"I got it all figured out" - David Taylor makes stance clear as he aims for NCAA Wrestling Championships title in first season as Cowboys coach

David Taylor expressed confidence in his pupils, ahead of his first NCAA Championships as a coach. He took the coaching job with the Oklahoma State University wrestling team after John Smith's retirement.

Taylor became one of the most accomplished wrestlers in Penn State history, amassing two NCAA Division I Championship titles and two Dan Hedge Trophies in his respective weight category. The multiple-time World medalist ended his career with a defeat at the US Olympic trials in 2024 but returned for the final time to compete at the World Championships.

Taylor shifted his complete focus to coaching the Cowboys. Ahead of the 2025 NCAA Division I Championships, David Taylor noted that coaching helped him understand how different athletes are wired. He also shared that he kept his confidence in his mentees, heading to the competition with enough practice. He wrote:

"I think as a coach it's learning how to take that off of your guys and help them to wrestle at the best level. I think it's just communication it's constant learning you know. I think a coach is an athlete you never have everything figured out I've learned different things how to communicate to guys, how to help them prepare, how each guy's wired throughout the day and again we're talking about practice. It is all practice.

He added:

"Somehow you know and you start getting swirling with different things... They've just been steady throughout the week you know and I'll ask a week's conference tournament so I mean just saying, I got it all figured out. I think we've made a lot of progress and we want to trust the guys."

David Taylor expressed his feelings after his final World Championships stint in 2024

David Taylor at the Wrestling Senior World Championships Belgrade 2023 - (Source: Getty)

David Taylor won gold at the World Championships in 2015, 2017 and 2018. However, his run for the fourth and final title ended when he was defeated by Russian Abdulrashid Sadulaev in the first round. He could only return to contend for bronze.

Capping his career without the 2024 World title, Taylor emotionally expressed that he was laser-focused on winning and had everything planned out.

"When you're so good for so long you just never know when it's time to be done. I just got an opportunity to go out the way I wanted to. It's a tough decision to wrestle but, it just didn't want to end the way it did in April, it didn't necessarily mean I wanted to be here, either you know I just want to have the chance just to finish on my terms."

The 34-year-old added:

"I was hyper-focused on wrestling Sadulaev. I have the game script of what I thought and how the match went differently. Should have wrestled it like that match. I felt like this was a chance of redemption in this match."

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, David Taylor defeated Iranian wrestler Hassan Yazdani to win his first gold medal on the global stage.