Rich Lorenzo: The process that brought him here is that the job opened up. The opportunity to come to Penn State and be the head coach became available to anybody in the U.S. and I was totally shocked that he even applied for the position because he’s such a world renowned person. He was doing such a tremendous job at his previous school. But then when you see what his goals are - his drive and desire and focus - then it makes a lot of sense. I’m impressed that a guy that young could have that kind of vision. They had asked me for a list of who I thought the top candidates for the job were and on my list I didn’t give them Cael’s name or Tommy Brands or J. Robinson. So I was shocked when I heard he applied.
Ira Lubert: President Spanier and Athletic Director Tim Curley deserve a lot of credit for getting Cael here. Both Graham Spanier and Tim Curly were totally committed to get the best coach possible for the Penn State wrestling program. They were both totally committed to Penn State becoming a leading program. They recognized that they needed to enhance the attractiveness of the program and they started doing that years ago. They started with building a world class wrestling room for example. They provided a little more flexibility on the wrestling camps. When this opening came up they were very open on how they would recruit and pay a coach. You again have to give both those guys credit because they reached out to Dave Joyner and myself who both have a wrestling background and are on the board of Trustees and they said we are going to form this committee to be made up of 3 internal folks and we’d like to have 2 external folks. Since you’re on the board of Trustees and since you have a wrestling background would you like to participate in the decision recognizing that the ultimate decision always rests with Tim Curley and Graham Spanier? This committee wasn’t tasked with making the final decision but it did make a recommendation. But ultimately the decision was made by Tim and Graham.
So with that as the backdrop I got very excited about trying to get involved and trying to bring the best talent possible here. We interviewed 7 or 8 candidates-all world class in their own right. All tremendous caliber people and great coaches. But in my mind Cael, in his own way, stuck out of the bunch. When he applied for the job we flew out to see him at Iowa State. When you sit across from him you lose track of the fact that he was 29 years old. I mean he’s 29 going on 60. He has tremendous maturity for his age. When I looked into his eyes I knew early on that he really wanted to be at Penn State. He said that Penn State had a tremendous academic reputation and heritage and great facilities. He talked about the fact that Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Delaware comprise a tremendous recruiting area. The greatest kids in high school year in and year out come out of that area which is within a 2-4 hour drive to Penn State. And he pointed out that many of the National Champions last year came from within a 4-5 hour drive from Penn State. And as Cael talked what I came away with was that he wanted to build a powerhouse here. He was willing to give up a short term gain in order to make a long term impression on the sport. And that in itself for me was the most incredible appeal - his maturity and confidence. And that’s why I was all for him as a coach.
I’ll give you an example of what I mean. You put aside the fact that he won 4 national championships and 4 outstanding awards along with his gold medal in the Olympics. That set of accomplishments is incredible in itself and probably will never be duplicated. But there is more: in his first 3 years in coaching from age 26-29 he qualified all 10 of his wrestlers every year. And 15 of those were All-Americans and I believe one or maybe two were National Champions. No one else, even Iowa, has qualified 30 for the NCAAs in the last 3 years. He had all 10 of his kids coming back this year –all 10. And those 10 finished third in the country last season-12 points out of the lead. If you look at the teams that finished in front of Iowa State last season, Iowa and Ohio State, they graduate a meaningful amount of people. It doesn’t mean they don’t have other good kids but if I’m a coach at 29 years old and I’ve worked for 3 years building a power house and I have my entire team back that came within 12 points of winning the National team title and I give that up to come to Penn State to start over here, that tells me he has tremendous confidence and tremendous maturity beyond his years. Here is someone who has spent his entire life in Utah and his last 10-11 years in Iowa and he stepped out of that whole process to say I’m going to come to a place, where he’s only been to once in his life where he won his first national championship as a freshman, and he wants to build a powerhouse here.
I’ve had dinner with him since then and I just continue to be amazed at his work ethic, his maturity, his desire to do things right and his standards. He sets high goals for everybody and he won’t let people compromise or take short cuts in reaching those goals. But he sets high goals for himself as well; he leads by example.
What in the next 5-10 years would make you happy as far as Penn State wrestling goes?
Rich Lorenzo: What would make us all happy is to win the NCAA title and to do it in a classy Penn State type of way, turning out quality kids off the mat as well as on the mat. When you hear Cael talk about his wrestlers he talks about his kids winning NCAA titles, making World teams and Olympic teams. That’s what he wants to accomplish. He wants to make things so that we have a lot to be proud about and have a lot of things to market and to help the sport of wrestling get more attention and to help it grow. I feel that that’s what is in the future, because he’s got both feet planted solidly on the ground. He’s not going to be looking to run and grab the award. He’s going to walk each step and earn his way as a coach like he did as a wrestler.
Ira Lubert: Like everyone else I scratch my head and wonder why only two teams east of the Mississippi have won the National Championship in all these years. And you have to ask why that is. I look at the raw materials of what you need to win National Championships. I broke down the raw materials that you need. You need 5 things - a great institution that people want to come to – Penn State has that. You need a great nucleus of high school wrestlers that want to stay in this area. You need great facilities, great leadership and fan support. And I think we have all 5 raw materials now. Everybody has the same amount of scholarships - some can get more out of their scholarships because of their reputation; maybe more kids will go to Iowa on a partial ride than here. And there will always be these “bumps in the road” - little things that happen that can make a difference in a team’s fortunes, i.e. great kids might get hurt. But those are just statistical aspects that happen. But if you have those 5 main ingredients needed to excel, then over time, you should be able to compete for championships. And that’s what we have here today. We’ll see what happens.
Rich Lorenzo: When I was coaching and we were challenging for a National Championship we used to put a lot of people in Rec Hall and in other gyms and that’s been missing to some degree. Now we’re going to be a contender again and people want to be there when we win. I’m really excited about this. Let's fill the Jordan Center in the future. Bring Iowa and Oklahoma State in and let’s pack the Bryce Jordan Center and set a national attendance record.
Ira Lubert: The fans aren’t going to come until you put the product on the mat. To ask the fans to be loyal when you haven’t been winning isn’t going to work. But this is already changing - when we officially announced Cael at Rec Hall, 500-600 people showed up just to see the announcement. As far as matches go, we’ll start by packing Rec Hall in the near future for key matches and then move to the Jordan center at some point in the future. I think Penn State’s best wrestling days are ahead. I couldn’t be happier.
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