Claunch's Thoughts. David Taylor is good, Cael Sanderson is good, Cael coached David...

We had quite a lot happen in the world of wrestling over the last week. From the #1 and #2 teams facing each other in Stillwater, to the #1 and #2 international dual meet teams facing off against each other in Iran, it was certainly action packed. Let's reflect on the events of the last week or so. Sometimes a little extra time allows for some more complex thought and allows us to retroactively improve ourselves and these events. Other times, it allows you to irresponsibly run with whatever premise you hastily came up with in the first place. We'll probably have a little of both here, so as Dr. Dre said, "sit back, relax, and strap on your seat belt."

Do you remember David Taylor? He's the guy who won the Midlands last year by beating TJ Dudley last year. He also has some wrestling shoes out on the market. Oh yeah, he also was a 4x NCAA finalist and 2x Champion. He also won the Hodge twice, but other than all of those things, he's kind of been less visible on the wrestling scene that we've been used to from David, or as I've been referring to him, Tenacious D. So we had the World Cup in Iran this last weekend, and David reminded everyone why he has his own shoe. Tenacious D used his Pick of Destiny, unrelenting pace, and barrage of attacks to take out the worlds greatest competition. He flat out broke Iran's Little Yaz, their 2016 Olympic Champ from 74kgs. Flat out, I hate that dude. I hate his stupid roll onto the mat, and his "my shit don't stink" look on his face. So watching TD not only weather the storm, but then make him look like he was wrestling after spending the night before partying with Dennis Rodman, was outstanding. The US Open with both Tenacious D and Cox will be outstanding. That's not even recognizing the fact that we may get Dake v Burroughs again as well! Either way, Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny was a great movie, but an even better 86kg US Wrestling Machine. Remember a couple years ago when David went to Beat The Streets and beat the 3rd ranked 74kg wrestler in the world? Then he bumped up becasue he wasn't able to prepare like he wanted to? Well now he's able to prepare, he's legit sized for 86kgs, and he's ready to rock! It probably helps that he's got the best coach in the world working with him.

So I went into this dual thinking that Oklahoma State was probably the better team and would sneak an upset or two in to win the dual. Deep down it was hard for me to think that the high end firepower that PSU had wouldn't in the end win out, but my favorite color is Orange, and it's hard for me to get excited about a Big Ten team that isn't Michigan, so I was leaning towards Oklahoma State. In my mind, Chandler Rogers could sneak out a win, maybe even a pin. Austin Schafer could sneak out a win, and maybe Piccinnini would shock the world and beat Suriano. All that paired with close matches at 157 and 184 could help Oklahoma State win their Dual Championship. What hadn't entered my mind was the chance of the opposite happening. Basically PSU won any of the toss up matches, and dominated the other matches with a tech and a pin at 157 and 184 respectively. It was a beat down, but it was worse than that. Suriano was winning that match when he defaulted, and Heil was stuck flat on his back, so there is an 18 point swing right there. Really the only match that OSU outright won during that dual was Kaid Brock, and he only had a major decision against un-ranked George Carpenter. It couldn't have been more of an ass kicking than it was, and Cael Sanderson has proven to be the most outstanding coach that there is in the sport once again. He takes high level talent and makes them superstars, and his third stringers show up at NCAA's and become All American's. This wasn't even supposed to be a big year for Penn State! I think they were ranked 6th or 7th before the season began. That was stupid. I'm typically a fan of underdogs and upsets, but moving forward I'm siding with Cael. It just seems like a safe bet.