Well … this is awkward. If you didn’t already know, last Tuesday The Eagle ran a profile on head wrestling coach Mark Cody. The same day, Cody announced that he is leaving AU to take over as the head coach at The University of Oklahoma.
While it would be easy for many at AU to be angry with Cody and feel like he is betraying the school by leaving, let’s face it: Without him, there probably is no wrestling program, much less the fifth-ranked program in the country.
This is not a Lane Kiffin situation. Cody did not leave AU in the dark a year after signing because a better job came along. He was here for nine years and did unthinkable things for the program. Many in the wrestling community were shocked when Cody accepted the job at AU. Leaving Oklahoma State as an assistant coach in 2002 for an unknown school in Washington had people thinking he had taken a turn for the worse mentally.
I had the chance to interview Cody on multiple occasions, and each time he stressed the importance that he puts on academics. It was clear how much he cared not only about winning on the mat, but off it as well. He constantly talked about how there is no future in wrestling past the college level, and how important it was that his guys succeeded in the classroom. Last year, when Harvard won the award for having the best wrestling team academically, a title that AU held for two straight years, Cody was not happy.
As we know, a lot of college coaches care only about winning and not about what players do in the classroom, but Cody does. Now, Oklahoma’s wrestlers will get to experience the same growth academically that AU wrestlers have been exposed to for the last nine years.
While some fans may be upset at Cody for leaving, can you really blame him for taking the Oklahoma job? Oklahoma recently made major improvements to their wrestling training facilities. When compared to AU, who holds practices in a wrestling room located inside the student and faculty fitness center, you can see that there is a definite difference.
It is clear that AU has chosen to spend its money on upgrading academic buildings instead of improving athletic facilities, and that’s fine. The school is known more for academics than it is for sports at this point. But if the school does not use some of its money to improve athletic facilities, then it can’t be shocked when a great coach like Cody decides to leave for a school that does. There is no guarantee that Cody would have stayed at AU if it had state-of-the-art facilities, but it couldn’t have hurt.
Regardless, Cody’s departure leaves a vacancy that will not be easily filled. A National Coach of the Year Award doesn’t come around that often. But that vacancy does not necessarily mean the end for AU wrestling. No matter who the coach was this season, the team still finished No. 5 in the country.
AU wrestling is now on the map. They can recruit some of the top high school wrestlers in the country. They’ve finished as one of the top teams before and they can do it again. Coach Cody is great, but he isn’t God.
Right now, it hurts for AU wrestling fans. The best thing they had going is now gone. But think of it this way, if it weren’t for Cody, you wouldn’t be an AU wrestling fan. Wrestling fans should thank Mark Cody for what he has done for this school and wish him the best of luck at Oklahoma. He would do the same for AU.
blasky@theeagleonline.com
