COLUMBIA, Mo. – After nearly three decades leading Mizzou Wrestling, head coach Brian Smith announced that the 2026-27 season will be his final at the helm of the Tigers. Smith will retire following his 29th season leading the program, leaving behind a legacy that has helped establish Tiger Style as one of the nation's premier collegiate wrestling programs.
With Smith’s retirement, Mizzou Director of Athletics Laird Veatch has appointed current associate head coach Kendric Maple to take over as the program’s head coach following the 2026-27 season.
On Thursday afternoon, Mizzou Athletics held a press conference where Veatch, Smith and Maple addressed the media before taking questions.
University of Missouri Director of Athletics Laird Veatch
Opening statement:
“Today is a bittersweet day for our department, for Mizzou Wrestling, and for the University of Missouri. We are here to recognize a remarkable career and celebrate a special man whose legacy as a leader, a coach, a teacher, and a mentor will go down as one of the most impactful in the history of this university. For nearly three decades, Coach Brian Smith has been synonymous with Mizzou Wrestling. His leadership, his passion for the sport, and most importantly, his commitment to his student athletes to define what this program is today. The numbers speak for themselves, but some are worth sharing as a reminder of Coach's incredible track record and consistency. [He’s coached] 66 individual conference champions, 203 NCAA qualifiers, 72 All-Americans, six wrestlers combined to win 10 individual national championships and his teams have won 12 conference championships. Those are remarkable champions, but the numbers only tell part of Coach Smith's story. Behind every statistic is a student athlete who put in the work, a team that committed to the culture and a coach who established the standard.
"In our department, one of our core values is to 'Live Our Will to Win,' and we do that with passion, commitment and tenacity. Coach Smith and his teams have embodied that value for nearly 30 years. Winning isn't something that Coach Smith only talked about on match day. It's a standard that's reflected in how his teams prepared, how he led, how his guys compete and how they respond when life gets hard. To me, that's Tiger Style. All these wins and championships are the cumulative results of choices made literally every day during those three decades. That's culture. That's legacy. And few coaches have developed a stronger culture and left behind a greater legacy than Coach Brian Smith. So we are all grateful and fortunate that our time at Mizzou has coincided with this incredible stretch of excellence. I certainly feel that way and I’m thankful every day that we're just together.
"But let's not forget this is not the finish line. It's just the start of the final lap. Coach, we're going to celebrate you throughout the season. We know you won't want that, but you have earned it, and we're going to celebrate this team because the best way to honor your legacy is to keep living Tiger Style, to keep pushing and keep pursuing the next championship.
"Kendric, we're fortunate to have you and to have a leader of your caliber ready to carry this program forward. You certainly understand what makes this program special, and you understand the responsibility that comes with leading Mizzou Wrestling. I'm confident you'll bring your own voice, your own ideas, and at the same time you'll carry forward a foundation that's built on over three decades. We have great confidence in your leadership, and we look forward to supporting you and your program when it takes shape under your watch next year. But not yet.
"Coach Smith, you've spent nearly 30 years building something special here. You've built a program that expects to win, a culture that demands commitment and a legacy that will endure long after your final match. Let's make this season one to remember. Thank you, Coach, for everything you have done, everything you have given to Mizzou Wrestling and to the university.”
On his immediate reaction after hearing the news:
“You know, somebody like this deserves to do it their way. You know, when somebody like this comes to you and says they're ready, you have to respect that.”
University of Missouri Wrestling head coach Brian Smith
Opening statement:
“Denise is happy, but I'm not. I don't like parties. So I made this decision probably in the middle of the summer. I was praying on it and mentioned it to Denise, and of course she said, 'Is this what you want to do?' And even yesterday, a couple days ago, she was driving me crazy, saying, 'You sure about this?' I said, 'I'm dead sure about this. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to coach this year and then move on to the next chapter.' I was telling the team yesterday, I was five years old when I really knew I wanted to coach. Not many people in their life know what they want to do at five [years old] and do it their whole life. But at five years old, my dad, who was a coach, took me to coach. I was in a locker room. I was on the sidelines. I was at home watching film.
"My entire life, even in high school, I was helping run weight rooms and coaching assistants. In college, my college coach told me to get in contact with coaches because he knew I wanted to coach. It's all I've ever wanted to do. So I'm entering a very scary part of my life after this season. Part of our mantra is not because it's easy, but because it's hard, and I want to do something in my last chapter that's harder than coaching, and it's going to be difficult and challenge myself. You have to invest not only in the student athletes that you have here, but I mean, I am on the phone constantly with my former guys and texting with them, calling them, driving them crazy, and they're calling me and asking for advice, which just makes my day. But then you are also investing in recruiting, so your life never ends. It's a constant that you're going. You have had the next generation invest in the current generation and keep investing in your former generation. I just felt like this is so much at this point in my life. I have to invest more in my family. They've sacrificed so much for me to be a great coach, and it's because of that.”
