Game On: David Taylor’s mission to wake up sleeping giants Oklahoma State | ESPN

Like other wrestling standouts, Olympic and two-time NCAA champion David Taylor decided to pursue a career in coaching. The job he landed is one of the sport’s crown jewels, Oklahoma State, owners of 34 National Team Championships. Mike Couzens profiles the new leader of the Cowboys.

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[Music] so one of the things that we talk about when you’re wrestling is making adjustments obviously some areas that we can always work on are baseline defense always work on hiding your feet on your finishes always work on your whistle starts wait on the hands on top it’s February in Stillwater Oklahoma for firstear Oklahoma State head coach David Taylor the challenge is [Music] clear restoring the once mighty Cowboys the most decorated program in all of college sports to their former glory right run here push him away and then create space like I’m moving into the guy i’m moving him make my hands drop down right on my touch but to do so the 34 year old Taylor must take on the other wrestling dynasty that has supplanted the Cowboys in recent years a dynasty he himself helped create Penn State Taylor [Music] it is my pleasure to introduce to you the eighth head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboy wrestling program David [Applause] Taylor it’s a tough challenge it’s a tough challenge and to be honest with you guys it is the most uncomfortable decision I’ve ever made but just like training just like when I was a kid the best results come from being uncomfortable you know the numbers the 34 titles and the Hall of Famers the All-Americans you don’t need to look at the wall to know that what does that provide for you in terms of inspiration of of knowing the history of taking this over you know college coaching wasn’t something that I’d ever like had the strong desire to do because the the programs that make the biggest difference you know had pretty pretty solid options when the opportunity to come to Oklahoma State the tradition of this program the history here it’s a sleeping giant i first started wrestling when I was 5 years old my mom started adding the paper for wrestling i didn’t have immediate success you know I was constantly like “Hey I want to be the best at this sport at every level you know I want to seek out the best training partners the best competition.” So we were in the car driving all over the western United States trying to find competition so we moved to Ohio i was 10 minutes from practice you know I had a lot of really good opportunities to uh you know improve my skill and it was a sacrifice my family made and it was a big one [Applause] at Graham High School in Ohio Taylor became a four-time state champion compiling a record of 180 and2 eyepopping numbers that caught the attention of two legendary coaches the first was Oklahoma State’s John Smith one of the greatest American wrestlers of all time you can see here he’s got in trouble four nothing he leads in 33 seasons at the helm Smith won 21 conference championships and five NCAA team titles the other coach recruiting Taylor was Kale Sanderson the winningest college wrestler of all time who had just taken over at Penn State kale Sanderson was a guy that I watched wrestle growing up and it’s who I wanted to go wrestle for and then I came down here and after the weekend I was pretty pretty ready to come to Oklahoma State on the other hand you know going to Penn State was being a part of building something and starting something from scratch being a part of a movement in wrestling and I’ve always liked to build things junior David Taylor [Applause] taylor became the heartbeat of the burgeoning Nitney Lions dynasty in 2012 and then again in 14 he won individual titles at 165 lbs in his four years in state college from 2010 to 2014 Penn State won four consecutive NCAA team championships to win four titles and to thank my parents and all my support my whole life this is what you do it for it’s awesome after graduating Taylor wrestled for Team USA becoming a three-time world champion and an Olympic gold medalist in 2020 he continued training at his alma mater but when Smith retired in 2024 OSU recruited Taylor again this time he listened knows how to win knows how to deliver it you know um so we got a we got a great coach john has believed in me from the day that I got here i wasn’t going to come down here without without his blessing of feeling like yeah this is the right guy for the program and I look back and I think every piece of advice that he’s given me has been great advice above the knee on your shots shelf it head and the ribs good job T nice job there was a new mural that was put out there and it it has all the coaches you know and their titles that they want and they want to put my name on there and I was like I haven’t earned my name to be on there you know until I’ve achieved what these guys achieve my name shouldn’t go up there the names are etched in lore gallagher Griffith Rodri Smith together they won 31 of the Cowboys 34 championships what kind of pressure does that put on you i don’t look at it as pressure i look at it as opportunity you’re trying to serve your athletes the best that you can so just trying to create a culture and environment um for guys to feel they can go out and compete the highest level and in doing so I believe that we’re going to get back to an individual and team national champion what is your relationship like with Kale we’re in a spot where we’re both coaches at two of the best programs in the country and I recently just told him you know I said you know we we changed a lot of things in wrestling when when we were together i think things are still the same i think we’re going to constantly continue to challenge and evolve each other and and our programs to continue to push each other it took Oklahoma State about 15 years to get him and already Taylor’s impact is being felt the Cowboys finished 13-1 this regular season and won the Big 12 Conference Championship the Sleeping Giants are on the road back to becoming contenders again coach Taylor has brought a lot of excitement back on the mat wrestling can be a sport that takes everything out of you mentally and physically he always wants to mention how you know we’re in a very fortunate situation and we’re very blessed to be in a room and a place in America we can come in and we can put all of our time and focus into wrestling every program that I was a part of you know we were able to achieve things that at the time didn’t seem like they were going to happen and I felt like I was able to lead by the way I competed on the mat had that mentality that I was going to try and go out and dominate cowboys on three 1 2 3