Iowa dual

[turfpoke]

Y'all said the same thing about Derek White.

And there have been many others at other weights. Preston Weigel redshirted then went 19-13 his freshman year. Finished 6th, Injury, 3rd. Not many guys come in like AJ and Daton and are in the finals their first year. Even less their true freshman year.
Derek White went 25-4 his 1st year at 285, 2-2 at NCAAs. 2nd year he was in the NCAAs finals.
Alan Gelogaev started at 197. Went up to HWT and injury ended his Junior year. Senior year finished 3rd, a slip away against Tony Nelson from the finals and a team title.
Luke Surber with this early experience and 20-25 pounds of muscle could be a really good HWT. I expected Cassioppi to beat him down last night and Luke held his own considering the size and experience difference.

 

[Wrassler17]

We need to go after Jimmy Mullen hard. He may not be on Feldman's level right now, but who else is better than him in HS? Winning a cadet silver medal doesn't happen by accident. And he's the type of guy you target with big scholly $, as opposed to someone like Braedan Davis.

Surber & Derek White have different frames. It's a big unknown whether he can add 20 pounds without a growth spurt. He was eating and lifting like crazy last off-season and only got up to 220.

 

[Rdcldad]

He will never be a top 8 heavy . You want to win titles you can’t have experiments .

foolish statement

scroll derek whites resume

 

[Dugan2035]

We need to go after Jimmy Mullen hard. He may not be on Feldman's level right now, but who else is better than him in HS? Winning a cadet silver medal doesn't happen by accident. And he's the type of guy you target with big scholly $, as opposed to someone like Braedan Davis.

Surber & Derek White have different frames. It's a big unknown whether he can add 20 pounds without a growth spurt. He's was eating and lifting like crazy last off-season and only got up to 220.

Hopefully we get Mullen he will be a good replacement for Surber after he graduates. Mullen will not beat Surber out of his spot though .

 

[osu2082]

Who does the HWC have? Nobody that has a senior level world or Olympic medal for sure. They're treating it the same way we do.

I think the better question is who do we have and what are our plans to bring guys in?

They have a much more well funded and organized club that allows them additional coaches and athletes to work with the college guys year round. They are able to financially support senior level athletes and additional coaches that directly benefit their college wrestlers.

They have a 2x AA and Olympian as an additional coach. As far as additional workout partners they include a 3x AA (197), 2x AA (184), 4x AA (149), 2x AA (149), international 57kg wrestler and had Gilman a few years ago.

They currently fund 6 senior level athletes and 2 additional coaches.

All the above helps is development and in recruiting.

 

[turfpoke]

Well if having season tickets, donating to OSU , going to Texas for OSU vs Iowa and attending nationals like it’s religion is Bandwagon then Let the band play !

Congrats. Luke Surber appreciates your support. From everything I’ve seen he’s doing everting asked of him to help the team and wrestle for Oklahoma State. I’m sure he would admit that Gable Steveson, Tony Cassioppi, and Mason Parris are better than him. Right now he is our guy and he beat out a round of 12 guy to get that spot. I’ll say it again Kerkvliet was our guy, he didn’t come. Shawn Streck was here(round of 12 guy) but for whatever reason didn’t get on the team.

 

[leecothran]

Surber and White have different frames!? That wou

We need to go after Jimmy Mullen hard. He may not be on Feldman's level right now, but who else is better than him in HS? Winning a cadet silver medal doesn't happen by accident. And he's the type of guy you target with big scholly $, as opposed to someone like Braedan Davis.

Surber & Derek White have different frames. It's a big unknown whether he can add 20 pounds without a growth spurt. He's was eating and lifting like crazy last off-season and only got up to 220.

White and Surber having different frames would be news to everybody that has stood and shook hands with both.

Surber is 19 years old. White was 22 by the time he got to the 230-240 range and his senior year he was wrestling around 245.

See how Surber develops this summer. If he doesn't put on the weight, Doucet has been holding his own in practice and ranking matches as well. He is redshirting this year and will be a freshman with 4 years left next year.

 

[leecothran]

I think the better question is who do we have and what are our plans to bring guys in?

