His photograph hangs in a black frame in the wrestling practice room at Rec Hall along with past Penn State wrestling greats.

Above the photographs in blue writing, the words read: NCAA National Champions.

Former Nittany Lions wrestler Kerry McCoy was back in the wrestling room on Wednesday working out with Penn State heavyweight Pat Cummins. Cummins has lost two of his last three matches after beginning the season 30-0.

Cummins, who is No. 2 in the country, and the other Lions will look to rebound at 8 tonight when No. 11 Penn State takes on No. 9 Minnesota at the Sports Pavilion.

Cummins and McCoy have become friends and had a training relationship during the past few years. McCoy, who is now an assistant coach at Lehigh, said he promised Cummins that they would work out one more time during the season. He said that Wednesday was just the day that worked out best for him, and he didn't make the trip to Penn State specifically because of Cummins recent losses.

So just 18 hours before the Lions departed for Minnesota, Cummins was in the practice room looking to correct past mistakes that he made in losses to No. 3 Matthew Feast of Penn and No. 5 Greg Wagner of Michigan. Who better to guide him than a three-time All-American and two-time national champion? McCoy said the extra time in the wrestling room would help Cummins during the rest of the season.

"All this stuff is just practice," McCoy said. "One of the reasons I came up here is just to see where he's at and what he's thinking about it."

Can McCoy relate to the feeling of losing a couple matches in a short period of time?

Probably not. In 1997, he went 41-0 en route to a national title and was given the Hodge Award as the most dominant wrestler in the nation. He went undefeated in three seasons of dual meet competition, including an absurd 88-match winning streak. McCoy ended his career at Penn State having won 131 of his last 132 matches.

Still, he felt he could relate to Cummins.

"Sometimes you just have a bad weekend," McCoy said. "The goal is to be a national champion and be at your best in March. Every year it happens where a No. 1 guy gets beat and someone with a losing record takes home the title."

Cummins has adopted that very attitude and said that if he has to lose at all, it's better to get them out of the way now than to suffer them in the postseason. He said that his opponents have begun to figure him out a little, but he places most of the blame for the two losses on himself.

"After Sunday, I was a little down," Cummins said. "It was nice to have a hard practice Monday and a good lift on Tuesday to get my frustrations out."

The opponents won't get any easier for Cummins, as he will take on No. 6 Cole Konrad tonight. In other match-ups, the Lions will look to not give up bonus points at 165, 174 and 197, where Minnesota has wrestlers ranked in the top 15 taking on unranked Penn State wrestlers. At 197, the Lions' Joel Edwards did not travel with the team because of a knee injury. Adrian Rivera will take Edwards' place in the lineup.