Pendleton will replace Jim Zalesky.
During Pendleton’s six years as an assistant coach at Arizona State, the Sun Devils won three of the last four Pac-12 titles, including the 2020 championship.
This year, despite a shortened season due to COVID-19, Arizona State was ranked No. 6 nationally. The Sun Devils also defeated No. 1 Penn State.
Pendleton, who won a pair of NCAA titles while at Oklahoma State, won a California State wrestling title while a Lemoore High School senior in 2000. He wrestled for former Tiger coach, Kent Olson.
Pendleton often credits his former coach for much of his success.
“One of the things I know that for myself, one of the things that we learned coming from Lemoore, was hard work, a blue-collar mentality,” he said while attending a wrestling camp in Lemoore in 2015. “You just get out there and roll your sleeves up. A lot of problems can be solved by just getting down and dirty and working hard.”
Pendleton is also a member of the Lemoore High School Hall of Fame.