Oklahoma State’s David Taylor Saving Date for Cowboys to Wrestle National Power

The Oklahoma State Cowboys wrestling coach has a couple of good reasons for wanting to face the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Oklahoma State coach David Taylor. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Just a day after learning who his Big 12 home and road opponents would be, Oklahoma State head wrestling coach David Taylor spoke to the media on Tuesday.

Taylor spent nearly 30 minutes talking about his team in preparation for the 2026-27 campaign. Last season the Cowboys finished second at the NCAA Championships and three of his freshmen won titles in their weight classes, making them the first trio of freshmen to win national championships in the same season with the same school.

When it comes to history, few programs in college wrestling compares to Oklahoma State. But there is one that Taylor with love to match up with at some point. In fact, he's saving the date even if they won't.

David Taylor’s Message to National Power

Oklahoma State wrestling coach David Taylor. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Taylor was talking about Penn State, which is one of the top programs in the country and just happens to be his alma mater. He knows all too well what a matchup between the Cowboys and the Nittany Lions would mean to the sport. He doesn’t care where — he just wants it to happen.

“When it comes to Penn State, I'm saving one day on my schedule every single year for when they want to wrestle,” he said to reporters in a session recorded on Oklahoma State’s athletics web site. “So as soon as they say they want to wrestle we'll do it. We'll go there [or] if they ever want to come back here — we don't really care. We just want to wrestle the best teams, and we want to challenge ourselves. I think the sport would really benefit from those two programs wrestling with the history and the excitement of it.”

Oklahoma state's full schedule hasn't been released yet. Along with the Big 12 matchups, Nebraska published its non-conference schedule earlier this summer and has a Nov. 13 matchup with Oklahoma State at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Taylor was a star at Penn State, where he claimed two NCAA titles, two Dan Hodge trophies, four national finals appearances and four conference championships. After college, he won a gold medal in the Olympics and three world championships and six world championship medals. He succeeded OSU legend John Smith when he retired in 2024.

Smith wrestled and coached at Oklahoma State and is one of the most decorated wrestlers in the sport’s history. He won two NCAA titles and two Olympic gold medals. As a coach he guided the Cowboys to five NCAA team championships and coached Team USA in two Olympic games.

Hopefully, Taylor will get his matchup. For now, all he can do is save the date.