Blue White Illustrated

what you're doing down there," he says. "It gets rough. We used to sneak back there, through the fields and trees. You can catch some big fish in there." It's a comforting memory for the Penn State wrestling coach, who is now in his fourth year on the job and a long, long way from his hometown of Heber City. But as Sanderson reveals during an exclusive interview with Blue White Illustrated's Tim Owen, if there's one place that compares to home, it's State College, Pa. In the Q&A that follows, Sanderson talks about his new home, his old home and why he left his alma mater, Iowa State, for a university nestled deep within the Appalachians. He also discusses the future of the Nittany Lion program, which is just a couple of NCAA championships shy of becoming a bona fide dynasty. Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Communications ehind Cael Sanderson's desk, alongside a family portrait, sits a landscape photo of the river that served as the backdrop to some of his best childhood memories. Sanderson reaches back and grabs the framed image, points toward the roaring current of the Provo River, which runs through Utah's Wasatch Mountains, next to the valley in which Sanderson was raised, and begins to reminisce about fishing its waters. "When you go down south through the mountains, you've gotta know David Taylor and Ed Ruth are such rare talents. How precious will this year be, with both of those guys being in their fifth year? And what do you tell fans to make sure they see them wrestle if they haven't already? Get out and watch it and support it. I don't know if there were any other two guys in the NCAA tournament – even in the last 10 years – who could score points like them. There are different styles, but as far as guys who are just fun to watch wrestle, I think David and Ed are remarkable. So just enjoy it. We hear a lot about the season tickets. It's hard to get into the matches, so we're going to try to get one match over at the BJC this next year to let everybody come. A lot of that has to do with the schedule and getting good dates. We're going to try to get Oklahoma State or Ohio State, one of the two. Ohio State is [already scheduled for] December, so we want to try and get that one over there just because of the timing. They have a really good team, too. Our dual last year came down to the wire. The Steiber brothers alone almost beat us with their two pins. What will it take to get this match lined up and into the Jordan Center? It's just logistics, it's timing, it's lining it up when it's [going to be] worthwhile. We don't want to go over there and sell 8,000 tickets, because it costs us $15,000 just to wrestle over there. That's kind of frustrating, I guess. It's like an away match for us. It's not the same home feel, but we'll have our home crowd. I have been very slow to move out of Rec Hall. You have men's and women's basketball that play [at the BJC]. So it's a matter of finding out when to go over there and if you're going to get 15,000 fans; our goal would be 16,000. The national [dual meet] attendance record is [15,955]. It was our last year at Iowa State when we went to Iowa at CarverHawkeye Arena. If you're going to get 16,000, you've gotta get some students there. High school wrestling can't have an event going on that same time, either. I think [having ample time for promotion] is really important, too, so people can plan on it. I think Oklahoma State would maybe be a better draw. It has a bigger reputation, but it's also a more challenging time of year to get the facility. Cody [Sanderson] is trying to work on that. We have support from our administration to do what we need to do. It's just a matter of making it happen. You've focused on the lighter weights the past couple of recruiting cycles. Does the focus now switch to the 165s, 74s, the 84s? We've gotta replace who's not coming back. We're going to be pretty solid in the lower weighs for a few years now. We lose David and Ed in a year. So those are immediate needs. We have [Matt] McCutcheon coming in. We have some guys training like [Wes] Phipps, trying to be the guy at 84. At 174, obviously, we have Matt Brown. He'll be back for two more years. The Altons are juniors next year, [James] Vollrath is a senior, so 165 is a big need for us. We're looking. There are some good

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