"Only families of coaches know this: that your life has to be that, and they invest so much in this program, from so many recruit dinners at the house to running Women of Tiger Style nights to having the team over at Christmas every year. It's nonstop. And then Denise getting so upset when we lose a recruit that she hates the kid through his whole career. I’m like, you got to get over it, Denise. Another reason why, my family came first, and that's another reason why I felt it's the right time is where the program is. One of the sayings I always say to my team, the best time to fix the roof is when it's sunny, and the program's in great shape. I have an amazing coaching staff. Like when I say amazing, amazing. I'm looking at these guys, and they're awesome. They do an amazing job. The relationships they have, the way they coach, they're like, you know, you always talk about dog whisperers or horse whisperers. These guys are wrestling whisperers. They are really, really special. When you lose coaches, you never really do. If they did the right things, you never lose a coach. It's like your parents when you go away and you leave your parents. You never leave great parents because you're still living their life and doing things that they taught you. So think about that. That you're not going to lose me. I'm still going to be here right around campus. I told Kollin (Rath) today that I'd still kick him in the ass if he's not living it right next year. So I learned from a great man about leadership and the impact you can have on a person's life, and that was my dad. That person taught. He taught me so much about coaching in life that I knew this, and then coming here and having leadership.
"I don't know if Sarah (Reesman) is here where's she at? Come on, Sarah. Where are you at? She wanted to fire me 100 times, and I probably didn't know about the other 1,000 because of the stairwell. You know how important it is that they stuck me on the fourth floor because of the stairwell. All the administrators used to be on the third floor of Hearnes, coming down from the fourth floor. I'd be all fired up, ready to chew some ass out and tell them how dumb they are and the decisions they're making are wrong. By the time I hit the bottom of this last stairwell and walk through the door, I'm like, probably shouldn't do this. So, I had some common sense. But I think of Mike Alden. How I was the day Sarah called me and said Mike's leaving, and she said you're going to be pissed about this, Brian. Don't get mad. I need you to show up for this event. Mike's leaving, and I was ah, what's he doing to me? And of course, Mike is still leading. He's still in my life. I still remember things of Mike in his leadership roles, and then I go through all the BS that touched me and taught me about leadership and taught me different things all the way down the line, and continues that. So it's amazing.
"When I think about that, the impact, and man, I'm really pissed that I did this during the season because I literally got 1,000 texts and emails yesterday and I have to answer them and that is time away from coaching and my phone keeps going, and it's just amazing how many former guys. And it's not just the guys from Mizzou, my high school wrestlers from Western High School have been calling and texting me. My guys from Cornell had been texting and calling me, and when I think about that, Syracuse guys. I think it gets lost sometimes, and what's going on in college athletics. I wanted to coach to impact lives. I saw it from my dad, and I'm going to tell you a quick story. Sorry, I'm going too long, but this is why my purpose, why I coach, and I learned it really hammered home in a gym at the University of Nebraska. It was in the spring. I just visited my dad, and he was at home. He was in hospice care and all that. And we laid in the bed and we talked about life, grandchildren, and of course coaching. We talked a lot about coaching, and he impacted my life. And I remember my brother calling me at three in the morning the day before the tournament, the day of the tournament. And he's like, 'You okay? You gonna be okay? Why don't you just get the hell out of there? I said no, and I thought about it.' I said, 'Dad would want me to coach, and the coaching was the easy part.' And I just did it. I was kind of numb.
"The hardest part was my phone was blowing up, like my phone was these last couple days, from so many grown men that I looked up to that said, man, your dad impacted my life,' and he changed the trajectory, the trajectory of my life because of what he did for me. The impact the coach can have on a student athlete in their lifetime is amazing. It sometimes gets overloaded, and I saw my dad did, and I wanted to do that, and that was my purpose as a coach. I came up with something that we wrote down. I worked with Sarah and others and reading books. I said I got to get this written down. Look at all the great ones, Wooden, all these people. They write it down, and so I wrote it down. And Tiger Style is just a way to guide behavior. It's really that simple. It guides behavior, and these guys crush it. They crush it.
