When it comes to public personas, Penn State’s Cael Sanderson is one of the more low-key college wrestling coaches. He lets his program’s accomplishments speak for themselves, and it has now worked to the tune of 12 NCAA championships in the past 14 events — including this weekend’s record-setting performance at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

Indeed, when Sanderson takes the time to talk to the media — especially after such an historic showing — you better believe EVERYBODY in the sport is paying attention. And so it was following Saturday’s night’s NCAA finals, when Sanderson formally met reporters for the first and only time in Philly. The transcript of his Q&A is below.

He had just seen Penn State set a NCAA Tournament scoring record of 177.0 points, breaking the mark set by — you guessed it — the Nittany Lions a year ago. And he had just seen PSU 184-pounder Carter Starocci become the first wrestler to win five NCAA Division I individual championships. And his team crowned All-Americans at all 10 weights.

Even-keeled as ever, Sanderson said, “Great team effort. Just super proud of them and excited for them.” But he almost immediately talked about “thinking ahead — everything’s always preparation for the next thing, so we don’t really stop and reflect a whole lot.”

He addressed Starocci’s achievement, the injury issues 197-pounder Josh Barr and 285-pounder Greg Kerkvliet carried into the tournament, the concept of dynasties, and much more. Read on…