A Wednesday afternoon conversation with Mark Branch begins somewhat introspectively, with Wyoming’s head coach detailing the injury — an ACL reconstruction in 2021 — that finally pushed him to be more selective as to how often he rolls around with his athletes, most of whom are now 30-plus years his junior.

“I still work out pretty much daily, but I don’t get on the mat as much anymore,” Branch said.

The injury, just the latest to his knees after a career in the sport, happened on the practice mat. And its effects are still being felt by the man who once reached four NCAA finals as a competitor.

“That slowed me down in everything for sure,” he said. “Heck, I went snowboarding the other day and I’m like, I used to just rip it. And now I’m pretty conscious with everything.”

So as not to start off on too much of a down note, the next question for the 18th-year head coach is whether there have been any silver linings to his scaling back.

“It’s been good because you look at coaching a little differently, I think,” Branch said. “It’s not that important that I’m out there wrestling with those guys every day.”

It also helps as a valid excuse for an aging hammer to hold over a younger generation that’s always eager to take shots at the old guard.

“Oh, I can still talk big, that’s for sure,” Branch said.

And the best part is, these days he doesn’t have to give those youngsters a chance to prove him wrong.

Novak Nears Return

Speaking of those Wyoming pupils — and dealing with injury — one of the Cowboys’ brightest stars is expected back on the mat after a month-long absence.

That Cowboy, returning All-American Joey Novak, has been out of competition since the Jan. 4 Soldier Salute.

There, the nation’s sixth-ranked wrestler at 197 pounds suffered a nerve injury during a finals match in which he pinned Missouri’s #9 Evan Bates.

“It’s not like a lot of injuries that I’m familiar with,” Branch said. “It’s one of those things that you just have to get it to kind of calm down, to relax and get the inflammation out of the area.

“You’ve just got to listen to your body and go at the pace that everything starts feeling better —  and that’s what we’ve had over the last couple weeks (when) he’s made some big jumps.”

Novak was sidelined briefly by a high ankle sprain last season, but this particular injury marks his most substantial period of missed time as a collegian.

“I feel pretty good about this weekend,” said Branch, regarding his 197-pounder’s return.

“We want to do what’s best for him and our team, so we’ll look at those two duals that we have Friday and Sunday and maybe only use him in one…but we’d like to get him back on the mat, get him out there competing.”

In Novak’s absence, #18 Wyoming has gone 1-2 in duals — all against opponents ranked 21stt or higher in Flo’s latest NCAA rankings.

But a 7-1 Big 12 dual record is still within reach if the Cowboys can win a pair of Friday/Sunday doubleheaders these next two weeks — the first of which will stream live on FloWrestling against Air Force (Friday at 8:00 p.m. ET) and North Dakota State (Sunday at 3:00 p.m. ET) respectively.

Unleashing The ‘Wild Man’

Among a trio of highly ranked Wyoming upper weights, Eddie Neitenbach might go a bit underappreciated by general wrestling fans compared to the likes of Novak and former prep star Christian Carroll (ranked seventh at 285 pounds).

But make no mistake, the Valley City, Ohio native is worth your attention.

“Even in the wrestling room, he’s just a wild man,” Branch said.

“He’s consistently one of the hardest workers in the room…Sometimes we can be drilling, and he’ll probably loses 5-6 pounds in a drill just because of the pace that he goes at.

“(And) we want him to go at that high pace because that’s what separates him from a lot of guys at the weight class. But at the same time, be in control, and make sure that we’re utilizing good positions and good technique.”

Neitenbach (#9 at 184) has just three contested losses this season — all against top 10 opponents, and all of them within the margins.

The sophomore fell to #8 Dylan Fishback of Ohio State, 10-7, at the National Duals Invitational. At the Cliff Keen Invite he was pinned from a seemingly advantageous position by Oklahoma kitchen-sink-thrower #10 Brian Soldano. And back in December, he lost a 4-1 bout against #1 Rocco Welsh when Penn State visited Laramie.

“I think he knows and he’s shown that he can go with the best guys in the country,” Branch said. “There’s no doubt. I think he can get on the podium this year (and) I think he’s going to give everybody a fit.”

Talking Through The Pressure

“I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wish I would have,” said Branch of the final month-and-change of his final collegiate season.

Then a Cowboy of a different sort (at Oklahoma State), Branch was desperate to cap his career with a second national title sandwiched around two runner-up finishes.

“Everything in my heart wanted to win a national championship my last year,” he said. 

“It meant so much to me that I did put a lot of pressure on myself…and then going undefeated — I don’t know if that was the best thing. I started tightening up towards the end and stressing out a lot because I’d had this perfect season and I’m like, ‘Well, what’s the perfect season matter if I don’t win when it matters at the end?’”

Fortunately for Branch, he had a pretty great resource at his disposal in Pat Smith, the first four-time champion in NCAA history.

Smith overlapped with Branch on Oklahoma State’s 1994 national championship team — the former topping the podium as a senior while the latter did the same as a freshman. Several years later, Smith relayed that he’d felt some of the same pressures Branch was dealing with as a senior in addition to Smith’s uniquely heightened stress of becoming a historic four-timer.

“He (Smith) really helped me calm down when I really started stressing out and feeling that anxiety,” Branch said. “He let me know that everything was fine and I’m right where I need to be. He gave me that confidence of ‘You’re going to win the national championship’ and I believed in it.

“Without that, I don’t know how I would have handled it.”

Almost 30 years later, Branch still carries those lessons with him as he leads an entire team of strong, motivated, but very much ‘human’ individuals.

“There are guys in our lineup that I can see they’re letting the anxiety build and they’re not happy with their performance — and they’re maybe being too critical,” he said. “So, sitting down and just talking — maybe evening sharing your own stories — I think those things can all be helpful.

“And I do that because it helped me, and I’m not sure if the story would have played out the same if I wouldn’t have had somebody to talk to.”

Watch Wyoming home duals this season live on Flowrestling.