Oklahoma State wrestling shows itself as legit NCAA title contender under David Taylor

PHILADELPHIA — The whirring sounds of forklifts and power screwdrivers filled the air as the makeover of Wells Fargo Center from a wrestling arena to a hockey rink began late Saturday night, but the noises that signaled the end of the NCAA Championships meant nothing to David Taylor.

As the workers zipped back and forth around him, the Oklahoma State wrestling coach leaned up against the hockey boards at one end of the floor while he discussed with the media the scope of his first season leading the Cowboys.

Nothing was going to take the smile off Taylor’s face.

“To get third place as a team, that’s pretty special,” Taylor said. “It’s not an individual thing. It’s not like one guy can carry you there. It’s everybody, all the guys that were here are part of that.

“That’s what makes this sport so great. Individually, those guys help you win, but you need everybody. Guys that are training partners. Guys that are wrestling here. Guys that didn’t make it here.”

Taylor has not yet been OSU’s coach for 11 full months. He took over for a legend in John Smith — a task the college sports world warns against. He had no prior coaching experience beyond individual training of wrestlers.

Yet he took over a program that had finished 18th, 17th and 10th at the NCAA Championships the previous three years and took them to third place as a team, with two individual national champions — both of whom had to beat two previous national champs to do it.

Dean Hamiti Jr. and Wyatt Hendrickson, the Cowboys’ national champions on Saturday night, had quite obvious roadblocks to their individual titles. Hamiti had never finished better than sixth at the NCAA Championships. Hendrickson was a clear underdog when measured against Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson — the man Hendrickson beat to win his title.

Both wrestlers pointed to the guidance of Taylor and his staff in getting them to the level needed to win national championships.

And it’s not just his national champions who praise Taylor’s work in reigniting Cowboy wrestling.

“We’re going in the right direction,” graduating senior Dustin Plott said. “I have no doubt, the next couple years, the national title will be back at Oklahoma State. Probably next year. Just the direction the culture’s going, the leadership we have, the guys on the team, the regional training center. It takes a village and we have a great one at Oklahoma State.”

Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys coach David Taylor watches as Wyatt Hendrickson defeats Gable Steveson of the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center.

Of the 10 Cowboys in the starting lineup at the end of the year, only three have eligibility remaining. But Taylor’s first recruiting class last summer included multiple wrestlers ready to contribute early.

Guys like Cody Merrill at the upper weights and Japanese national champion Rin Sakamoto at the lower weights bring plenty of excitement. And the 2025 recruiting class ranked second nationally with eight signees in the FloWrestling top 100. And the 2026 class already includes commitments from two of the top three overall wrestlers in the country.

Former Cowboy wrestler Daniel Cormier, who went on to become a UFC heavyweight champion and ESPN wrestling commentator, stepped in during Taylor’s post-match interview after Friday night’s semifinals to share his thoughts on the direction of the program.

“Hey, we back,” Cormier said, slapping Taylor’s chest before turning toward the media. “Let me tell you something. This man right here, he’s bringing us back. We gonna get a title. We gonna get ‘em.”

It no longer feels like hyperbole or a pie-in-the-sky dream to proclaim such things. And Taylor — supremely confident from his competitive days as a four-time world champion — isn’t hedging.

“People talked about Oklahoma State being a sleeping giant,” he said Saturday night on the floor of the Wells Fargo Center. “Now, we’re inserted right back in the conversation. When I got here, people would say, ‘Maybe you’ll win down the road,’ and ‘Maybe one day you can win.’

“No, we wanted to win this year. I thought we’d win this year. Never gonna settle for something less than that.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State wrestling shows itself as legit NCAA title contender

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