Rob Koll - Wrestling Coach - University of North Carolina Athletics

Rob Koll

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
rkoll@unc.edu

Rob Koll, a 1988 national champion wrestler at the University of North Carolina, was named the head coach of Carolina's wrestling program on Aug. 31, 2023.

Koll became the seventh head coach in team history and returns to his alma mater after spending two seasons at Stanford (2021-23) and the previous 28 as the head coach at Cornell (1993-2021).

During the 2024-25 campaign, Carolina clinched a share of the ACC regular season title, the 19th in program history and the first since the 2018-19 campaign. The Tar Heels qualified eight for the NCAA Championships in Philadelphia, the most since 2021. At the national tournament, Lachlan McNeil earned All-America honors with a fifth-place finish at 149 pounds, becoming the sixth Tar Heel with three-or-more All-America finishes.

In his first season as the head coach in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels had their most dual victories since 2019-20. Individually, five Carolina wrestlers earned berths to the NCAA Championships in Kansas City, with Lachlan McNeil collecting All-America honors for the second-straight season.

The program's first four-time All-America from 1985-88, Koll graduated with a career record of 155-20-1, the most wins in program and Atlantic Coast Conference history. Koll was a three-time ACC champion at 158 pounds and capped off his Carolina career with the program's second ever individual national championship in 1988.

Koll began his coaching career at Cornell, where he served as an assistant for four seasons, before being named the head coach at Cornell in 1993. While in Ithaca, Koll collected a dual record of 317-101-5, including a 125-9-1 mark in Ivy League dual action. Koll's teams won 20 Ivy League championships while producing 177 NCAA Championship qualifiers, 71 All-Americas, and 16 NCAA individual national championships.

For 17 straight seasons, at least three Cornell wrestlers reached the All-America podium under Koll, including one NCAA champion in 10 of the last 12 years he was at Cornell.

Koll's success at Cornell expanded much more than his student-athletes' success on the mat and in the classroom. While leading the Big Red, Koll played an instrumental part in the opening of The Friedman Wrestling Center in 2002, the nation's only stand-alone collegiate wrestling facility.

In May of 2021, Koll was named the 31st head coach in program history at Stanford. During his two years with the Cardinal, Koll mentored three All-Americas and three Pac-12 champions. In his first season out west, Koll helped Stanford to a top-20 finish at the 2022 NCAA Championships, as the program posted multiple All-Americas for the first time since 2016.

In addition to the success of Koll's wrestlers on the mat, Stanford wrestlers earned 11 National Wrestling Coaches Association Scholar All-America honors during his two seasons.

Koll and his wife Rachel have two sons, William and Daniel, who both wrestled for him at Cornell. A native of State College, Pa., Koll is the son of the late Bill Koll, a three-time NCAA champion and the head coach at Penn State from 1965-78.

Koll's Coaching Career By The Numbers
- 1 Hodge Trophy winner
- 15 Top-10 NCAA team finishes
- 16 NCAA individual national champions
- 20 Ivy League championships
- 24 NCAA finalists
- 76 All-Americas
- 198 NCAA qualifiers