'Go after people': Why Bedlam coaches Lou Rosselli, John Smith are looking for more emotion from their wrestlers

STILLWATER — Once the team bus pulled into the Gallagher-Iba Arena parking lot last Sunday — the morning after Oklahoma State’s 23-9 wrestling loss to Iowa in the Bout at the Ballpark in Arlington, Texas — coach John Smith had an announcement.

“Meet at Gallagher,” Smith said, referencing the team’s wrestling room inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. “We’re working out.”

Smith knew he needed to push his team after the frustrating defeat, and the only place to do it was on the training mat.

“Right when the bus got here, we came up here and practiced, and we’ve been doing two-a-days every day since,” OSU senior 149-pounder Kaden Gfeller said. “So we’ve been bringing up the intensity a little bit.”

That added intensity is what Smith sought, and it showed in Friday night’s 32-6 win over Bucknell at GIA.

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But Bedlam isn’t the same as Bucknell.

The 12th-ranked Cowboys conclude the regular season with this season’s second edition of the Bedlam rivalry against No. 24 OU at 2 p.m. Sunday at Gallagher-Iba Arena, and both coaches come into the dual seeking more emotion from their teams. 

The win over Bucknell was the Cowboys’ second in its last six duals, and those losses have generated some difficult moments along the way.

“Either you get up, you get better, you work a little bit harder and you do some things that are gonna allow you to put points on the board and get your hand raised, or you mope around and feel sorry for yourself and you do less,” Smith said. “I think everybody needs a little bit of an adjustment. 

“You want to see a level of intensity. You want to see a level of excitement that we all are looking for. We have the chance to better ourselves still.”

Gfeller says it begins on a personal level.

“You gotta make your opponents feel pressure, and I didn’t do that (against Iowa),” he said. “I need to get better, and I think a couple other guys do, too, just bringing the intensity from the start of the match.”

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At OU, Lou Rosselli’s squad is 8-5 in duals this season, with three wins in the last five matches. The Sooners haven’t competed since pulling out a 16-15 win over No. 23 South Dakota State on Feb. 6.

Rosselli finds himself seeking more emotion out of his wrestlers as well, as the Sooners try to avoid a 15th consecutive loss to the Cowboys.

“Instead of the coach being passionate, I want to see the athlete being passionate,” he said. “And I think there’s some guys that will display that this weekend.”

This time of year in particular, Rosselli stresses the idea of wrestling nameless, faceless competitors.

“I think I’ve got to say it more,” Rosselli said. “I think people wrestle records and sometimes wrestle the ranking instead of wrestling the person. It doesn’t matter who it is. You’re competing to see how great you can be at something. If you really want to be a national champion, it shouldn’t matter who it is. 

“And the way you compete, it matters to me. The amount of effort you use and the amount of passion you have, it matters to me. I’m watching that all the time. We can agree to disagree on the moves, but at the same time, it’s about the passion. I want passionate people here at OU. I don’t want to be around people who are not passionate. 

“Sooner Nation wants to see people that go after people and score points and have fun. I think that’s what we need to have.”

Bedlam wrestling

OU AT OSU: 2 p.m. Sunday at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater (ESPN+)