They have a much more well funded and organized club that allows them additional coaches and athletes to work with the college guys year round. They are able to financially support senior level athletes and additional coaches that directly benefit their college wrestlers.

They have a 2x AA and Olympian as an additional coach. As far as additional workout partners they include a 3x AA (197), 2x AA (184), 4x AA (149), 2x AA (149), international 57kg wrestler and had Gilman a few years ago.

They currently fund 6 senior level athletes and 2 additional coaches.

All the above helps is development and in recruiting.

I typically appreciate your inputs but I don't think you know who is in the room at OSU training right now... That'll change in a few weeks.

And "had" Gillman who is now openly cheering on Penn State because they're paying him to.

Cowboy RTC currently has more senior level world and even age group medals than HWC has. That's a verifiable fact.

 

[osu2082]

I typically appreciate your inputs but I don't think you know who is in the room at OSU training right now... That'll change in a few weeks.

And "had" Gillman who is now openly cheering on Penn State because they're paying him to.

Cowboy RTC currently has more senior level world and even age group medals than HWC has. That's a verifiable fact.

Then very few people do and that’s a major miss the Cowboy RTC.

If OSU is now boarding and funding more than 6 past AA’s that are daily in the room training with our wrelsters then that is news to me and our RTC has done a terrible job of advertising that fact.

 

[Okie_Pat]

We need to go after Jimmy Mullen hard. He may not be on Feldman's level right now, but who else is better than him in HS? Winning a cadet silver medal doesn't happen by accident. And he's the type of guy you target with big scholly $, as opposed to someone like Braedan Davis.

Surber & Derek White have different frames. It's a big unknown whether he can add 20 pounds without a growth spurt. He's was eating and lifting like crazy last off-season and only got up to 220.

Surber said in a interview in November that around summer he weighed 202. He’s currently around 220ish so within 6 months he added 18 lbs. not sure how much of that is muscle but with another year if he could be at around 240 at the start of next season and still be able to move well I think we will see a big jump in his wins. Like I’ve said, I’m not so much concerned about Surber as I am with Wittlake and Plott. 2 guys who were big recruits and have the ability to bc NC at some point but haven’t shown much improvement since being in the program.

 

[Harleycowboy]

I typically appreciate your inputs but I don't think you know who is in the room at OSU training right now... That'll change in a few weeks.

And "had" Gillman who is now openly cheering on Penn State because they're paying him to.

Cowboy RTC currently has more senior level world and even age group medals than HWC has. That's a verifiable fact.

The truth is we have lost 4 out of the last 5 duals and so people being frustrated and disappointed is understandable. Coach Smith in interviews even pointed out he thought the team was soft. Last night he said we did not get a takedown at 41, 49, 57, 65 and 74. He stated he did not think that we put much energy or risk in getting a takedown either. He stated he doesn't understand what is going on but he probably should know since it has been going on for quite a while. Young was wrestling a National runnerup so his performance is understandable. G wrestled a guy who is good at best and I don't know if he has ever been an All American. I don't think G ever got close to a takedown. A bad performance. Wyatt is a good guy but he has been terrible on his feet. His opponent is a good wrestler but nowhere near being a great wrestler. A poor performance but he tried harder than G did(seemed to me). Wittlake must be terrified of making a mistake and takes very little risk and seems to lack confidence. His opponent was not great either ( has never placed high at Nationals). Plott wrestled a great wrestler and got solidly beat. He was shooting takedowns in the 3rd period and he didn't quit. Not a bad performance like several times in the last few weeks. If you are not disappointed or concerned about our performances and future I don't understand it. I hope we start wrestling as a team and win our last 2 duals impressively, win Big 12's and get a trophy at NCAA's. Our young guys need to start jumping a level or our futures dark. Coach Smith actually said this with our no takedown streak. Have you guys even been trained and learned how to get a takedown.

 

[Wrassler17]

Surber and White have different frames!? That wou


White and Surber having different frames would be news to everybody that has stood and shook hands with both.

Surber is 19 years old. White was 22 by the time he got to the 230-240 range and his senior year he was wrestling around 245.

