OU is a series of hires away from making big noise.. the campus is nice, the facilities, while not cutting edge, are fine.. there is a giant football stadium for running stadium stairs, the only thing missing is the vision and a staff to make it happen! The staff, while all outstanding humans, are not the answer in my opinion.. if any of them knew what to do or had the capacity to build even an individual champion, they would have done so.. Mark Cody actually had things going in the right direction.. Sammie Henson is an outstanding individual coach and I believe has had an individual champ or high AA everywhere he has coached.. Coach Spates put together several legendary recruiting class that fell short do to injuries.. Our hires at OSU show that if you are willing to open up the check book and bring the right people in, you can get things back on track.. Im have a suspicion that there is administrative stuff going on that is holding there progress back..
Directory
- Thread starter OHkie
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Great post. People often underestimate what an administration can do for a program, both good and bad.
PSU might be the most prime example of how an administration can make or break a program. Being the flagship Big Ten school in PA wasn't going to single handily make PSU relevant. It ultimately needed a school to go all in for the program.
The PSU administration didn't see for decades how obvious it was the program had potential. It took Cael calling PSU twice in 2009 to express interest in the job and share his vision of potential of the program (and then finally booster involvement with Ira and Galen saying they'll cut the check for the move) for Tim Curley to take him seriously. Rob Koll (the presumed hire) would have been a solid hire, I venture a guess and say the program would be a Top 10 team and a perennial trophy contender .... and the school would be satisfied with that standing.
Then as we know, Sandy Barbour almost personally cost PSU Cael in 2022 (to the school this board is dedicated to nonetheless) by treating his program as an afterthought after 8 championships in the 2010s.
The SEC and Football put that program on the fast track to irrelevant status.
uO loves their Football and they live and die by that.
good point in relation to the SEC and Football... I keep up with OSU football casually and therefore dont have football related factors on my radar.
It’s been going on for some time. The AD lives and dies by Football…which is understandable by economic theory.
The uO Wrestling program started its downtrend when realignment started and it’s not stopping now. I’d be surprised if they still Wrestle in 10 years.
OU seems to get all the parts but, for whatever reason, can’t get the parts put together. When I see a good recruit or coach go there, I cringe knowing the waist it will have on their careers. To be honest, I’m not a fan, but it would benefit wrestling if their program could live up to its potential. Go Pokes
While view the “Directory” I noticed that we have four sets of brothers on the Roster and this mad me think of a few things:
Doesn’t Merrill have a brother Coby and what's our chances with him?
Is Livi Smith still wrestling and same?
Are there any other wrestling brothers out there of note?
Also, the Mullen brother’s father is Oklahoma, U.S. Senator, Markwayne whose net worth is reported to be between $20 and $99 million. Not a billionaire but I just saying, how about ponying up some of that cash cowboy style.
Doesn’t Merrill have a brother Coby and what's our chances with him?
Is Livi Smith still wrestling and same?
Are there any other wrestling brothers out there of note?
Also, the Mullen brother’s father is Oklahoma, U.S. Senator, Markwayne whose net worth is reported to be between $20 and $99 million. Not a billionaire but I just saying, how about ponying up some of that cash cowboy style.
I don’t know if he’d be allowed to make any donations or contributions as the legal guardian of someone on the roster. I could be wrong but even in the wild Wild West that’s probably frowned upon.
I don't know the back story but apparently the Merrills won't be wrestling for the same school.
Something is broken down there. It seems like every time the hire a wrestling coach people think it is a good hire and it has been nothing but downhill.
I know Willie mentioned it on here as it’s not something they’re actively pursuing but I also haven’t heard they’re actively against it either.
My guess would be that Cody might plan to grow into a HWT and the younger one is already a HWT so doesn’t make sense to follow him.
The problem is the ceiling is only so high considering their in-state rivals is the historically greatest program of all time. Not being able to get the best in-state guys doesn't work out well for being able to win team chips.
Spates - A magician and did a pretty good job. Best recruiter of the bunch. He would have done really well in the NIL era.
Cody - clearly a case of a guy who landed a great job and was done doing the grind. He's admitted it as well.
Rosselli - a bad hire. Probably should have been fired just weeks into the job when he told a group of Oklahoma high school coaches that he wasn't worried about recruiting Oklahoma kids. Too old school, couldn't adjust and while he recruited nationally, didn't get top shelf kids and did an even worse job of developing them.
Kish - I guess we'll see. Kish did pretty well at a bad spot (NDSU), developed guys pretty nicely. Not a needle mover and will never be.
I 100% get that being in the same state as us isn't helpful but OU has a long proud tradition of being really good so I'm not sure that is the sole reason. I also think there is a ton of space between competing with us and what has been going on down there.
But I think what you said about Rosselli is the key. He basically ignored the state the first part of his tenure and it cost him greatly. There are a lot of instate wrestlers who should have ended up at OU and would have helped them a ton.
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He's just not HC material. Between an old school approach to training, and not really having good bedside manners, it's just not the best fit for him.
I thought for sure he was going to be great, but then shortly found out he should not need be in charge of a major D1 program.
And bring over Rei Higuchi and while at it. He can train with Gilman and Fix while recruiting all of Japan !!!!
great post.. Spates would have been outstanding in this NIL era for sure.. Rosselli seems like has was an excellent assistant coach and excellent indiviual coach that wasnt able to make the jump to HC and didnt seem to grow into the role.. I dont think OU's ceiling has that much to do with the presence of OSU.. If they pulled what just happened in stillwater down there it would intensify the rivalry and force positive growth on both sides
