Oklahoma State Hires Olympic Champion David Taylor as Next Wrestling Head Coach

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State formerly announced on social media on Monday night (May 6) the hiring of former two-time NCAA champion Penn State wrestler and USA Gold Medal winning Olympic wrestler David Taylor as the sixth head coach of the Cowboys wrestling program. Taylor follows another heavily decorated USA wrestler in two-time Olympic Gold Medal winning John Smith. Like Smith, Taylor has no formal coaching experience as the 33-year-old has been competing around the World in freestyle wrestling since his collegiate career at Penn State ended in 2014. There are similarities to the hiring of Taylor and the hiring of Smith, who went on to become the winningest head coach in Oklahoma State wrestling history.

Pokes Report

John Smith and Coleman Scott coaching together this season.

The hiring of Taylor will come as a surprise to many Oklahoma State fans and wrestling enthusiasts. It was assumed that assistant head coach Coleman Scott would follow Smith after Scott left the head coaching job at North Carolina to become the top aide to John Smith. Smith insisted that no promises were made when Scott was hired.

This will set off some alarms as Scott was instrumental in the improvement in the program this season and he received credit from Smith, the other coaches on staff, and the wrestlers on the team. It was universal.

Oklahoma State Athletics

Weiberg on the plane last month picking up Steve Lutz, the new OSU basketball coach.

Our sources at Pokes Report told us that several top donors and boosters to the program had suggested Taylor as a candidate. Pokes Report did confirm that Oklahoma State athletics director Chad Weiberg made a trip to State College, Pa. to meet with the former Nittany Lions wrestler and Olympic and multiple World Championship Gold Medal winner. Weiberg had dinner with Taylor and they discussed the job. The reported donors and Weiberg’s interest could be the thought of making a “John Smith” type hire. The difference is Smith, while he had not formally coached before Oklahoma State hired him, he did completely know the lay of the land having grown up and wrestled in the shadows and inside of Gallagher Hall. 

Weiberg, who previously had only hired one coach in women’s basketball coach Jacie Hoyt, has now hired two head coach for two prominent sports in the last month in Taylor for wrestling and previously Steve Lutz for basketball. 

This hire will be considered outside the box and will be looked at as a splash hire that could either be tremendously successful or some will look at it as a slap at one of the program’s own. Weiberg has to look at it as hiring the best coach he can find for one of college athletics most successful all-time programs, regardless of sport. 

Nittany Lions Wrestling Club

David Taylor

Taylor, who just finished his freestyle wrestling career at the 2024 Olympic trials in April, was a two-time national champion at Penn State, where he finished his career as a two-time Hodge Trophy winner, just the third multi-award winner in NCAA history, a four-time Big Ten champion and with a 134-3 overall record, including 50 pins, 42 tech falls and 29 major decisions.

Following his collegiate career, Taylor went on to post a 152-21 overall record in freestyle wrestling, which included three US Open Championship gold medals, three Pan American Championship gold medals, one World Cup gold medal, three World Championship gold medals and an Olympic gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo games. 

Taylor has been a mainstay in helping Cael Sanderson build the powerful Penn State program as a wrestler for the Nittany Lions and Sanderson. Since his collegiate career, he has remained in State College as a resident athlete with the Nittany Lions Wrestling Club. He has competed under that support system and has contributed to the entire Penn State operation.

This is a quote from his bio in the Nittany Lions Wrestling Clube website: “David’s personality, attitude, and success on the wrestling mat have contributed greatly to the success of the entire NLWC program.” 

One of the greatest concerns in hiring Taylor is what happens when current Penn State head coach Cael Sanderson decides to retire? He is young, but he is extremely accomplished. Does Taylor factor as a candidate to succeed his former college head coach? By then you hope Taylor has made Oklahoma State his home and is having success equal or greater to Penn State.

Oklahoma State is expected to have a formal press conference to introduce Taylor later this week. The details on that will come out on Tuesday.