Freshman Zack Ryder is the talk of the town in the wrestling world at the moment. Earlier this month, he made a big decision to switch to Oklahoma State from Penn State, joining David Taylor’s roster, a coach whom he has closely followed in his career. Interestingly, he also became the third former Nittany Lion to transfer to Oklahoma State, joining Alex Facundo and Gary Steen. As Ryder confirmed his latest move, Bo Nickal was caught in an awkward position.

A few weeks back, he sat with Ryder to discuss his life and career and his plans for the next season. While the episode was shot before Ryder’s switch to Oklahoma State, it was released today after he had made the switch. Thus, it left Bo Nickal in a rather strange situation. However, he released the episode on his YouTube channel as it was.

Subsequently, he took to his Twitter handle to openly address the elephant in the room. Sharing the link of the podcast, Bo Nickal wrote, “Shot a few weeks ago…. Awkward…”  While it makes for some awkward viewing indeed, his career isn’t the only thing they talked about. The interview also included discussions on Ryder’s intense workouts, how he took up wrestling, and his preparations for the next season. So while the whole switch situation wasn’t ideal, there were some good conversations happening too.

Meanwhile, Ryder’s decision to change allegiances doesn’t come as too much of a surprise considering he’s already worked with Taylor in the past. Back in 2023, he won the U-17 US Open Wrestling Championships under the mentorship of Taylor. Subsequently, he said, “I think I had a pretty good performance. I felt good just coming off the injury. I definitely feel I have a lot to improve but I feel like I did pretty good out there. Last year, I got third. Obviously I’ll always have room to improve, but if I get the right training and just the right mindset and I put in the hard work, I believe that I will get that gold medal this year.’’

Zack Ryder is one of the most exciting prospects in the American college wrestling world. For the Cowboys, his arrival is certainly a big get. In fact, one of his former coaches was all praise for him before he set out on his college career.

Bo Nickal isn’t the only one who recognizes Zack Ryder’s quality

Before he became a Nittany Lion, Zack Ryder was a New York state champion while wrestling at the Minisink Valley High School – the school he’d wrestled for since the seventh grade until his junior year. His time there was prolific, replete with four state championships and one unofficial state title during the Covid-19 lockdown.

He ended up bypassing his senior year to train at the M2 wrestling center near Penn State with David Taylor, but not before earning some pretty high praise from his high school coach, Kevin Gallagher.

He revealed, “We’re going to miss him as a person first and then obviously as a wrestler. Just having him on the team as a leader, a captain, and obviously his points … you just can’t make those things up. That kid, his work ethic is second to none. He’s the strongest kid I’ve ever had. It’s unbelievable how strong he is but that didn’t just happen … he worked at it, too.”

With Zack Ryder now moving to OSU, an interesting path lies ahead of him. Considering Ryder already has history with David Taylor, it’ll be exciting to see how the two can revive their collaboration to take Ryder’s game to the next level. Can he win the NCAA title next season with David Taylor’s guidance? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.