David Taylor opens up on final days of competition, accepting Oklahoma State wrestling job

David Taylor pivoted quickly from the competition mat to becoming Oklahoma State’s next wrestling head coach.

By this point, Taylor has already put in two months-plus of work with the Cowboys. But it was a wild set of circumstances after he fell at the Olympic Trials to then-Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammate Aaron Brooks.

Taylor is now retired from competing and focused on making Oklahoma State the elite power in college wrestling once again.

“I was focused on training, I was focused on competing, every intention to go and represent the United States this year,” Taylor said on Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru and Henry. “But as I alluded to earlier, John Smith had this job for 33 years. So the big jobs in wrestling, you know, college programs, like, they’re long tenured. (I’m) 33 years old, you know, my entire life, John Smith has had this job so, you know, he retired a couple weeks before the Olympic trials, and the job was unfilled. 

“After I lost the trials, you’re going through those stages of your grieving. You’re trying to figure out what’s next, you know, shoot, you know, like, it’s not something I had felt in a really long time, very fortunate to compete at high level for a really long time. I got a call from an Oklahoma number, and I went to voicemail, and I listened to it, and it was the athletic director … I told my wife, ‘hey, Oklahoma State just called and they’re interested and want to sit down for an interview. And my wife and I talked about college wrestling coaching, but it’s a college wrestling coaching is not. It’s not, you’re not just coaching wrestling, you’re the CEO of a program.” 

David Taylor was at ‘crossroads’ before Oklahoma State

Taylor owned and operated his M2 Academy as a coach for wrestlers, but Oklahoma State was a completely different ballgame.

“Really I wasn’t, you know, desiring to go be a head coach, but I always said, ‘Man, there are a couple places that you have to think about,’” Taylor said. “There are times you can impact wrestling, you can impact individuals, you can change a sport of wrestling … And Oklahoma, State is one of those programs. So when they call, let’s see, let’s listen. Now, I’m going to a crossroads in my career, you know? What does it look like? Do I coach? Do I continue to compete? Do I retire like, what do I do? Sat down and we left that interview, and they left very confident that I was their guy.” 

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 Cael Sanderson arrived at PSU in 2010.