Let's talk wrestling....

[Baizanator]

I know that John Smith has been tremendous and, as an alum, we'd like him to stay.

That said, as someone who minimally follows wrestling, it seems as though we're getting worked by a few other schools.

Thoughts?

 

[osudog]

Recruting is down some and we have missed on some kids

 

[mike tognetti]

Recruiting is a total crap shoot. The more I follow it, the more I find that I know nothing. Top 15 in all weights per class has the edge of doing something but they even fall by the way side (injury, burnout, scholastics, women, coaches and just going to the wrong school that fits your kind of wrestling). That being said, John has brought in some very talented recruits from last year and the incoming recruits still in high school. Time will tell, my #1 recruit in the Jr class has to be Mark Hall, as of 6 months ago OSU was in the lead, Minnesota and PSU is really pushing hard for him. We have a whole at 174 that seems nobody is going to step up to fill.

 

[oberebo]

Mike, I know you have good sources but the recruiting of 18 year old men is like you say a "crap shoot". What Mark Hall and/or friends and associates said 6 months ago tends to be old news. We need him but just maybe we recruit other good wrestlers at 174 and hope we get Hall. Putting our eggs in one basket has bitten us in the behind before. As far as John Smith goes we are not going to replace him with a better coach. That leaves it to John to see if we go a different direction with assistants. We have great assistants but we have to look at all possibilities and possibly a new direction in style and training techniques. I do not know the answer but as a fan I feel in my bones that some new direction is needed to rejuvenate the program.

 

[osu2082]

Others can certainly answer this question better than I can and two of the better posters have replied but I don't think it is purely a recruiting issue. We have continued to land highly rated recruits but I think at times we have struggled to develop some of those, some have burned out and at times we haven't balanced the roster as well as we would like.

PSU was going to go on a run (which they did) with the transfers and their recruiting but now that the dust has settled we still appear to be three or four years away from legitimately competing for a title which IMO is not acceptable.

I also don't think getting rid of Smith is the right move but a shakeup of staff or other areas of the program may be needed. Those are hard decisions to make in any sport and especially a sport where loyalty is greatly appreciated.

 

[lookleft goright]

As an outside, I think John Smith is amazing. You guys wrestled lights out at the NCAA tourney last year. You guys were looking like NCAA champs the year before and G trips out of the blue and you guys finish in a close second. He seems to have really learned how to get the guys ready at the end of the year.

I sure would not want to lose him as a coach, if I were you guys.

 

[mike tognetti]

I agree 100% on John Smith and would add why change the rest of or any of the coaches if John stays? They have been taught by John and knows the system inside and out. We have done very well the last two years at Nationals and I feel we will wrestle above seed this year. We will take our lumps this season just because we have a young team. Come Nationals I see us as a top 5 team, maybe top 4. I knew going in that we had some holes, Heil moving up to 141 hurt ( a big whole at 133, but I feel GW Harding showed me a lot on Sunday, expect big strides by nationals here). Didn't think Collica would be our 157 (backups and RS haven't made big strides yet). Talked to Ryan Blees on Sunday, first dual he ever seen at GIA, 157 not a problem (moved up because of all the 157 we have in the room). At 174, there is no answer yet from what we have on the team, if it happens it will be a miracle this year. 197 is the biggest disappointment for me this year, really felt low AA from Austin Schaefer. Don't know what happened to him, Transfer Luke Bean came in on Sunday and did a great job for us against AA Burak from last year. Weigel freshman from Kansas is a tough kid, who has been hurt part of this year. He split a lot of time playing football through high school ( he did receive scholarship offers for football but choice OSU wrestling). A few recruiting gurus talked about him being a sleeper. If he would of been healthy all season, John would of pulled his RS already at 197.

Are we a NC team this year =No, will we get better by season end=Yes. Don't lose the faith with what we have, it did hurt for me on Sunday, but we have a lot of young talent already in the room. It will get better!