Brandon Eggum takes big step forward as Gophers' interim wrestling coach

Brandon Eggum refuses to make it personal.

It's been almost 17 years since Cael Sanderson ruined, for the second time, Eggum's dream of an NCAA championship, foiled his months of tiresome preparation and endless work, and trampled on his legacy as one of the Gophers' greatest wrestlers.

Eggum gets a rematch on Friday, sort of. And the notion that he has anything personal at stake when the Gophers coach faces Sanderson's No. 2-ranked Penn State squad, well, it just doesn't register.

"It really doesn't have anything to do with me. Wrestling is about the athletes, not the coaches," Eggum said earnestly. "I have a lot of respect for Cael as a competitor. He was a great wrestler, and he's accomplished a lot as a coach. But if we were able to get a win on Friday, it would be big for the kids, not me."

Actually, that might not be entirely true, though Eggum seems sincere in his insistence that pinning a loss on Sanderson's Nittany Lions would not extract any revenge for their long-ago showdowns on the NCAA championships mat. The 40-year-old Montana native, though, has undertaken a task this year nearly as challenging as pinning Sanderson: stabilizing a program that was rocked by a drug scandal in May, roiled by the firing of longtime coach J Robinson in September, and depleted by the suspension of four wrestlers in October.

Eggum, a Robinson assistant after his wrestling days ended in 2000 and his top aide for five seasons, was hastily handed the reins and given the title of "interim" wrestling coach, one word longer than he wants it to be. And while no single meet will determine whether he permanently inherits the position that has become his professional goal, being competitive against the best programs in the country is a good way to make an impression on Eggum's boss, athletic director Mark Coyle.

"I feel supported by [Coyle]. We've had conversations. He knows what my plans and ideas are," Eggum said. "I've had kids ask me about [his future], and I tell them, from my standpoint, from my conversations, I'm comfortable that I'll be the guy moving forward. But we tell the wrestlers every day — just worry about what you can control. Focus on reaching your own potential, on doing the best you possibly can, and don't worry about the score. … I'm trying to live by that, too."

Eggum's low-key encouragement is a contrast to Robinson's colorful zeal, but it's a style that has served him well, on the mat and off. It's an approach that was born out of a small-town upbringing, he said. Eggum was raised in Sidney, Mont., a tiny farm community on the high plains near the North Dakota border.

"It was a blue-collar town, the kind of place where you learn that what you put into something is what you're going to get out of it. It's a lot like wrestling that way," Eggum said.

His father laid concrete, but his mother might have had the hardest job, Eggum said: When the couple divorced, she raised six kids mostly by herself.

"They both had an incredible work ethic," he said. "They had to."

So did Eggum, who was enticed to Minnesota by the feeling of family he detected in Robinson's rising program. He was determined to build a career in financial planning or business, and earned academic All-Big Ten honors for four consecutive years while getting a degree in applied economics. He was determined to win a championship in wrestling, and turned himself into a three-time All-America.

Not a champion, however. Not quite.

As a junior in 1999, Eggum reached the NCAA championship match at 184 pounds, but lost to Sanderson 6-1. Even worse, the Gophers missed winning the team title by only two points. A year later, Eggum and Sanderson met again in the national semifinals — and again, the Gopher senior left disappointed.

Sanderson, who went 159-0 as a varsity collegian at Iowa State and won four consecutive national titles, was indisputably the country's best collegiate wrestler at the time, but Eggum might have been the second best. Their five collegiate matches almost seem memorable for how unmemorable they were, with few dramatic moments because of how strong their respective defenses were.

"I had a couple of opportunities, but really, he gave you very few openings," Eggum said. "He made very few mistakes."

Same goes for coaching; Sanderson took over at Penn State in 2009 and soon led the Nittany Lions to four consecutive national championships. Eggum, meanwhile, turned down opportunities to start that business career he had pictured, choosing to stay on Robinson's staff. He and his wife, Katrina, had three children. He had tempting offers to become a head coach, but "I started to realize that I didn't want to be anywhere else. I'm a big believer in community, and this is the community that accepted me and made me and my family part of it."

When Robinson's handling of his team's alleged use and sale of Xanax cost him his job last fall, Eggum replaced his mentor — "Really, J has always been more of a father figure to me," Eggum said — with both sadness and determination. He encouraged his wrestlers and reassured recruits, "and we didn't lose a single one," he said. He preached responsibility to his team in the wake of the scandal, warning them "that they have to understand the difference between right and wrong — think before you act — and I know they do."

To develop leadership, he instituted a training system that divided the squad into groups and pitted them against each other in challenges both physical, like obstacle courses or relay races, and involving responsibility, like being on time for 6 a.m. workouts and keeping perfect attendance academically.

"It brought us together," he said.

Nothing builds bonds like winning, though. The Gophers are 3-1 in dual meets, losing only to top-ranked Oklahoma State, but the grind of a Big Ten schedule, and meets against four more top 10-ranked teams, awaits.

"We've come through a lot, but it's going to be challenging. Our schedule is incredible," Eggum said. "It's going to say something about how tough we are."