See how Surber develops this summer. If he doesn't put on the weight, Doucet has been holding his own in practice and ranking matches as well. He is redshirting this year and will be a freshman with 4 years left next year.

Well you don't need to shake hands with them to see they have different frames, you just need to have eyes. Surber has a thin upper body, Derek was ripped up top by the time he was a HS senior. He was pulling a lot of weight to make 197 in college.

John talked about Derek wanting to go up to heavy. He told him after Big12s in 2017 (because Schafer was still around) let's see how big you get. 2 weeks later John said he expected Derek to be about 220, but he was already at 230. Said that's when he knew he was a heavy.

I hope Surber puts on some good size, but to me it's still an unknown whether he'll be able to.

 

[lawpoke87]

I typically appreciate your inputs but I don't think you know who is in the room at OSU training right now... That'll change in a few weeks.

And "had" Gillman who is now openly cheering on Penn State because they're paying him to.

Cowboy RTC currently has more senior level world and even age group medals than HWC has. That's a verifiable fact.

Can you provide us with the details ? OSU wrestling does a pitiful job in the PR and general information areas. More information = more interest in the program imo.

 

[Sebastian]

Don’t think we want to compare or discuss White’s weight gains in HS or college, lol. If Surber wanted to get close to the same gains he just needs to take a year off outside the program, do what is necessary, wink wink, and then come back.

 

[dnhall]

We should but Iowa is coming off a NC and was the favorite for it again in 2022 until the injury to Lee. Excitement and momentum has been as high as it has in a decade at Iowa.

OSU is now at 15 years and counting from our last NC and weren’t expected to be legitimate contenders this year. You add what’s happened the last two weeks on the mat and AJ being out and you were looking at weaker attendance than hoped.

Speaking of that fifteen year drought and a team that is free falling in actual competitiveness against anybody with quality, what has to happen or better yet, what changes need to be made to actually win another wrestling title at Oklahoma State?

With every year our past excellence is fading in the rear view mirror and nobody seems to have the urgency to care about that reality enough to make any changes needed.

 

[Dugan2035]

Speaking of that fifteen year drought and a team that is free falling in actual competitiveness against anybody with quality, what has to happen or better yet, what changes need to be made to actually win another wrestling title at Oklahoma State?

With every year our past excellence is fading in the rear view mirror and nobody seems to have the urgency to care about that reality enough to make any changes needed.

What are the changes needed?

 

[BigD_cowboy]

It’s not an experiment if you’ve done it before and it worked. Derek White wasn’t going to be any good either moving up from 197….right?
Remember Greg Kerkvliet committing to OSU? That is where the hole came from.

Golagiev (sp) was also a 197 before being a dominant heavy

 

[BackHomePoke]

I was amazed that 1st home matched we looked top to bottom with how aggressive we looked shooting and scoring. I realize much was due to level of competition but we look a shell of ourselves compared to that match.

 

[dnhall]

What are the changes needed?

That’s what I asked. We’re not really all that competitive for national titles any longer and have some years where we are losing to programs we used to dominate.

We seem stagnant and sort of resting in our historical laurels rather than staying a constant threat for national titles which most perceive our program should do at OSU. Fifteen years is a long time to not win a title when you have 34 of them and USED to be an annual contender.

I realize we’ve finished top five in a lot of years but we weren’t really a threat to actually win any national championship. So, what’s needed to get back to that championship level?

 

[Dugan2035]

That’s what I asked. We’re not really all that competitive for national titles any longer and have some years where we are losing to programs we used to dominate.

We seem stagnant and sort of resting in our historical laurels rather than staying a constant threat for national titles which most perceive our program should do at OSU. Fifteen years is a long time to not win a title when you have 34 of them and USED to be an annual contender.

I realize we’ve finished top five in a lot of years but we weren’t really a threat to actually win any national championship. So, what’s needed to get back to that championship level?

Having top recruiting classes. Which we have had the past few years .

 

[Harleycowboy]

Having top recruiting classes. Which we have had the past few years .

Absolutely, you must have the great wrestlers but then when they get here we have to develop them at a higher level also.

 

[Old Number Nine]

Golagiev (sp) was also a 197 before being Gelogaev a dominant heavy

Gelogaev was a Heavy that became a 197 lber, albiet never that heavy.

