Settled Dust: A Look Back at (Yet Another) Penn State Title

How has PSU been dominating college wrestling for a decade and a half? Well...

Apr 04, 2025

A privilege of having one’s own platform is that one’s never late to the party. Deadlines are what one decides. With the length of LateRope I’ve granted myself, I’m thinking of another type of Madness settled 13 days ago in Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Arena.

With a shade of jealousy, we Other-Winter-Sport fans have dubbed it March Matness.

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The NCAA Wrestling Championships were held March 20-22. Penn State secured its 12th national title of the last 14 tournaments held.

The dramatic, heavyweight final match aside (and that President Trump and Elon Musk were in attendance), the college wrestling world knew the Nittany Lions would win the national championship. Of course we did. If team titles were guarantees, coach Cael Sanderson’s squad is an eastern sunrise.

No other college or professional sports team can boast such dominance the last decade and a half. There are 10 weight classes in college; the Nittany Lions had 10 All Americans this year, only the second time that’s happened. They set the record for team points at the national tournament (177), breaking their own record set last year (172.5).

PSU’s supremacy begs a few questions:

Is Sanderson simply a superior coach than his NCAA peers? Does he know more than Pat Santoro, Doug Schwab, Zeke Jones, Cary Kolat, Tom Ryan, Pat Popolizio, Rob Koll, Mark Manning and Tom Brands? Is his staff more skilled at teaching techniques than every other staff in the country? Is PSU’s strength program a product of the latest research while others still follow Charles Atlas’ Dynamic Tension program?

Nah.

I’ve got a theory. It’s worth as much as most others. As such, retirement isn’t on the horizon anytime soon.

Removing NIL considerations - “You can’t! It’s a reality in today’s landscape!” - (actually, you can. Sanderson’s Nittany Lion dominance predates NIL allowances), the theory goes like this:

Despite marked differences in coaching temperaments, Sanderson has become the sport’s second-coming of former Iowa coach, Dan Gable.

That’s it. That’s the theory.

Gable, who coached the Hawkeyes to 15 national championships - more than guys named Krzyzewski, Wooden or Saban - landed most of the nation’s top talent from the mid 1970s into the 1990s because he was who he was. If Gable recruited a lad from anywhere in the country, there was a (much) greater than average chance said lad would be wearing black and gold in college.

Why?

Gable was every American kid-wrestler’s hero. He came knocking with the trappings of mythical accomplishments from his own competitive career. He never lost a high school match, then went 118-1 in college. He won a World title in 1971 and gold at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Vaulting his legacy into stratospheric realms was that no Olympic opponent was able to score a single point against him.

Gable coaching the Iowa Hawkeyes (credit: ESPN)

In sum, ‘twas more than kinda-sorta flattering to a prep star if Gable came calling.

Imagine Eddie Van Halen inviting an amateur guitarist to tour with him for four years. Most likely, lemme think about it wasn’t an option.

Fast forward a couple decades. Sanderson had already stamped himself as the sport’s newest American uber-star. He was the first NCAA D1 wrestler to go undefeated all four years. With a record of 159-0 and four NCAA titles, Sanderson, too, won Olympic gold (2004). He’s the only wrestler to be featured on the cover of a Wheaties box.

Sanderson entered the coaching ranks at his alma mater, Iowa State. In April, 2009, Penn State wooed him to Happy Valley.

Though Gable was famously fiery and demonstrative while coaching in his wrestlers’ corners and Sanderson’s calm exterior rarely wavers, what both had in common was enough.

They were the biggest U.S. wrestling names of their time. Then they became coaches.

It isn’t coincidental that John Smith, the GreatnessBridge connecting the Gable and Sanderson wrestling eras, brought Oklahoma State back to a measure of its national title-winning ways after taking over for the Cowboys. When Flowrestling ranked the Top 100 USA wrestlers of all time, Smith was #1.

Smith was tabbed as Okie State’s head coach in 1991 while approaching the end of a competitive career that included six Olympic and World titles from 1987 to 1992. After two decades of Iowa ruling the college wrestling landscape, Smith’s Cowboys won it all in 1994, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. His teams finished in the nation’s top three 16 times.

Notice a trend?

A phone call from a HashtagBigName is persuasion on steroids to a 17 year-old prodigy. Team titles repeat themselves when a coach lassoes the lion’s share of the nation’s top recruits.

There will be accusations that the theory is over-simplistic, that it knocks Gable and Sanderson’s coaching and program-building abilities. There will be charges it's downright disrespectful.

It isn’t.

Coaches receiving too much credit for wins and too much blame for losses is as old as the coaching profession. Fans of the 1975 and 1976 Cincinnati Reds and the 1984 Detroit Tigers bow at the altar of Sparky Anderson, the silver-haired skipper of both teams during their years of MLB dominance.

In 1989, Anderson’s Tigers finished with the worst record in baseball, losing 103 games. Had he suddenly forgotten all the baseball strategy he’d ever known?

Nah.

Sparky’s ‘89 players weren’t on the same talent-planet as guys named Bench, Rose, Morgan, Perez or Griffey (Reds), or Parrish, Morris, Gibson, Whitaker or Trammel (Tigers). And Joe Torre didn’t suddenly become baseball-brilliant after accruing a losing record (894-1003) during his first three managerial stints.

When granted a 12-year run with the New York Yankees, Torre won 10 American League Eastern divisional and four World Series titles. Lineups with guys named Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, Martinez, Giambi and Williams make a lot of managers look good.

Anybody remember how the Patriots fared when Brady left for the Buccaneers? Or how far Belichick-the-Genius stock plummeted after Brady’s departure?

Legendary Ohio State football coach, Woody Hayes, understood the whys and hows behind consistently winning teams. Woody never said, “You win with great coaches.”

Sanderson gets the best because he was a legend - same as how things were for Gable. If you’re getting the best, you’ll win a lot. Winning begets winning. Recruits today don’t remember Cael’s competitive days, but they’ve grown up during PSU’s reign. Imagine being a 17 year-old wrestler and the greatest wrestling team in college wants you.

What’s that like? I’ll never know. I can guess, though.

Again, flattering. Persuasive, too.

Tides change. The current crop of high school stars looked up to four-time NCAA finalist (and two-time champion) and four-time World and Olympic gold medalist, David Taylor. In 2024, Taylor was named as Oklahoma State’s head coach after Smith retired.

This Guy’s prediction? The Cowboys will be primary players in the title-hunt field for the foreseeable future.

Because big names get big names.

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