Oklahoma State Dave Smith Interview

While many of the traditional powerhouse teams placed well last fall at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, the Cowboys of Oklahoma State University shocked the field and finished third overall.  With the majority of the trophy team returning, Coach Dave Smith has high expectations for his squad this fall.  In addition to returning so much talent, Smith also recruited in one of the best recruiting classes, led by national record holder German Fernandez.  With a talented nucleus, strong senior leadership and an understanding of hard work, Oklahoma State is looking strong with five weeks to go in the season.

An Interview with Ok. State's Dave Smith

Smith has a deep talent of runners this season (OSU Sports photo)

Trackshark (TS): You opened up your season two weeks ago with your top guys, winning your home invitational (the OSU Cowboy Jamboree).  How do you think the team looked?

Dave Smith (DS): I thought the team looked good as a whole, especially up front, but we still have some work to do in terms of closing the gap between our 5th man and the 6, 7, 8 guys.  There were some individuals that looked fantastic.  The three freshman, [German] Fernandez, [Colby] Lowe and [Ryan] Prentice, are ahead of where I had hoped they would be.  Ryan Vail had been the fastest of any freshman I have coached at the Jamboree running 25:19 back in 2004.  All three of those freshmen broke 25:00. 

Clay Mayes, a sophomore on the team, worked extremely hard this summer and he really surprised me.  He might have had the race of the day for us, running a minute and a half faster than he did last year at just under 25:00.

TS: Was it the race plan for your top three guys to run together the entire way?

DS: Yeah, that was the plan.  I had asked the guys to run hard enough to secure the team victory but under control enough to keep 5 guys together through 7k.  We would have liked to keep five together through the finish, but Matt and Colby just kind of leaked out the back of the pack over the last 800m. 

Still, great races for those two guys.  Matt ran within just a few seconds of where he ran last year but said he felt like he ran with a lot more control.  And Colby...wow!  Before the race I told him that it might be better to redshirt this season.  I think he wanted to send me a message about how he felt about that idea.

TS: After placing so well and returning the majority of the team, as well as the addition of some of the best high school talent in the country, you're squad had high expectations placed on them.  What have you done to keep the pressure off your guys and focused forward?

DS: I think as competitors, at any level, we always put pressure on ourselves to improve and that internal pressure is usually far more severe than anything external.  So, this year isn't too much different than any other in that regard. As for external pressure, we aren't the best team in the country right now.  I don't know if we are in the top 4 at this point.  There are several teams that have looked very impressive to me early in the season, some that I expected and some that have surprised me.

Fortunately, we don't have to be the best team right now to contend for the championship in late November. I think that if we stay healthy, keep progressing and have a great day on November 24th we will be in contention. So, we focus on just that: staying  healthy and improving each week.  We try to keep it simple. 

The guys have an objective each race and we ask them to focus on accomplishing the task at hand without worrying about what is coming up in the future.  Of course, they know what the goals for the season are but if they believe in the coaching staff and our plan, they can focus on each step and each objective as it comes.

TS: German Fernandez came into the program this fall with some incredible performances behind his name.  How's his transition from high school training to college training been thus far?

DS: I have been really impressed with all three of the freshman cross country guys.  I think each of them has adapted more quickly and more easily than any of the freshman I have coached in the past.  The transition to the college athletics lifestyle can be extremely stressful.  There are so many changes:  the structure of a typical day, training volumes, training intensities, race intensity, time management issues, social issues, etc.  For many freshman that first cross country season can be a real struggle but these guys have responded like veterans.  All three come from backgrounds where they have had pretty good direction in terms of their training. 

German had a great high school coach, Bruce Edwards, who worked very hard over the last year preparing him for the transition, not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally, and that work has paid off.  It has been a pretty seamless transition for him.  In terms of general training philosophies, I think Bruce and I share a lot of the same ideas, so I don't think that has been much of a change for German. 

Since being in a group that is this talented and this big will result in a spontaneous increase in training intensity, we have not raised his volume much.  I think the biggest change for him has been the addition of weekly, pace-structured 10 mile runs that are one of the staples of our cross country season and he has fared really well in those workouts.

TS: Ryan Vail seems to be the leader of this team.  What's it been like coaching Ryan?  What does he mean to this team?

DS: Ryan is the face of the program.  He is the leader of the team and I think the team as a whole has adopted Ryan's personality, which is great news for us.  He is the type of guy that every coach wants to coach.  He is a totally blue-collar type of guy.  He works hard and is incredibly disciplined.  He never complains.  He is one of the most mentally tough runners I have ever worked with.  When it comes time to race he is as tenacious as pit bull and the bigger the race, the better he performs. 

