Gilman is an absolute sparkplug.

I remember being in college and watching him compete and I loved his mentality. He is a relentless competitor and someone that isn’t afraid to scrap as well as being outspoken about his opinion.

Flowrestling’s Love Me or Hate Me was a great introspection into how Thomas Gilman’s upbringing and how his brain worked.

What is most interesting is that he not only was a typical blue colar Brands molded robot… (just kidding)…

He is someone that is intelligent, well read, and is almost like a coffee loving hippy. Which as a person that grew up in the suburbs of Chicago then moved to a small beach town in central California, then wrestled at CSU Bakersfield (Bako is a fairly conservative place) a lot of his interests and personality traits I can relate to.

His move from Iowa City to Happy Valley was shocking to the wrestling world, but not to me. Gilman seems like a dude that is always trying to learn and improve himself, and isn’t afraid to take advantage of opportunities. Having the Iowa Wrestling base and being open enough to new perspectives allowed Gilman to not only grow as a wrestler, but to grow in his faith and as a person.

Now the move to follow David Taylor out to be his assistant coach in Stillwater is an interesting move. When that deal went down, I thought that this is a great opportunity for him, but also to truly build something unique at OSU.

Oklahoma State was going to get a fresh perspective on wrestling which I believe it desperately needed. I actually thought that they were creating that and going to get that with Coleman Scott, who had spent a good deal of time away from Stillwater as the Head Coach of UNC.

Listening to Gilman’s interview on the Baschamania podcast alluded to some trouble brewing in Stillwater and his relationship with other coaches and program supporters for OSU.

It doesn’t seem like anything nefarious, more like there was conflicting ideologies and coaching philosophies.

Gilman leaving his position as an Assistant Coach and returning to the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club as an athlete is a big move in the “Portal Wars” that has seen a lot of sporadic movement in collegiate wrestling.

Losing Thomas Gilman is a tremendous loss to OSU and the Wrestling team as it seems that Gilman had a tremendous impact on quite a few of the wrestlers on the team, including Dustin Plott and Troy Spratley.

That being said, part of building a program and creating a vision is that you sometimes have to get the wrong people off the bus and the right people on. Inversely, you get sold on buying a bus ticket and realize you want to get off.

The parting of the relationship between Thomas Gilman and the Oklahoma State Wrestling coaches seems to be mutual and respectful, which feels to be uncommon in today’s world.

Regardless of what happens with Gilman’s wrestling and/or coaching career moving forward, I will always remain a big fan.