A winter of going back to the basics paid off for Cole Clemons in Nashville, where he won his first big tour rodeo of the year at the Music City Rodeo.

Clemons stopped the clock at 7.9 in the third round to finish second for $2,904 and lock up the average title with a 26.7 on three head, besting Marcos Costa by 1.4 seconds and collecting another $5,009. Add in the $726 he earned for a seventh-place 9.2 in the opening round, and Clemons left Tennessee with $8,639.

“It’s been a long winter,” Clemons said. “I had a lot of high hopes and some high goals. I placed a bunch but hadn’t won first at all. So, it was kind of nice seeing my name at the top.”

The win was his first at a tour rodeo this year, and only his second overall.

The Extra

Clemons was a 9.2 on a strong calf in Round 1 and a 9.5 on a big, soft calf in Round 2 to sit third in the average heading into Round 3.

“I had a really good calf in Round 3, I was pretty pumped up about it,” Clemons said. “I got in the box and my horse was squatting so I rode her up just to make sure she was going to leave. I guess the gate man thought I nodded or something and opened the gate. So I pulled up and declared myself and ended up running the extra.”

The extra turned out to be a gift.

“I had told somebody, just jacking around before the rodeo, ‘Shoot, I’m going to run that extra somehow. My calf’s going to be crippled or something,'” Clemons said. “And then the false gate deal happened and I was like, ‘Damn, I might actually get to run that extra.’ There were actually two extras, the one I liked and a second one. I ended up drawing the second one. Dylan [Hancock] came up there and he knew the calf and told me what it did. It was a really good calf and it all just kind of worked out and came together.”

Clemons was a 7.9 on that second extra to secure the average win.

The Mare That Fits

The first two rounds played out in a different building than the third round but Clemons called on the same horse for both setups: Kissin My Sass, “Nova,” the sorrel mare he bought last October from Landyn Duncan.

“For me, I give 80% of the credit to my horse and 20% to God, but my horse was outstanding in Franklin,” Clemons said. “She’s big and strong and really was a difference maker. Then going to Bridgestone, I ran a great calf in a smaller setup and she was still great. I was lucky enough that I have a great horse that fits both setups.”

She was the first horse Clemons inquired on when he got home last fall outside the top 15, determined to start over.

“I got home in October and I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to start over and find something that’s going to be the difference maker,'” Clemons said. “She was the very first horse I called about. I hadn’t been home two days and I rode her and bought her a couple days later. She’s changed my roping for sure.”

The funny part? Clemons swore he’d never be a mare guy.

“I do not like mares at all. I’ve never owned one,” Clemons laughed. “And now for some reason I have two of them. So it’s a process and an adventure sometimes, that’s for sure.”

A Winter of Reinvention

The win is the payoff for a winter Clemons spent rebuilding himself from the ground up.

After making the NFR and winning the Resistol Rookie of the Year in 2024, Clemons missed the Finals in 2025—and it gnawed at him.

“My whole life changed, really,” Clemons said. “Missing the Finals, it’s the worst feeling I’ve ever had. My rookie year I made the NFR, and then last year I rodeoed with Dylan and he won so much at the Finals and I wanted to be there so freaking bad. So when I got home in October, I tortured myself. I started working out. I’ve never worked out. I didn’t know if it’d make a difference, I didn’t care. I was going to do everything possible.”

He also went to work on the thing that had cost him most: his swing. Clemons spent two full days just roping the dummy with Cody Ohl and overhauled his delivery.

“A lot of my problem last year was I just missed a lot, I wasn’t catching,” Clemons said. “I went and roped with Cody, just the dummy for two days, and completely changed my swing. It’s been a game changer. My first swing was down too far to the right, and once it got to the right, if a calf stepped left I could never get it over there. Cody taught me to get the first swing broke over the left ear. I watched a lot of videos of him taking a first swing at the NFR and tried to do it exactly like that.”

From November through February, he never let up.

“There was not a day that I didn’t rope a calf,” Clemons said. “Confidence comes from knowing you’ve outworked everyone. There’s no way anybody worked harder in those months than I did. Someone may have worked just as hard as I did, but no one worked harder. I’m roping the neck now, which is where I’ve always struggled. I feel like I’m definitely better now than I’ve ever even been close to.”

Best Friend in the Corner

Through all of it, Clemons had Dylan Hancock—his hauling partner, business partner and best friend—in his corner.

“I tell Dylan all the time if we don’t rodeo together, I’m quitting,” Clemons said. “Our personalities are the exact same. We jack around and have more fun doing stupid crap than you can possibly imagine. Most people get annoyed with us. Somehow, we fit. It’s awesome getting to rodeo with your best friend.”