Editor’s note: When this column was written, the 2026 regular season still had about a month to go. Tryan, Northcott, Rice, Freeman, Arviso and Lord all went on to qualify for their first Wrangler NFRs, finishing Nos. 2-4 on their respective sides of the world standings.
The new kids on the block have arrived. Get ready to see some fresh faces swinging for the fences in Las Vegas. At press time, with about a month to go in the regular season, it looks to me like a few young guns have a lock on qualifying for their first Finals. Tyler Tryan, Korbin Rice and James Arviso are top-five headers, so look out for the teams of Tryan and (Nicky) Northcott, Rice and (Cooper) Freeman, and Arviso and (Levi) Lord at the Thomas & Mack.
After watching their world champion dads, Clay Tryan and Steve Northcott, it’s pretty cool to see Tyler and Nicky be contenders now. This is not these kids’ first rodeo. They’ve been prepped to be world champions since they were in diapers; they’re fearless and they’re hungry. None of the rodeos were new to them, even as rookies, because they grew up going to them.
These Rookies Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere
You can hardly look at roping results this year without seeing these guys’ names. I’ve never seen Tyler just try to go catch. Two coils is his normal—his comfort zone—and he doesn’t rope to just get by. He ropes for first. He lets two coils go every time, and it’s not an accident that he catches.
Korbin and Cooper have had two really good rodeos—Houston and Calgary—where they won a pile. But you can’t take anything away from them. I haven’t gotten to watch them rope much yet, but more power to them for jumping to the top and staying way up there. All these teams are going to make for great watching at the NFR, and it’s always more exciting when several teams are in contention for the world championship.
James is Derrick Begay’s nephew. He’s grown up around it, too, and has had good mentors in Begay, Erich Rogers and Aaron Tsinigine. James won the college title a couple years ago in 2024, and the high school title a couple years before that in 2022. He’s stair-stepped his way up the ladder and gets to go head-to-head with these other young guys and the veterans for a gold buckle now.
The Veterans Aren’t Going Anywhere
Don’t get me wrong, they’ll have to go through the veterans to get what they’re after, and it won’t be easy. I’m always partial to Kaleb (Driggers) and Junior (Nogueira), because Junior’s like a son to me. They’ll always be my pick, and I’ll always put them at the top of the list of teams I cheer for. They’ve won world championships, they’ve perfected their run and horsepower is not an issue.
A team like Kaleb and Junior has been there and done it, whereas these young guys haven’t. When you back in the box at the Thomas & Mack for the first time with 17,000 people screaming and hollering, it’s a whole different deal. You can’t train for that, and not all NFR rookies have great first experiences.
Nicky’s roped the extras there. That’s like going to the World Series Finale and getting to burn one—free practice runs. Things happen fast in that building, and you’ve got to be pretty thick-skinned to stay focused. But most of these young guys have lived it already one way or another because of the families they grew up in.
Nicky’s only 19 now, and I drew him in the pro-am at the Spicer Gripp about five years ago. He came in there on the last steer and roped him by two feet. He was just a little old kid. When he got a dally and I faced, the look on his face was one of the coolest expressions I’ve ever seen. I still get tears in my eyes telling about it. He was just so excited.
What My First NFR Taught Me
When I look back on my first NFR in 1980, I was just a starstruck kid. I’d have worked the chutes or put horn wraps on. The goal was to make the Finals, and I got it done. Looking back now on doing that 27 times is, like, wow. I do remember that it took me a few years there before my focus shifted from making the NFR to winning a world championship.
I was just a dumb kid from Bloomfield, New Mexico, when I got started. I didn’t win my first world championship until my sixth try in 1985. But by then, I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I see some of these tough young teams cutting that learning curve.
—TRJ—