David Taylor is leaving the door wide open for a Penn State dual, and he’s making it clear he’s ready to keep that door unlocked every year.
Speaking Tuesday afternoon in a media availability, the Oklahoma State coach said he’ll set aside a date on his schedule specifically for Penn State if the matchup ever gets the green light.
“When it comes to Penn State, I’m saving one day on my schedule every single year for when they want to wrestle,” Taylor said. “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.”
Taylor’s comments line up with what he has said before, but this was his strongest public push yet for the idea of a Penn State-Ohio State-style showcase dual.
Back in the summer of 2024, shortly after taking the Oklahoma State job, Taylor told Nittany Sports Now that a meeting with Penn State would be enormous for the sport.
“It would be the most exciting dual meet probably in the history of wrestling,” he told NSN.
He also said then that a back-and-forth setup would make sense for both programs.
“I think it would be great to have a continual home and away opportunity for both places,” Taylor said. “I think both fanbases would really enjoy that. I think the wrestling community would be excited about that.”
Even then, he acknowledged the practical hurdles. Wrestling schedules are limited, and non-conference dates don’t come easy.
“I think, obviously, being a coach, you have to work around your scheduling and you can only have so many non-conference opportunities,” he said, “but if the opportunity presents itself and that’s something we can work out, I think it would be really fun.”
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