Okie State Shocks the Wrestling World

It’s the offseason. Spring games are over and the transfer portal is closed. It’s time for the news that you all have been clamoring for....Wrestling Drama!!!!!

Cael Sanderson’s stranglehold on the NCAA wrestling championships started in 2011. That team featured two oustanding freshman that would be multiple time champions in the chronically underrated Ed Ruth and the future Olympic Gold Medalist David Taylor.

Taylor would end up being a 4X finalist and 2X champ before earning Gold in 2020. He has been a fixture in Happy Valley coaching and training with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club since he graduated, but now, he is leaving central Pennsylvania for the not so green pastures of Stillwater, OK. On his way out the door to become a Cowboy, he took a couple other NLWC stalwarts with him as Thomas Gilman and Jimmy Kennedy are joining him at Okie State. Thomas Gilman, the former iowa hawkeye, was a bronze medalist in Tokyo and a 3X All-American and wrestling for the NLWC. Jimmy Kennedy was also a 3X All-American for the Illinois Fighting Illini and was an assistant head coach for Cael Sanderson at PSU. Kennedy will be Associate Head Coach for Taylor and brings the only previous NCAA coaching experience of the group heading west. The rumor is that Taylor was given a $1M salary and his 3 assistants will get $500k apiece to come to Oklahoma. (A million dollars is a chunk of change, but if you have to live in OK to get it, it loses some of the appeal, doesn’t it?)

Carter Starocci had some spicy thoughts about Taylor leaving.

Should we tell him that none of his coaches wrestled for Penn State and all came there for the big payday?

Adding to the drama is that David Taylor was runner-up to former NLWC teammate Aaron Brooks this year at the Olympic trials, but it was recently report that Mr. Brooks tested positive for PEDs at the u23 championships and is possibly going to be ruled ineligible for the Olympics. That means Taylor might need to be training for the Olympics in addition to his coaching duties and PSU could land in some NCAA hot water as well.

Coleman Scott left his job as head coach at UNC a few years ago to be an assistant at Oklahoma State with the assumption being that he would get the head coaching gig when John Smith stepped down. Now he is out in the cold as Taylor is cleaning house.

Kind of...: This is seismic. I’ll just give some random thoughts in random order:

1. This is seismic. I know I said that already, but it’s really huge. Nobody being recruited today saw Cale Sanderson wrestle. Hell, not many 15-17 year-olds today can remember David Taylor wrestling for PSU. But they DO remember him winning the Olympics three short years ago. He’s going to do a lot, and quickly. Okie State will be top 3 in two years.
2. PSU is totally dominant, and they’re not going to fall off the map. There’s just too much talent around. But Sanderson is going to be 45 when next season starts. Gable was 48 when he retired. To be sure, Sanderson doesn’t seem to be staring down a hip replacement. But, I’d put good money down that Sanderson has won over half the titles he’s going to win. Given that that means he could still end up with 21 titles and I’d be right, this is pretty amazing. I would certainly put money down that he’s going to pass Gable’s 15.
3. College kids are college kids and we shouldn’t take everything they say too seriously, but Starocci is really talking out his ass. A) As noted, Sanderson is not a PSU alum. He LEFT his alma mater to come to PSU. How does Starocci feel about Cael? B) So every PSU stud is supposed to wait for the battle royale to replace Sanderson, or just not try to coach? Give me a break. C) Look at Dan Gable’s coaching tree. That’s how you grow the sport, Carter. This is a great move for college wrestling.
4. Hate to be armchair QB guy, but, watching the Olympic Trials, I couldn’t believe how much bigger Brooks looked compared to Taylor. Now, the positive test was for Adderall, and he has a prescription. But it’s a banned substance, and is definitely a PED, maybe more so with wrestling than any other sport. I’m definitely not leading any charge to strip Brooks of any titles, but this is probably going to become a conversation. Adderall is to certain sports today what “greenies” were in the 70s. And I mean that basically literally.
5. While this is a direct hit to PSU, the big loser her might be Iowa. The Brands brothers are 56 (so, again, see point 2 above...Sanderson isn’t necessarily going anywhere), and one would hope there’s a succession plan in place. The recruiting has been great the last couple of years. If you’re an Iowa supporter, the best case would seem to be something like: Spencer Lee wins gold, comes to Iowa as the heir apparent, Iowa’s wins a natty or two in ‘26/’27 (probably behind their upper-weights), Lee takes over, has an assistant who can handle 157 plus, and Iowa has better inroads into Pennsylvania than ever.
6. If Coleman Scott is feeling bummed, maybe he should give Chris McIntosh a call...
7. Dean Heil repeated as 141 champ in 2017. Since then, the NCAA has crowned 60 individual champions. Only one of them was wearing an Okie State singlet: A.J. Ferrari.
8. PSU fans hate Iowa fans; Iowa fans hate PSU fans. Unless you’re over 40, you haven’t seen Okie State fans fully activated. Buckle up.

Atinat: I have no idea how good of a coach David Taylor is (though I'd guess pretty damn good, given that he runs a top-level prep program and is an Olympic Gold medalist). But in today's NIL-driven world... it doesn't matter. You can say a million good things about Penn State as a developmental program, but if there's one thing Cael does better than anyone else, it's recruit. And for the first time since he started coaching, there's a bigger name on the recruiting trail. And when commitments last weeks or months, and not years, recruiting matters. I got chills when David Taylor got announced at his press conference, so I can only imagine how I'd feel to have him knock on my door. Okie State is back. May God have mercy on us all.

Now, in terms of wider implications for the sport, this is probably good. More top-tier programs means fewer concentrations of the best talent, and more parity means an interesting team race. I've missed that. I don't know Iowa's place in that, and I'm rooting for Spencer to sprint back to the program after Paris, but I think it'll be an improved product regardless of my rooting interests (I still cheer for anyone, including Penn State, over Oklahoma State. But that may change with John Smith gone).