"So I've been blessed to do this, but I still have one more, which is one of the pillars of Tiger Style. I'm just going to mention this guy right here. He's an elite coach. He is amazing, and the student athletes know this. And I remember a couple years ago there was another school trying to hire him away, and I convinced Desiree to put him on contract, and I pulled that one off too. I told him to stay because I'm not going to be here much longer, and he did, and I'm glad he did, and I'm happy for Jordan and his family, for Kendric, of course, to be the next guy and keep this thing rolling. So, I appreciate everybody being here. I think of all the reporters that are here. I remember my first day walking up the stairs and doing it in a gym. It was Norm Stewart's gym at that time, and doing the first interview in the gym of Hearnes. And reporters laughing at me when I said, "We're going to win Big 12 titles. We're going to win team trophies." We're going to do all these things. Have national champs, Olympians, and I got laughed at. We get the last laugh. Let's go, Tiger Style.”
On what makes the timing right:
“Shoot, I was just trying to make it through year one, and then in like year three, Mike sat down with a bunch of coaches after a coaches meeting. He said I can do this now. What are they gonna do, fire me? I looked around the room. I'm like, well, this isn't good. I know why we're all here. He said, I've given you resources. I've done this. It's time to win. And it was my fourth year. And I'm like, ‘Hey, Denise, who's a good realtor?’ I said, somebody's getting fired this year because that was a message sent, and I heard it, and we went 18-3 that year, and kicked ass, and haven't lost since. I took the message to heart at times. But it just happens. You get messages from your daughter and your sons and your family, and it's like, how long do I have to do this? I was chasing to win a national title. That's not what it's about. I've learned that over coaching. When I first came in I was a madman and wanted to win, win, win, win. I still want to win. But I also know there's other things involved with it, and I just love it. I will always miss coaching, but I also know that it's time to move on and do other things and enjoy life.”
On what he’ll miss most about coaching:
“Guys wanting to be there, learning, getting better, and you leave the practice room knowing your team got better, and you just see it. I love that, and so those are the things. Going to weddings, I get invited to like seven damn weddings [a year]. It ruins my spring and summer. Denise loves it. Then I don't dance, and then I get in trouble. It's tough, but I go and the guys are 40 years old, afraid to drink in front of me, and it's awesome. But then I hear these stories, and we're so close that we stay in contact. Next week is our alumni gathering, and 100 of them are probably coming back. And they're calling me last night. 'Why the hell didn't you just tell us you're doing this? We would have definitely come.' But it's like, hey, shut up, get your ass here.”
On inspiring the next generation:
“It's really cool because we teach Tiger Style the lifestyle at our camps, and it's why our camps are some of the biggest camps. It isn't just coming to learn wrestling. You're learning how to live Tiger Style. You see a lot of the programs change their mantras and their mottos to something similar to Tiger Style. I was in Lawrence, Kansas, doing a camp, and I got heat from them here. And I'm like, they don't have a wrestling team. Who cares? And we're staying in a hotel, and the guy's looking at us in the Black & Gold. And the kid from the back comes out, and he's like, Coach, I went to your camp. It was so awesome. 'I lived Tiger Style. I'm still living it.' And to hear that, I get emails a couple times a week from coaches and from former people that have attended camp, saying, 'Coach, I attended your camp, or I brought my team to camp, and we're still living it and doing it.' And so that's what it's all about. That you can impact more than just teaching a move. That you're impacting their life in a special way. That's why we do this.”
On his relationship with administration:
“You have to fight for your program, and I'm not afraid to fight and speak up. And that's just part of it. When I say fight, it's just you have to stand up if you believe in something and you think it's not being done right. They are really, really special. If I'm doing something wrong, I expect Laird to tell me. I expected Mike to tell me, and I can do better. And Sarah told me many a time, 'You're not going to do that.' But they also taught me. Sarah was the one that told me to get on committees and get involved, so I got on the NCAA committee, and then I became the president of the NWCA, and that really helped me look at leadership in a different way. And so, by having people that surround you like that are going to push you because they know I'll push back too, but that's good. That's a good relationship. I grew up in a family like that. Where you can't be satisfied with where you're at. You want people around you to push you. I was yelling at Laird the other day in the coaches meeting. One of the coaches just said, ‘Man, we thought you got fired from what you said in the meeting.’ Nah, I tried.”
On how he’s built student-athlete success:
“We're gonna challenge our team. These guys do it right. The first thing we talk about is academics, and I'm talking about that we could maybe pull off a 3.6 this year. We led the country in academic All-Americans last year. We had the Elite 90 winner in Jared Stoner, the top student athlete in the sport of wrestling for academics. We're fourth in the country in community service. These guys are living that lifestyle, but we have to challenge them. And at times, they're going to make mistakes, and that's part of it. That's our job: to guide them the right way, get back on the path. Let's go get better at this.”