Here's a little of Z in action

 

[turfpoke]

Gelogaev was a Heavy that became a 197 lber, albiet never that heavy.

Here's a little of Z in action

Z sure was a treat to watch.
Since 2004 we’ve had:
2005-2006 Mocco- 1,2
2007-2010Jared Rosholt- DNP, 4, 3, 2
2011 Blake Rosholt- DNP
2012-2013 Golegaev 24-0(injury), 3rd
2014-2016 Austin Marsden 8, 4 seed DNP, 6
2017 Austin Shaffer 23-3, 6 seed DNP
2018-19 Derek White 24-4 DNP, 2nd
2020- no tournament
2021- Austin Harris- 29 seed, Round of 12.

 

[alex1fly]

That’s what I asked. We’re not really all that competitive for national titles any longer and have some years where we are losing to programs we used to dominate.

We seem stagnant and sort of resting in our historical laurels rather than staying a constant threat for national titles which most perceive our program should do at OSU. Fifteen years is a long time to not win a title when you have 34 of them and USED to be an annual contender.

I realize we’ve finished top five in a lot of years but we weren’t really a threat to actually win any national championship. So, what’s needed to get back to that championship level?

Recruiting. Doing well there.
Developing guys. Doing okay, could be doing better.
Funding. Doing okay, could be doing better.
Pre-match scouting of opponents. Seems like our opponents do it to us more than we do it to them, but I have no evidence to support this. Seems like if you gave each guy a complete rundown of their opponents strengths and weaknesses before each match and prepared them accordingly, you'd have a higher chance of success. Don't know the extent to which this is doable in the course of regular training.

 

[turfpoke]

Recruiting. Doing well there.
Developing guys. Doing okay, could be doing better.
Funding. Doing okay, could be doing better.
Pre-match scouting of opponents. Seems like our opponents do it to us more than we do it to them, but I have no evidence to support this. Seems like if you gave each guy a complete rundown of their opponents strengths and weaknesses before each match and prepared them accordingly, you'd have a higher chance of success. Don't know the extent to which this is doable in the course of regular training.

Scouting and changing things up is key. I didn’t expect Murin and Young to run the 5 on 2 as much as they did. I don’t even know what to say about that move other than I hope G and Wyatt’s soreness is gone. It changed their ability to get the escape and changed the matches.

 

[Okie_Pat]

That’s what I asked. We’re not really all that competitive for national titles any longer and have some years where we are losing to programs we used to dominate.

We seem stagnant and sort of resting in our historical laurels rather than staying a constant threat for national titles which most perceive our program should do at OSU. Fifteen years is a long time to not win a title when you have 34 of them and USED to be an annual contender.

I realize we’ve finished top five in a lot of years but we weren’t really a threat to actually win any national championship. So, what’s needed to get back to that championship level?

This has been my theory for the last several years on why we haven't had a recent national championship and it all leads back to recruiting.

Penn St is located in the mecca of high school wrestling in Pennsylvania. Some of the top recruits in the last 10 years have come out of Pennsylvania or surrounding states like New Jersey, New York and Ohio. All it takes is a couple of national titles in a short period of time to turn heads and put your program on the map. I don't think its any coincidence that Penn St started winning national titles year after year when Cael took over. He lets the results speak for themselves and has the big name and pedigree to recruit first dibs and cheery pick from the best pool of high school wrestlers in the nation. Penn st does a good job on developing guys, but the majority of their recruits are already proven. I have heard that one of Cael's big strengths is preparing and developing his wrestlers mentally.

