COLUMBIA - Missouri wrestling head coach Brian Smith is always pushing the envelope.
From unique locations for matches to trademarking the phrase 'Tiger Style' so only the university's wrestling team can use it for promotion and branding, his creativity in building a nationally-recognized program is special.
The wrestling team held practice Thursday afternoon in the MU Student Center in another one of Smith's ideas, leaving the lonely confines of the Hearnes Center fourth floor to a more trafficked dining and study area of campus. Smith and the team have held practices on the football field before, but the prospect of moving tables and chairs and unfurling the mats in the student center was almost too wild. Smith now enjoys it so much it's become an annual tradition.
"One of the things I told my team is that they're getting used to different elements," Smith said. "A lot of times we'll go wrestle and we'll only have a small mat to warm up on, it'll be not as friendly a crowd, so there's a lot of different atmospheres you're going to have to compete in. This gets them prepared for that, mentally."
Missouri opens its regular duals season against Illinois, and the match is tentatively scheduled to be conducted on the new softball field. The match is Saturday, Nov. 4, the same day as Missouri's home football game against Florida, and is still awaiting the start time of that game before the outdoor aspect is finalized.
Because of the temperature, Smith said, the match can't take place outdoors in the late afternoon or at night, so the later the Tigers and Gators kick off, the better for Tiger Style.
No matter where that dual takes place, Missouri 125-pounder Barlow McGhee is ready for it. The redshirt senior from Rock Island, Ill. was not recruited by the Illini.
"I wanted to go to Illinois so bad," McGhee said. "I didn't get recruited by them, got recruited here so I came here. But my goal was to take on Jesse Delgado (2013 and 2014 NCAA champion for Illinois at 125 pounds, and current MMA fighter). I don't get that goal, but I get the guy they've got there now instead."
McGhee said the Illinois high school wrestling had a pretty large outdoor scene post-season, and said he was ready for the bugs on the mat, as well as the potential heat and humidity of wrestling without climate control.
Another point of emphasis for McGhee this season is to get away from close wins by being more aggressive on offense. He went 19-13 in 2016-17, with 15 of his wins coming by decision, three by major decision and one in overtime.
"I've got one college pin," McGhee said of his career, "and maybe two tech (falls). I'm trying to boost that number up by three times this year. I'm excited about that."
Without the face of this program for the last four years, J'den Cox, at 197, the task now falls to redshirt senior Willie Miklus. Miklus missed the 2016-17 season with a knee injury and spent the last few years at 184, finishing as an NCAA All-American in 2014-15 (seventh) and 2015-16 (sixth), despite coming to Missouri at 197.
Back up to his old weight class and feeling healthy, Miklus said he was hungry to get back on the mats despite finally being able to eat bacon again.
"It was so frustrating to watch," Miklus said. "I mean, it was fun to watch, but I definitely missed competing and wrestling, so I'm definitely excited."
Despite returning after an injury that caused him to miss a full season and a change in weight class, Miklus was ranked No. 3 in the nation by Intermat's preseason rankings. John Erneste, a 133-pound junior, came in at No. 9 in his class, and Jaydin Eierman (No. 4 at 141 pounds), senior Joey Lavallee (No. 2 at 157) and junior Daniel Lewis (No. 5 at 174) were also ranked by Intermat's preseason poll. Those same five were ranked first in their classes in the preseason MAC poll, and the Tigers had wrestlers ranked in the MAC's top three in nine of 10 weight classes.
Eierman, who finished his summer with a third-place finish at the Under-23 World Team Trials. He said the level of competition and Greco wrestling helped prepare him for the college season. He also attributed his new sense of confidence to his fifth-place finish at NCAAs a season ago at 141.
"I know I'm right there with the best guys," he said. "I've always doubted that I wasn't one of the best 141-pounders last year, and then I went out and beat the three, four and five guy on the back side to place and it was a really good feeling. I have that confidence coming in with me this year."
The Black and Gold Meet starts at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27 in the Hearnes Center.