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Thomas Gilman shared his feelings about returning to State Wrestling as a coach at the Nittany Lions Wrestling Club after serving in Oklahoma for a year. In 2024, he and Jimmy Kennedy were selected as assistant coaches to train alongside David Taylor in Stillwater.
Gilman, who competed for the Iowa Hawkeyes at the collegiate level, won two podiums at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in 2016 and 2017. He concluded his career with 107 wins and 12 losses. He has made waves on the freestyle mat since 2018, amassing three World and three Pan American Championships podiums, until moving to Oklahoma State in 2024 to assist former Penn State standout David Taylor.
However, recently, he announced his transfer to Penn State as a coach at the Nittany Lions Wrestling Club. He has an old connection with NLWC since he joined the club in 2020-21 after leaving Hawkeye Wrestling Club. In conversation with Justin Basch in the Baschmania podcast, Gilman expressed excitement about reuniting with old pals and building a connection with the new wrestlers as well.
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"I'm obviously excited to reunite with old friends, friends I didn't, you know, lose or, you know, like reconnecting, just like physical daily reconnection. Yeah. Like Zane, you know, I'm really excited to get back, hang out with him and his wife and his strength coach and Nick Lee and all those guys."
He added:
"So, but like the new guys, it's going to be awesome. You know, I've kind of been around Lilledahl a little bit. He's coming up, committing and I'm excited to develop that relationship. Sounds like Ono's quite the character. So excited to get my paws on that cat. And then, I mean, we'll see if I still got it, if I can go in there, you know, throw him around, which probably not. If I do, watch out and come back.."
At Iowa, Thomas Gilman was named the NCAA Division I All-American three times.
Thomas Gilman revealed the real reason behind leaving Oklahoma
As an assistant coach in David Taylor's wrestling program, Thomas Gilman achieved success as he helped two wrestlers to the National title at the 2025 Championships. Even though he enjoyed the success, Gilman had made an admission that he would leave the Cowboys to return to Penn State.
In the Baschmania podcast, the 30-year-old revealed that there were some issues with the staff since the beginning, but he didn't call anybody out. He rather said:
"Right when we got down here, it seemed like there was issues. Were they with me? Were they with the staff? I think that everybody's at fault. I'm not gonna point fingers. I'll put the blame on me for the most part, but also I'll make people take accountability for their actions. So I think that it was mutual."
Thomas Gilman earned a Big Ten title in 2017 after finishing second and third on the podium in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