Being in Oklahoma its hard to get those top guys in the northeast. We have landed some but its not a year after year occurrence. There is likely many reasons why besides just the wrestling program itself. OSU academically isn't on the level as a lot of Big10 schools and also doesn't have the money of a lot of Big 10 schools for new facilities etc. Because of that OSU has been forced to recruit more heavily inside the state of Oklahoma. As of recently Oklahoma high school wrestling has had a reemergence of talent on the high school level allowing us to get more quality recruits, but before there was a long period where Oklahoma high school wrestling wasn't producing the talent that OSU could get to win national titles. There is a big emphasis on high school football in our state along with other sports where I feel like wrestling has taken a back seat to. Back in the day Oklahoma was one of the top states for high school wrestling. I think that shift happened some time in the late 90's early 2000's. A great example of this would be Perry, Midwest City, El Reno. They were such dominate programs for so long and have kind of fallen off the map. There have been other programs that have emerge to fill the gap though but I just feel like the sport of wrestling has fallen in popularity in Oklahoma and has continued to grow in other states. Hardell Moore has done a great job with the OWA and that is where Gfeller, Boo and Plott spent a lot of years training. Take the OWA and multiple it by about 10 and that's where Pennsylvania is at.

It looks like we have found a little niche with the Blair program and landed Montalvo out in California. I would like to see us recruit harder in Cali. I also think Texas wrestling is starting to grow in popularity and if they could ever get even close to a level of Pennsylvania then we would be a top destination. I believe that is why OSU did the dual down in Arlington that and money.

There are a couple of things OSU can do to change this. 1) The university needs to pump a lot of money into the program for new facilities. 2) John and company needs to reasonably figure out how to compete with top recruits using the NIL deal as incentives. Someone mentioned Ohio St having a big donor who owns a national pest control company providing NIL deals to wrestlers in the program. Surely OSU has some alum with deep pockets that are avid wrestling supporters.

These are just my thoughts. Maybe I sound crazy idk, but I would love to hear your guys feedback on this.

 

[turfpoke]

This has been my theory for the last several years on why we haven't had a recent national championship and it all leads back to recruiting.

Penn St is located in the mecca of high school wrestling in Pennsylvania. Some of the top recruits in the last 10 years have come out of Pennsylvania or surrounding states like New Jersey, New York and Ohio. All it takes is a couple of national titles in a short period of time to turn heads and put your program on the map. I don't think its any coincidence that Penn St started winning national titles year after year when Cael took over. He lets the results speak for themselves and has the big name and pedigree to recruit first dibs and cheery pick from the best pool of high school wrestlers in the nation. Penn st does a good job on developing guys, but the majority of their recruits are already proven. I have heard that one of Cael's big strengths is preparing and developing his wrestlers mentally.

Being in Oklahoma its hard to get those top guys in the northeast. We have landed some but its not a year after year occurrence. There is likely many reasons why besides just the wrestling program itself. OSU academically isn't on the level as a lot of Big10 schools and also doesn't have the money of a lot of Big 10 schools for new facilities etc. Because of that OSU has been forced to recruit more heavily inside the state of Oklahoma. As of recently Oklahoma high school wrestling has had a reemergence of talent on the high school level allowing us to get more quality recruits, but before there was a long period where Oklahoma high school wrestling wasn't producing the talent that OSU could get to win national titles. There is a big emphasis on high school football in our state along with other sports where I feel like wrestling has taken a back seat to. Back in the day Oklahoma was one of the top states for high school wrestling. I think that shift happened some time in the late 90's early 2000's. A great example of this would be Perry, Midwest City, El Reno. They were such dominate programs for so long and have kind of fallen off the map. There have been other programs that have emerge to fill the gap though but I just feel like the sport of wrestling has fallen in popularity in Oklahoma and has continued to grow in other states. Hardell Moore has done a great job with the OWA and that is where Gfeller, Boo and Plott spent a lot of years training. Take the OWA and multiple it by about 10 and that's where Pennsylvania is at.

It looks like we have found a little niche with the Blair program and landed Montalvo out in California. I would like to see us recruit harder in Cali. I also think Texas wrestling is starting to grow in popularity and if they could ever get even close to a level of Pennsylvania then we would be a top destination. I believe that is why OSU did the dual down in Arlington that and money.

There are a couple of things OSU can do to change this. 1) The university needs to pump a lot of money into the program for new facilities. 2) John and company needs to reasonably figure out how to compete with top recruits using the NIL deal as incentives. Someone mentioned Ohio St having a big donor who owns a national pest control company providing NIL deals to wrestlers in the program. Surely OSU has some alum with deep pockets that are avid wrestling supporters.

