The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 ■ 45 at Binghamton, a New York state school that had only around four (depending on the in-state and out-of-state breakdown) of a possible 9.9 scholarships and went 0-12 the year prior to him taking over. In his last year, the Bearcats finished 14th at NCAAs. And they didn't just excel on the mat. From 2006-11, the team's Academic Per- formance Rate (APR) went from 727 to 957. The squad also became known for its community service. The former New York high school state champion and three-time NCAA qualifier at Oklahoma State — who had risen to No. 1 at his weight while helping the Cowboys to four top-five NCAA finishes in his ca- reer — was exactly what Yow was seeking. Her staff would routinely look at the top-25 rankings and find "somebody that doesn't belong." Upon being presented a wrestling coach from "some place called Binghamton," and nobody knowing its location, she told them: "Call the guy. I want to know who he is even if I can't pronounce his last name. Just call him and get a read on the situation." Popolizio didn't even apply for the job — NC State cold-called him. But the then-35-year-old rising star in the profession was intrigued — even with a negative impression of the program. In his words, NC State was "a place where a lot of good recruits came and you never heard from them anymore." The team did not know Popolizio any more than Yow, not to mention the usual tough emotions that come with any coach- ing change. "They fired the guy that brought me here, so that's my guy by default," Tommy Gantt, who had just finished his freshman season, remembered. "This new guy, I don't really know who he is or what he's about — or for that matter where Binghamton University is." Gantt remembers Popolizio's first team meeting. He was already thinking about transferring, and that initial impression only made him want to explore that option fur- ther — though he quickly bought in after a one-on-one meeting with his new coach. "He addressed our whole team and was saying, I've got a zero-tolerance policy, but everybody's got a clean slate now, all that good stuff," Gantt remembered. "… But it was a complete culture shock. There were a lot of talks going on in the dorm that night. They were like, 'Screw Pat.' "I don't think they took to it too well, be- cause a lot of those guys were off the team within a week, maybe some within days." Popolizio knew there was "no question in my mind" that type of roster turnover was required, for the sake of the program and its new culture. He also recalls some- thing else Gantt later told him. "I talked to the team for the first time and told them the things we were looking for, and Tommy later tells me, every one of those guys was laughing at you," Popolizio said. "And that night, they threw a hell of a party." Humble Beginnings Popolizio had successfully built the Binghamton program, basically from scratch, with significantly less resources, so he knew what he had to do. That didn't make it any easier. Year one at NCSU featured eight walk-ons in the lineup's 10 starting spots, a 5-6 final re- cord, zero ACC victories, a fifth-place finish at the ACC Championships and a 63rd-place showing at NCAAs. That latter figure is one that, close to 10 years later, nearly everybody interviewed for this story can still recall. But Popolizio never doubted what he could do at NC State. He wouldn't have taken the job if he didn't think he was capable of attain- ing his coaching goals in Raleigh. "I didn't want to go from Binghamton to NC State and then have to make one more jump to another school to win a national championship," Popolizio explained. "I'd just rather make the jump [from Binghamton] to a school where you can do that, and I thought this was a place you can make that happen." Popolizio isn't shy now about his rules, expectations or goals with recruits, and he's been that way since he's been in Ra- leigh. The destination is a team national championship, and the path there involves meticulous discipline, on and off the mat. Yow admitted the new coach "was some- what more strict than I had initially thought he would be … tougher than I would have been." But Popolizio had found in his previous experiences that wherever he would set the standard "guys will reach it" — so there was only one place to set the bar if his quest was going to reach the top. "If you set the GPA expectation at 2.5, your guys are all going to get a 2.5," he explained. "It's the same for wrestling. It's not OK to lose. It's not OK to finish 63rd at the NCAA Tournament. "The culture was number one. At the end of the day, you give them a choice to buy in or not. Only two guys truly bought in that were already here. … A lot of the guys probably didn't trust or believe in our system. So at that time, the best thing to do is to find a new place. "Kids that are trying to win a national title don't fear rules. Look at the recruiting class that was No. 1 in the country a couple years ago. Those guys didn't shy away from it. They're like, 'I'm trying to win a national title. I don't care about whatever team rules or expectations you have — I have a higher standard for myself.'" Gantt remembered in their first one-on-one meeting — the one that helped him buy in — Popolizio told him: "Three or four years from now, we'll be competing for a conference title and in the top 25, top 10 at NCAAs." "In my head, I was like, there's no way. This dude is just talking," Gantt recalled. "We were 63rd at that point. I was thinking, 'Uhhh … that sounds good. I'm bought in, but I don't know where this is going to go.'" Top 20 In Year Two The results weren't immediate. By the end of year two, Gantt and only one other teammate remained from the previous coaching staff. The record improved to 14-7, but there was a slip back to sixth at the conference tournament. However, the 2013-14 cam- paign was also the debut of All-American transfer Nick Gwiazdowski, who followed Popolizio from Binghamton, where he placed eighth as a true freshman. Popolizio has coached four NCAA finalists in his nine years at NC State, which included a canceled NCAA Championships. The program had just six before his hiring. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS The ArchiTecT Pat Popolizio Completely Tore Down NC State Wrestling — Then Rebuilt It Stronger Than Ever Before