saw last year and some reality setting in. I think some of the younger guys that we have right now on the team are threatening and they are a real threat. They want to wrestle, they want to start, and there are some older guys at the weight classes that maybe have started in the past who better get going. We got some pretty good kids who are hoping to break into the lineup. It's the one thing I see different from last year is there is a different level of competition at some of the weights. We're still pretty thin. I'd say I have 16 guys that can come in and out of the lineup in the month of November with some of the NCAA changes that allow a true freshman to step into the lineup and not burn his redshirt year. We will see what happens."
On Luke Surber moving from heavyweight to 197 pounds:
"Surber has come down. He is a real disciplined kid. I thought it would be a little bit more of a struggle for him, but it really hasn't been. He took 25 pounds off and it was too easy. It should be a little bit harder… He's felt it. You can see him at practice struggling a little bit because he is hitting new goals with his weight and it's obviously lower. As he hits those new goals to a weight he hasn't been at in a few years, you feel it. Outside of that it has been a nice descent plan that's he's done well. He has been eating good and has a good plan of keeping his hydration up."
On the decision to move Luke Surber to 197 pounds:
"He came to me and said, 'Do you want me going 197?' I basically said yes, and he said I'll do it. It was that simple. He just took the initiative, and it was pretty quick. That wasn't something that took place in September, it took place in July. That's who he is. He knew exactly what he needed to do, and it wasn't about him, it was about the team."
Travis Wittlake
On moving up to 184 pounds:
"I put on a lot of weight with no summer. I stayed in Stillwater most of the summer, so I was in the weight room constantly, pretty much every day. So that helped put on a little weight. I got up to about 200 pounds. Suddenly, I decided that going back down to 65 – that wasn't an option for me. Eighty-four feels good so far. It'll be a lot easier of a weight for me to make."
On the comfortability with his knee coming off an injury:
"I've actually been really surprised with it. I was worried about it pretty much all summer, but I was doing rehab in the training room with Nick, our trainer, constantly. I was wearing a brace all summer long. Now I'm just in this smaller little brace knee pad, and I've been wrestling on this for a month or two now – and it feels really good. My knee is not slipping out or anything. There's no pain. I'm building confidence in it every day."
On how the weight room helped during rehab:
"I think it helped me. Throughout putting on weight, I feel like my body got stronger as a whole, tendons, ligaments, muscles, everything. I feel like it helped me to put on weight and living in the weight room over the summer, that's going to make everything stronger too. I didn't lift my legs until the beginning of September. So, pretty much all summer, I was lifting all upper body – a little bit on my right leg – but I stayed away from my left leg mostly to let that heal up. Now, I'm back to a full range of motion and lifting fully on both legs."
Luke Surber
On the weight cut down to 197 pounds:
"It was kind of good, honestly. I was bulking pretty hard when I decided to go down. The first 10 pounds came off pretty easy, not doing much besides not trying to bulk up, so that was pretty easy. Now we're at practice and working out so much, it's coming off pretty good. I'm eating the same foods – just less of it. I was bigger than I was at the end of last year, but I wasn't like super big. I'm probably bigger than most 97-pounders to start out, but I was not too much bigger."
On how wrestling at 197 will benefit him:
"I think it [dropping to 197] does [help my game.] I like to shoot a lot, and a lot of times, versus big guys, I wouldn't shoot that much. I think mentally, I didn't shoot as much as I would've liked to. Now I know just to practice my attack rates up pretty high. If I get my hands on the legs versus guys – I'll finish every time."
On his mentality for this season:
"I was pretty disappointed in how I finished last year. I think that's helped me. My goal is to obviously be a national champ, so prove that. I want to go out there and wrestle as hard as I can. I think, as long as I do that, I'll be happy with whatever happens. I've been training really hard, my shape's good, my techniques are pretty good. I'm just going to go out there and wrestle my hardest and see how it falls.
Head Coach John Smith
On where the team is at ahead of the season:
"You have to win matches to be competitive in dual meets. There are still a couple of weight classes that we need to build up and make sure that we recognize it takes a real effort to be competitive in dual meets. As we saw last year when you are down one or two guys it's hard to win dual meets. I think the one thing we need to do is make sure we are developing our weights. You go through our lineup, and you see some uncertainty. You see some guys ranked from 10 to 20 and we can't be there, we need to be developing them into a position where they can score points at the end and have success this season. We have to develop guys this season."