These are just my thoughts. Maybe I sound crazy idk, but I would love to hear your guys feedback on this.

Good stuff. I go back and forth on whether Penn State develops better than us. It seems like they were getting double and triple the number of top PFP recruits. The mistakes weren’t really showing up, because one of the other recruits was a stud. I was glancing at the past to 10-15 PFP guys over the last few years. They’ve had guys like Beard, Teske, Teasdale, Suriano(fully developed but left), Nevilles, Bartlett, Berge, and Manville. Most of those guys would have been top one or two in guys in our classes and we’d be sitting here saying our coaching staff isn’t developing them.
We need to keep getting classes like we’ve had the past few years. I get the feeling that there was a sense amongst our coaches that we could take a mid recruit and develop them into a stud and that wasn’t happening enough. At least one of the recruits we pull in annually is going to have to be at Daton and AJ’s level, a finalist level wrestler their first year on the mat, redshirt or not. Continue to do that or get two of those guys in the same class, or get a stud transfer and now we’ve got 4 studs. Develop 3-4 more guys that are finishing 3-7. Anything less than that probably won’t beat Penn State unless they start missing on more recruits. Next season it’s looking like 149, 157, and 184 need to be filled.
It explains why we have several guys coming in that are all in that 149-157 range. Voinovich, Anthony Ferrari, Travis Mastrogiovanni, Jordan Williams. 184- Taco, Haas, need to get another one. Gotta have 3 solid guys at a weight if they aren’t NCAA tournament proven. Wittlake has proven himself come NCAA tournament time. I’d like him to be a finalists, but if he finishes his career 4-4-4-4, I’d be happy with that, but as guys clear out and he matures, I expect him to finish higher. Hopefully Plott, Mastro, and Carter Young have what it takes to get to championship level. I expect one of them to AA, one to get close, and the other to win 2 matches. My expectations for Surber are for him to be a different guy next season. Every program has at least one or two weights where they are developing guys that aren’t going to score many points this season.

 

[Wrassler17]

This has been my theory for the last several years on why we haven't had a recent national championship and it all leads back to recruiting.

Penn St is located in the mecca of high school wrestling in Pennsylvania. Some of the top recruits in the last 10 years have come out of Pennsylvania or surrounding states like New Jersey, New York and Ohio. All it takes is a couple of national titles in a short period of time to turn heads and put your program on the map. I don't think its any coincidence that Penn St started winning national titles year after year when Cael took over. He lets the results speak for themselves and has the big name and pedigree to recruit first dibs and cheery pick from the best pool of high school wrestlers in the nation. Penn st does a good job on developing guys, but the majority of their recruits are already proven. I have heard that one of Cael's big strengths is preparing and developing his wrestlers mentally.

Being in Oklahoma its hard to get those top guys in the northeast. We have landed some but its not a year after year occurrence. There is likely many reasons why besides just the wrestling program itself. OSU academically isn't on the level as a lot of Big10 schools and also doesn't have the money of a lot of Big 10 schools for new facilities etc. Because of that OSU has been forced to recruit more heavily inside the state of Oklahoma. As of recently Oklahoma high school wrestling has had a reemergence of talent on the high school level allowing us to get more quality recruits, but before there was a long period where Oklahoma high school wrestling wasn't producing the talent that OSU could get to win national titles. There is a big emphasis on high school football in our state along with other sports where I feel like wrestling has taken a back seat to. Back in the day Oklahoma was one of the top states for high school wrestling. I think that shift happened some time in the late 90's early 2000's. A great example of this would be Perry, Midwest City, El Reno. They were such dominate programs for so long and have kind of fallen off the map. There have been other programs that have emerge to fill the gap though but I just feel like the sport of wrestling has fallen in popularity in Oklahoma and has continued to grow in other states. Hardell Moore has done a great job with the OWA and that is where Gfeller, Boo and Plott spent a lot of years training. Take the OWA and multiple it by about 10 and that's where Pennsylvania is at.

It looks like we have found a little niche with the Blair program and landed Montalvo out in California. I would like to see us recruit harder in Cali. I also think Texas wrestling is starting to grow in popularity and if they could ever get even close to a level of Pennsylvania then we would be a top destination. I believe that is why OSU did the dual down in Arlington that and money.