Probably one of his best and often most underrated attributes is that he is extremely coachable.  That makes him very fun to work with.  He takes instruction very well but is also a student of his own training and takes an active role in the planning process.  I think Ryan has been a microcosm of our program. 

He came in four years ago as a relative unknown. Coming out of Portland at the same time as several other very talented guys he was never the hot pick to do well at the next level but he has quietly, consistently climbed the ranks of the NCAA. Now, all of a sudden, people are taking notice. I hear people talk about him (and our program) bursting onto the scene, but if you go back and look at it he (and the program) have had a pretty solid, steady progression.  He has been invaluable to our program and to me as a coach.

TS: You've been at OSU for six years now and it seems as though the team has made that leap from being a good team to a great team.  Was this the time line you figured coming in that it would take to reach being a podium contender?

DS: Well, the program was in a pretty good place when I got here.  Coach Weis had the team consistently qualifying for the national championships.  He had a string of nine national meet appearances in a row and had podium finishes in '95 and '96, so, I knew it could be done here.  Coming in, I had hoped that we would be back on the podium within five years.  It took six. 

Now, it looks like we might be in contention for a podium finish again this year and hopefully, we have taken that step to being a consistent podium contender going forward. The next step is to become the type of program that can consistently contend for the national title.  Originally, I thought that might take another five years, but now, I am hoping it will come much sooner.

TS: Pre-Nationals are this coming weekend.  What are the goals for the team?

DS: I think we accomplished a lot with our veteran guys at the Jamboree.  Based on how we ran there I think that those guys are where they need to be and there probably isn't much need for them to do a lot of racing between now and the championship season.  They have all seen the Terre Haute course several times so they most likely won't race Pre-Nats. 

We have a big group of freshman and sophomores that represent the future of our program (for some of them the future is this year!).  Most of them haven't seen anything like the pressure, intensity and competition of the NCAA championships.  That intensity isn't something you can fabricate artificially.  Really, Pre-Nats is one of the few places you get all of those elements in one race.  The race for "at large" points creates a real sense of urgency in the pack and the pressure drives the pace. 

Some of these young guys can find themselves coming through the 5k mark faster than their high school PRs, know they still have 3k to go, and realize that they are behind 150 other runners.  That is intense and it can rattle guys who are experiencing it for the first time.  So, first and foremost, we want to give the young guys a glimpse of that type of atmosphere so that when they are called upon to race at the national championships this year, or in the future, they are ready to go. Also, we have a lot of depth from our 7th -14th position and we will use this race to solidify our top 10 going into the championship season.

TS: Moving a bit forward, the Big 12 championship this year could be a wild one.  Colorado's been the dominant force, but now the Cowboys have arrived.  What will be the focus heading into that meet?

DS: We want to win that championship.  There is no doubt that that is one of our season goals.  Our mindset on Nov 1st will be that there is no NCAA championship.  There is only the Big 12 championship and we will be singularly focused on winning it.  That being said, I think our conference is extremely tough and it will take a near perfect race from our guys to win it.  In fact, I think if you look back at past results you could make a very strong argument that the Big 12 has been the toughest conference in the country over the last three or four years. 

In 2005, the conference placed four teams in the top twelve at the NCAA meet; in 2006, three in the top 10.  Over the last six or seven years, seven different Big 12 teams have qualified for the national championships.  Obviously, Colorado is having and unbelievable run.  They have won all twelve Big 12 championships, and really, nobody has even scared them.  There have been years when I thought this team or that team could end the streak but they have just had a stranglehold on that trophy. 

This year is no different.  They have a young, but very talented squad that showed last spring that they are willing, able and ready to take the reigns of the program.  There are several national level programs in the Big 12 right now, but Colorado is still the team to beat.

TS: What happens in the training over the next few weeks in order to prepare the guys for peak condition when regionals and nationals roll around?

DS: We are just about to come out of our toughest training period of the season.  There are some guys that are pretty tired right now, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Once we get to the championships, starting with the Big 12 championship, we will really dial back the intensity in training and try to focus all of our energy and attention on racing.

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Great interview!

12:42, Saturday, October 18, 2008 .. Posted by Jossi

Coach Smith gives in-depth and honest questions. And part of the credit is definitely due to the interviewer--great set of questions that really gets Coach Smith talking! Great read!