Why Ben Askren Predicted that David Taylor would take the Oklahoma State head coaching job

In this video, Ben breaks down why he predicted David Taylor would become the head coach at Oklahoma State. Find out why Askren thinks Taylor committed to this job. Ben discusses his reasoning and what it could mean for the college wrestling scene in the next few years.

what’s up guys so I left frl last week and I wasn’t going to totally leave you guys hanging uh I figured I’ll do some short videos here and there I’ll post aw YouTube channel because I don’t have a YouTube channel which I don’t think I do maybe I do who knows um and this seems like a great video to start David Taylor took the Oklahoma state job last night Monday night this is Tuesday Morning um and I tweeted Sunday night that I would take that I thought he would take the job on Monday uh I had no more insight information anyone else I knew he didn’t an initial interview I knew that Oklahoma State edins or whomever flew to Pennsylvania and when I tweeted that a bunch people texted me and they told me I was wrong Christian you told me I was wrong and and I said no I don’t have any information that’s what my gut tells me right and you talked me out of it and you made me think he turned it down which he may or may not have whatever um but here’s why here’s why my gut told me David was going to take the job so if you think of David Taylor what do you think d David Taylor is a wrestler through and through he his whole life has been a center out of wrestling so he started in Wyoming he moved to Ohio so he could be at St Paris Graham so he had a great wrestling situation he then wanted to follow kale so he initially committed to Iowa State when kale when kale went to Penn State he followed him to Penn State so this guy’s whole life has been around wrestling now David Taylor is coming to the end of his career he didn’t make the Olympic team this year and when you think of college coaching jobs right he he done M2 he has a good club uh but when we think of college coach jobs how many really really great College coaching jobs are there there’s two traditional wrestling Powers Iowa Oklahoma State you know you could say Penn State Penn State’s a newer one right and listen there’s been other teams who won national titles Ohio State Minnesota but they’re not traditional wrestling Powers Iowa and Oklahoma State go so far back I mean we’re talking at this point 50 years plus right that they’ve been wrestling powerhouses so how many other great jobs are there right Oklahoma State Iowa who knows when Iowa is going to open bouret is not leaving Michigan anytime soon Ryan’s not leaving Ohio state anytime soon so you know which jobs would be open for David Taylor so my thought was when I tweeted this was that David Taylor’s whole life has been centered on wrestling he wants his life to continue to be centered on wrestling and while obviously there were some things that were pulling him to Penn State he’s been there for his entire adult life he probably has an a really really close relationship with kale um he at the end of the day he probably said this is my opportunity this is the best opportunity I’m going to get and it’s at the perfect time I you know I literally didn’t make the Olympia team what two weeks ago and now boom pop this this opportunity pops open yeah yes I’m going to take it okay so that was kind of what I was thinking is his life has been Center of wrestling and he he’s smart enough to realize this is the best opportunity he’s going to get who knows knows when another one like this is going to open up it might not be anytime soon anytime soon right it might be another 5 10 years till a good opportunity like this opens up so boom it opens opens up at an opportune time he’s going to take it okay what else I want to talk about um the Penn State coaching tree this is something I I’ve talked about a lot on frl is I said you know kale one of the things Kale’s done such a great job of is like keeping everyone in house now there has been other people whove went places Ed Ruth coaching Mark Hall venzo Frank Molinaro so there have been Penn State that went other places but kale has done a great job of keeping the nucleus at home so you know kale uh Casey Cody they’ve been the coaches the entire time Varner’s been around the whole time um Tav Taylor’s been there right the entirety of the time and I thought it was only matter of time till you know maybe David first but then maybe it’s n and Zayn and other people go other places and there becomes a coaching tree like there was with Gable at Iowa like there was with John Smith at Oklahoma State where these guys they see someone do it really well and they go out and they try to emulate that now David is going to be the first one who’s going to go try to emulate it um my thought is he’s obviously going to do a great job now I do think it will likely take a few years um I think a lot of the guys who were at Oklahoma State they went there because they like the culture there they went there and they thought we’re getting this right now David Tay in now that’s something different and a lot of guys are going to say hey I’m freaking excited for that I I want like a little something different or they’re going to give him an opportunity but there’s always going to be some guys who went there maybe they want to party too much and David’s like we’re we’re going to cool it on the partying and they’re going to say well that wasn’t what I signed up for