There are a couple of things OSU can do to change this. 1) The university needs to pump a lot of money into the program for new facilities. 2) John and company needs to reasonably figure out how to compete with top recruits using the NIL deal as incentives. Someone mentioned Ohio St having a big donor who owns a national pest control company providing NIL deals to wrestlers in the program. Surely OSU has some alum with deep pockets that are avid wrestling supporters.

These are just my thoughts. Maybe I sound crazy idk, but I would love to hear your guys feedback on this.

Cael initially recruited a lot of in-state guys, but then he expanded. PSU's only starters from PA are Bartlett @ 149 & Starocci @ 174. Iowa has only 1 in-state starter, Ayala @ 125. OhioSt has done the same recently. Many of their top recruits are now out of state, including 1, 2 & 3 PFP in the 2022 class.

I don't think we can do the same unless we get on the RTC/NIL train. Otherwise we'll need to rely on a strong OK recruiting base.

 

[leecothran]

At least one of the recruits we pull in annually is going to have to be at Daton and AJ’s level, a finalist level wrestler their first year on the mat, redshirt or not.

This is completely unrealistic.

 

[leecothran]

I don't think we can do the same unless we get on the RTC/NIL train.

We are on this train. Carter Young has a deal with Spartan Combat. Daton has several deals, gets sponsored by the RTC, and is now able to keep all of his winnings from medaling in senior level tournaments. AJ is making a lot of money on his NIL deals too.

Also, check this out: https://livetrained.com/ Any of our guys can get paid to coach, virtually, anywhere in the country.. and they are doing this. Almost every week, every athlete on this platform is coaching a session and making some cash off of it.

OSU is all in on this stuff. Actually more so than Penn State, who's compliance department isn't letting their athletes participate in individual NIL deals. This is why RBY isn't using his extra year of eligibility.

Ohio State has a fat deal that they used to pull in those three guys in the 2023 class, but technically that's illegal. Don't think anything will come of that, but those guys were also a package deal. We were in on them, but they saw a better path to early mat time for all three at Ohio compared to OSU, which is pretty stacked up with young talent right now. Ohio State is in rebuild mode.

 

[turfpoke]

This is completely unrealistic.

Unrealistic to have a redshirt freshman finalist? Look at history.

 

[Wrassler17]

We are on this train. Carter Young has a deal with Spartan Combat. Daton has several deals, gets sponsored by the RTC, and is now able to keep all of his winnings from medaling in senior level tournaments. AJ is making a lot of money on his NIL deals too.

Also, check this out: https://livetrained.com/ Any of our guys can get paid to coach, virtually, anywhere in the country.. and they are doing this. Almost every week, every athlete on this platform is coaching a session and making some cash off of it.

OSU is all in on this stuff. Actually more so than Penn State, who's compliance department isn't letting their athletes participate in individual NIL deals. This is why RBY isn't using his extra year of eligibility.

Ohio State has a fat deal that they used to pull in those three guys in the 2023 class, but technically that's illegal. Don't think anything will come of that, but those guys were also a package deal. We were in on them, but they saw a better path to early mat time for all three at Ohio compared to OSU, which is pretty stacked up with young talent right now. Ohio State is in rebuild mode.

I'm aware and that's good news, but it's really not what I'm referring to. Carter Young inked his Spartan deal while he was still a Northwestern commit. AJ capitalized on his marketing savviness & Daton on his World Team success. Basically they did it on their own, but some schools are doing much more.

PSU has 13 post grad RTC athletes, including foreigners. You mentioned OhioSt, but Cornell & Michigan are directly sponsoring wrestlers through their RTCs. Cliff Keen inked Mason Parris (probably Suriano soon). They sent Alex Dieringer & Pantaleo to train in Russia for a full month. Spartan sponsors Yianni & Vito. These schools are flush with cash.

 

[leecothran]

Unrealistic to have a redshirt freshman finalist? Look at history.

Unrealistic to expect to land one every single year. Who has ever done that? There isn't even a finalist in every class.

