We know how history can repeat itself.

What's funny about the cliché is when we're constantly told how much life is unpredictable, that sometimes it can provide the perfect ending, the ones Hollywood shells out millions for.

If Matt Cohen wanted to sell his career as Penn State gymnast to a major motion picture studio, he might get that kind of money.

In fact, the story would probably go like this.

When Cohen was a freshman in 2004, the Nittany Lions reached the national championships. At the team finals, Cohen competed in only one event: the rings.

"I had no idea that we were capable of winning the national championship that year." Cohen said jokingly. "I wasn't privy to that information. I just sort of blindly did it."

For those keeping track, he scored an 8.850, and Penn State went on to win the national championship that season. That year it knocked out the two-time defending champion Oklahoma Sooners.

Cohen wasn't the standout on the rings then. Kevin Tan earned that title.

Cohen knew he was a national champion then, but those events set in course the cosmic cycle that led to the present and set up a storybook ending.

Fast-forward to Friday night.

Cohen, now a senior, has come a long way since that championship weekend in Champaign, Ill.

He's now been an All-American, an Olympic hopeful and a team captain.

Since then, he became the face of Penn State gymnastics, following in the footsteps of legends like Jean Cronstedt and Mark Sohn, both of whom were in attendance this weekend in Rec Hall.

And how fitting it was that in his last meet, his last event, his last routine, his last competition at home, it came down to Cohen on what had become his signature event: the rings.

And Cohen came through the same way the rest of his Lion teammates did on rings Friday night.

Nearly flawless. Just how Hollywood would want it.

Cohen's 9.550 was almost a full point better than his freshman performance. When he landed, both he and the crowd knew what he had just done.

"At that point I knew that we won," Cohen said. "It was an incredible moment. You can't really top that in gymnastics."

His performance was the exclamation point on the Lions' rings symposium and sealed Penn State's 12th national championship. And how perfect was it that the Lions' first championship since 2004 came by beating two-time defending champ Oklahoma?

That alone would be an incredible moment and a perfect way to end the Matt Cohen story.

Sorry, I haven't thought of a title yet, but there's more to the tale.

What Cohen did with his rings routine was also fulfill one of his coach's ultimate wishes.

All week Penn State head coach Randy Jepson talked about how much he wanted to win a national championship at home. It was maybe one of, if not the only thing he hasn't accomplished since becoming the head coach 15 years ago. Last week, Jepson said not making the final when Penn State last played host to the national championships in 1998 was one of the lowest points of his life.

After Cohen hit his routine, Jepson came over and gave him a big hug.

Cohen won two national championships and made his coach's dream a reality -- just more fodder for executives to drool over when they read the script.

But in true Matt Cohen fashion, he didn't make it about himself. He never makes it about himself.

"I'm very proud of my coach Randy and my teammates," Cohen said. "There were some bumps along the way but they stuck it out every single day, and they put it in tonight."

In fact, I think I just had an idea for the title.

"Perfect Irony."