and they’re going to go somewhere else so I think it’s probably going to take him a couple years to get the right pieces in the right places I’m sure almost immediately he’s going to have some some success with some of the athletes to buy into what he’s selling but as far as the entirety of the team my guess is it takes a couple years just my guess he he was he could he could do really well next year but I I my guess is going to be two or three years and then he really really start starts killing it um and I think you know I think that makes things a lot more exciting in college wrestling cuz kale has essentially cornered the market to the point where we didn’t have a team race this year we’re probably not going to have a team Race next year we like team races so at some point we want a team race again pretty pretty pleaseed can we have it David Iowa hasn’t been able to bring it to us maybe Tom ry’s got a good team coming up Michigan’s had some good teams but we haven’t had a competitive team Race uh so let’s get one hopefully soon um and the last thing you know Coleman Scott um I’ve never anything but positive experience with Coleman um I think he’s a few years younger than me I like him I think he’s a great dude that being said I believe I said this publicly onl if I didn’t I should have I said it said to other people was I don’t think he should have left North Carolina he had a head coaching job at a very good University and he took the associate head or assistant head or whatever it was at Oklahoma State on a promise on a promise that he was going to be the next head coach and I said immediately there’s no way that that promise can actually be made there’s no way maybe John Smith told him and is John Smith going to have influence is he going to have some influence on the administration of course right but is he the only one that has influence and will he make the final decision the answer that is obviously no the answer is obviously no they were obviously going to open it up for a really big National coaching search and they going to try to get the best guy they could get which was in this case I I think they I think they made the right choice I think Chris Pon would have been a great choice I think Pat po would have been a great choice um but I think they made the right choice I think it’s is a fun one I think it’s one that’s going to Bear out a lot of success for them um and so colan should have understood when he took that decision and listen maybe he did I never had this conversation with him maybe he did understand this that there’s going to be other people that have influence don’t you guys think there’s going to be some rich booster who says I want things the way I want things if you don’t give me the way I want things I’m not giving any more damn money yes of course there was and so are those people going to have influence yeah of course are they have as much influence as John Smith no but but they are in fact going to have influence and so when you’re when and listen honestly this is a this is a decent portion of the reason why I probably will never coach in college because I brought my own thing I do my own thing listen I got to argue with Max once in a while I got to say hey Max what the f and then Max says no this is going to be this way and I say no it’s going to be this way and we argue once in a while right but I don’t have to answer to anybody right and if you’re at a university listen there’s uh the athletic administrators right there’s a whole bunch of ads too many administrators probably there’s a head ad then above them there’s the president there’s the board and blah blah blah right there’s all these people and then influencing those people there’s all these rich donors who are saying well I’m giving my money and I want what I want and I don’t like this right so you have all these sources of influence above you so you know a pro a verbal promise from the the current head coach this is to all you other coaches out there that should not be a good enough thing to get you to come right and if you are taking that job you should be under the impression that this is still up for debate like I’m GNA have to go earn this job when it comes open and so yeah that freaking that freaking sucks at col Scott and by by all accounts like I said in my experience he’s been a good guy everyone else says he’s a great guy but I think he probably should have stayed in North Carolina he had a great job he was doing a good job there um will David keep him on my guess is no my my guess is that David Taylor is going to clean house at okl State he’s going to bring his old you know I think he’s probably trying to go Gilman Jimmy Kennedy is an obvious to me for him I think he’s probably try to bring a bunch of those Penn State guys in in with him to Oklahoma State and likely that does not leave a lot of room for the people who are already at Oklahoma State to stay at Oklahoma State maybe heaps one or two I’m not certain so that’s my take on this I think this is so much fun I’m excited congratulations David Taylor I hope you do a great job I hope you shake up colle wrestling I hope you make it so much more fun we want a team Race and guys I’m done with frl I’m not going to leave you hanging I’m not going to do this every day but you know once in a while I’m going to come down here I’m going to click on my camera and then I’m going to upload something YouTube so you guys can hear my thoughts and opinions on stuff have a great day peace