 

[leecothran]

I'm aware and that's good news, but it's really not what I'm referring to. Carter Young inked his Spartan deal while he was still a Northwestern commit. AJ capitalized on his marketing savviness & Daton on his World Team success. Basically they did it on their own, but some schools are doing much more.

PSU has 13 post grad RTC athletes, including foreigners. You mentioned OhioSt, but Cornell & Michigan are directly sponsoring wrestlers through their RTC. Cliff Keen inked Mason Parris (probably Suriano soon). They sent Alex Dieringer & Pantaleo to train in Russia for a full month. Spartan sponsors Yianni & Vito. These schools are flush with cash.

Our RTC does all of that for our guys as well. OSU is also helping athletes get NIL deals. They have a whole program around it. Some guys just aren't as marketable. Hell, Seth Duckworth went and got one wrestler an NIL deal too. It's something that is there for them to take advantage of, but you're right we don't have a systemic, standing NIL deal because technically they're illegal. Notice that Cliff Keen doesn't sponsor every Michigan athlete.

Penn State doesn't allow their athletes to sign NIL deals today. What they do for their senior level guys is no different than what OSU has done and will do for senior level guys. They just are willing to pay big signing bonuses to get bug names there, something that OSU doesn't feel a need to do.

 

[leecothran]

If your argument is "OSU isn't doing anything" you're simply wrong. Listen to the Dynasty Defined interview with Derek Fix. He lays some stuff out.

 

[Pokes1988]

That’s what I asked. We’re not really all that competitive for national titles any longer and have some years where we are losing to programs we used to dominate.

We seem stagnant and sort of resting in our historical laurels rather than staying a constant threat for national titles which most perceive our program should do at OSU. Fifteen years is a long time to not win a title when you have 34 of them and USED to be an annual contender.

I realize we’ve finished top five in a lot of years but we weren’t really a threat to actually win any national championship. So, what’s needed to get back to that championship level?

IDK why I feel this way, but it always seems like when we have a good HWT on the back end, the team tends to be better overall. Not sure why if data backs it, but it's felt like we've been meh the last few years because we don't have anyone to 'anchor' our lineup.

We're close with AJ, but feels like if we had a 125/133 and than a good 197/HWT, the middle weights seem to be more aggressive and willing to take more chances.

Right now, feels like Plott/Whitlake/Sheets have way more pressure on them to win and seem to be folding under it.

 

[Sebastian]

So Lee, who are our post graduate RTC/foreign wrestlers right now and who are PSU’s? Michigan’s? Ohio States? Iowa’s?

 

[Wrassler17]

If your argument is "OSU isn't doing anything" you're simply wrong. Listen to the Dynasty Defined interview with Derek Fix. He lays some stuff out.

I did listen to it, even paid you a compliment about it in a prior post. Unfortunately Derek was incorrect about some of the things he said.

Maybe you are more aware of the inner workings of our RTC. You certainly seem very optimistic about where things are headed. Hopefully you're right. I can only go off what I've seen & heard to this point.

 

[turfpoke]

This is completely unrealistic.

I went back to 2010 and Andrew Howe snuck in as a finalist in 2009 that I noticed.

2010:
Matt McDonough
Andrew Long
Kyle Dake

2011:
David Taylor

2012:
Nico Megaludis
Logan Steiber
Dylan Ness

2013:
Matt Brown, went on a mission but this was his first year.

2014:
Jason Tsirtsis
J’Den Cox

2015:
Nathan Tomasello
Zeke Moisey
Isaiah Martinez
Kyle Snyder

2016:
Myles Martin
No Nickal

2017:
Cenzo Joseph
Mark Hall

2018:
Spencer Lee
Yianni Diakomihalis
Hayden Hidlay

2019:
Daton Fix
Mekhi Lewis

2021:
AJ Ferrari
David Carr
Carter Starocci

So it looks like over the past 11 seasons there have been 26 true freshman or RS finalists. Penn State has 7 of them. I didn’t count Aaron Brooks. We have 2. Gotta close this gap. Now is that developing or evaluating recruits?

 

[leecothran]

David Carr wrestled in 2020 and was a third year sophomore last year when he made the finals.