On improving last year's struggles from the down position:
"We've put a lot of energy into working on bottom. That's something that can't happen this year. We go through a moment in time where we have a couple of people struggling to get off bottom and there's no improvement, that's on us as a staff. I'm not saying we won't see that, but we shouldn't be seeing it every week. It's no different than getting takedowns and getting taken down, we need to make sure we are teaching and continuing to improve these guys with each week as we go through the season."
On the differences between this year and last year's team:
"I see a little bit more maturity than I saw last year and some reality setting in. I think some of the younger guys that we have right now on the team are threatening and they are a real threat. They want to wrestle, they want to start, and there are some older guys at the weight classes that maybe have started in the past who better get going. We got some pretty good kids who are hoping to break into the lineup. It's the one thing I see different from last year is there is a different level of competition at some of the weights. We're still pretty thin. I'd say I have 16 guys that can come in and out of the lineup in the month of November with some of the NCAA changes that allow a true freshman to step into the lineup and not burn his redshirt year. We will see what happens."
On Luke Surber moving from heavyweight to 197 pounds:
"Surber has come down. He is a real disciplined kid. I thought it would be a little bit more of a struggle for him, but it really hasn't been. He took 25 pounds off and it was too easy. It should be a little bit harder… He's felt it. You can see him at practice struggling a little bit because he is hitting new goals with his weight and it's obviously lower. As he hits those new goals to a weight he hasn't been at in a few years, you feel it. Outside of that it has been a nice descent plan that's he's done well. He has been eating good and has a good plan of keeping his hydration up."
On the decision to move Luke Surber to 197 pounds:
"He came to me and said, 'Do you want me going 197?' I basically said yes, and he said I'll do it. It was that simple. He just took the initiative, and it was pretty quick. That wasn't something that took place in September, it took place in July. That's who he is. He knew exactly what he needed to do, and it wasn't about him, it was about the team."
Travis Wittlake
On moving up to 184 pounds:
"I put on a lot of weight with no summer. I stayed in Stillwater most of the summer, so I was in the weight room constantly, pretty much every day. So that helped put on a little weight. I got up to about 200 pounds. Suddenly, I decided that going back down to 65 – that wasn't an option for me. Eighty-four feels good so far. It'll be a lot easier of a weight for me to make."
On the comfortability with his knee coming off an injury:
"I've actually been really surprised with it. I was worried about it pretty much all summer, but I was doing rehab in the training room with Nick, our trainer, constantly. I was wearing a brace all summer long. Now I'm just in this smaller little brace knee pad, and I've been wrestling on this for a month or two now – and it feels really good. My knee is not slipping out or anything. There's no pain. I'm building confidence in it every day."
On how the weight room helped during rehab:
"I think it helped me. Throughout putting on weight, I feel like my body got stronger as a whole, tendons, ligaments, muscles, everything. I feel like it helped me to put on weight and living in the weight room over the summer, that's going to make everything stronger too. I didn't lift my legs until the beginning of September. So, pretty much all summer, I was lifting all upper body – a little bit on my right leg – but I stayed away from my left leg mostly to let that heal up. Now, I'm back to a full range of motion and lifting fully on both legs."
Luke Surber
On the weight cut down to 197 pounds:
"It was kind of good, honestly. I was bulking pretty hard when I decided to go down. The first 10 pounds came off pretty easy, not doing much besides not trying to bulk up, so that was pretty easy. Now we're at practice and working out so much, it's coming off pretty good. I'm eating the same foods – just less of it. I was bigger than I was at the end of last year, but I wasn't like super big. I'm probably bigger than most 97-pounders to start out, but I was not too much bigger."
On how wrestling at 197 will benefit him:
"I think it [dropping to 197] does [help my game.] I like to shoot a lot, and a lot of times, versus big guys, I wouldn't shoot that much. I think mentally, I didn't shoot as much as I would've liked to. Now I know just to practice my attack rates up pretty high. If I get my hands on the legs versus guys – I'll finish every time."
On his mentality for this season:
"I was pretty disappointed in how I finished last year. I think that's helped me. My goal is to obviously be a national champ, so prove that. I want to go out there and wrestle as hard as I can. I think, as long as I do that, I'll be happy with whatever happens. I've been training really hard, my shape's good, my techniques are pretty good. I'm just going to go out there and wrestle my hardest and see how it falls.
Players Mentioned
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