Bo Nickal is pretty familiar with David Taylor considering the Penn State connection, but the three-time NCAA champ is happy for the sport of wrestling.
With Taylor now at Oklahoma State as the team’s new wrestling head coach, Nickal expects the sport to get highly competitive amongst the elite teams. Penn State’s been the dominant force but the Cowboys could level the playing field at some point.
Nickal has since transitioned to MMA and is currently undefeated in the UFC, but he knows how big of a move this was for collegiate wrestling.
“Yeah, it was pretty crazy,” Nickal said on his podcast. “I feel like it was kind of bound to happen at some point, just with how many good wrestlers coach Cael (Sanderson’s) coached and brought through and have come through Penn State. Like at some point, somebody’s gonna go take a head job and make some waves. And I think timing wise, it made sense for David just with his career and where the college wrestling landscape is looking.”
Taylor won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 at 86 KG. He’s also a three-time World Champion and won a Silver Medal at the 2021 World Championships.
Taylor was a two-time NCAA champion and four-time finalist while at Penn State. His losses in the finals came to Bubba Jenkins (Arizona State) and Kyle Dake (Cornell). Ironically, Jenkins was at Penn State but transferred to ASU when Sanderson arrived in 2010.
“To me, it sucks that we lost a bunch of guys,” Nickal said of Taylor’s departure. “You know you got Jimmy (Kennedy) and (Thomas) Gilman and everybody else that’s potentially going with him and that’s not good, but I think it’s good for wrestling overall to make it more competitive, more entertaining. We won the NCAA Tournament by 100 points this year. That’s insane. You can cut our team in half and make it first and second. I mean, it doesn’t change automatically, but it’s the potential and he’s gonna get good recruits and stuff.”
Nickal’s former teammate and current podcast co-host Anthony Cassar, who won an NCAA title in 2019, agrees with the buzz surrounding Taylor.
“It kind of put some life back into the sport,” Cassar said. “And yeah, like you said, it’s bound to happen eventually … I mean, it’s good and bad, but anyone that wants to transition to coaching and stay at Penn State has a long time to go, because our coaches aren’t going anywhere … It’s good for business and it’s just go your separate ways.”
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