On his legacy:
“I remember there was a time in my career where I could have left. I won't go into that much, but somebody called me who I respect a lot, and he said, ‘You've invested so much in these young men, and you've invested so much in what Tiger Style is. Why would you leave? That's your legacy. You've created a culture that's affected not just the team, but what they do.’ I was walking through the grasslands one day, a guy's teaching his kid how to ride a bike, and he's like, ‘Coach, I'm doing one more right now.’ And I'm thinking, “Man, they know what Tiger Style is, and they think about it, and it affects people in the community.’ And that's when I see little kids running up the stairs, and say ‘Hey coach, I'm taking the stairs.’ They are really, really special. That mindset, that ‘hey, if I can change and impact other people, that's all I care about.’ I'm impacting these guys' lives, and when I go to those weddings, they'll have a beer with me, and we'll talk about the funny stories, but then how they're living their life. I got so many of those texts last night, and am still getting them today. I’m reading it, and it's just overwhelming. My dad taught me well. I learned it from the best.”
University of Missouri Wrestling associate head coach Kendric Maple
Opening statement:
"Well, I first like to thank God. I wouldn't be here without him. I want to thank Laird and the rest of the leadership because man, this is tough shoes to fill, and I've been one who's always been up for a challenge, and this is going to be a big one, and I'm excited for it. I want to thank all the donors, alumni and fans. Man, you guys have accepted me with open arms since I got here, and you guys have made it feel like a family. So I appreciate that. I'm excited for the journey. I want to thank… man. I'm not. I can't do it [yet]. Can't cry. Let's leave him for a little bit. Let's thank the guys, the rest of the staff, man. You guys are why I show up to work every day, and you guys make it fun and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I want to thank my beautiful wife, my boys, always driving me crazy, but I love them, and my whole family. You guys are my rock, my support staff, and I cannot do this without you and Coach Smith.
"So, our first phone call, actually our second, and I will always like to bring this one up because our first phone call was recruiting, and I was in high school, and he never called me back. I always remind him he was not a very good recruiter back in the day. So, the second phone call was for the job here, and I was thinking it's going to be talking about salary, talking about the facilities and the wrestlers and all this and all the success they had. And we spent 45 minutes talking about Tiger Style, and he had me so bought in. I was packing up my bags as soon as I walked back in the door from talking outside. And flash forward to right when we pack bags, got there my first week on the job, and it might have been Sarah, I don't know, but I walk in and he's like, ‘Come on, come on in,’ and he's on the phone. So I sit down and I'm kind of just trying to mind my business, but listening. And out of nowhere, he goes, ‘Well, fire me then. I don't care. I want to win. I want to do it the right way, fire me’, and I'm sitting here, eyes wide open, and I'm like, I haven't unpacked my toothbrush yet. But right then I walk in the office, and I'm like, I can stand behind this guy because I can see the same passion, the same drive that keeps me up at night, wanting to win, wanting to do it the right way, wanting to change lives with these guys. This is the same thing I have that he's living.
"So Tiger Style quickly became something where I was waking up every day, taking notes with my notepad, coming to work every day, seeing how I'm just trying to soak in all the business. And so Coach Smith, I thank you for your mentorship, your leadership, and your friendship. To our guys, we have to send this dude off nice. We have practice after this. You guys get your butts up there. We got to send them off right in M-I-Z.”
On his reaction upon hearing the news:
“My immediate reaction was, man, I still have notes left to take. Man, we could still ride this thing for another 10 years, and he wasn't having it. So I tried to talk about him a little bit, but man, I was just appreciative of everything he's done so far and what we're going to do this year.”
On how he’s building the program:
“So it'll still be Tiger Style with you know we're gonna build on that foundation, but there's definitely gonna be new things that I'll try. I’ll try and fail at things that Coach Smith might have told me I was dumb for. We'll try and see what happens, and if I get one right, he’s going to be called.”
On how working with Coach Smith changed him:
“You can hear he's willing to challenge you. You know you have an idea that he's going to tell you, ‘all right you're in charge’ and he's going to let you see it through and then be able to help you through it. I think he's probably fired me four or five times since I've been here as well. So it's amazing we got to this point. But no, he taught me a couple different things. A growth mindset has been one. He's not just preached it to the team, but he's done it to the coaching staff. We had leadership meetings where he brought in someone from the outside just to help us learn how to coach better. When I got here, I'm like, man, this guy has my best interests at heart. It's not just hey, go teach these guys. It's like no, I want to teach you.”
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