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Pat Mieno

I see John being like Gable was…more of an ambassador and a co-coach in the room daily….not really doing much administration work but throwing his weight around when necessary.
If this is the case, is Perry then our de facto HC? Or is John holding enough of the reins still
 
More context.

2021 Top 10 for reference:
  • 1-Iowa, 129.0
  • 2-Penn State, 113.5
  • 3-Oklahoma State, 99.5
  • 4-Arizona State, 74.0
  • 5-Michigan, 69.0
  • 6-N.C. State, 68.0
  • 7-Minnesota, 64.0
  • 7-Missouri, 64.0
  • 9-Ohio State, 46.5
  • 10-Northwestern, 45.0
2019 Top 10 for reference:
1Penn State137.5
2Ohio State96.5
3Oklahoma State84
4Iowa76
5Michigan62.5
6Missouri62
7Cornell59.5
8Minnesota53.5
9Rutgers51.5
10Nebraska51
So the best star athlete turned coaches can do is account for half of the top 10. It's clearly hardly necessary, but it could also take a longer time horizon than most fans want.
 
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2022 Top 10 for reference:

2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships Standings

1. Penn State, 131.5
2. Michigan, 95.0
3. Iowa, 74.0
4. Arizona State, 66.5
5. Nebraska, 59.5
6. Northwestern, 57.5
7. Cornell, 54.5
8. Virginia Tech, 52.5
9. Missouri, 49.5
10. NC State, 49.0
I don’t want to get into the middle of this but don’t forget how many points we lost to injuries last year. Top 3 still isn’t good enough. We need to hang some banners.
 
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I'm not sure if I do. At least, I don't catch your drift.
Having been to a few practices in the last several years John is still hands on durng practice as far as demonstrating moves etc. albeit in slow motion. He does not go "live" with the wrestlers leaving that and repetitions to the assistants but I can say that no decision is made of any consequence that does not go through John. Gable, because of his hips primarily at the same age was probably not as active as John in the room but he made all of the decisions. It is great to speculate who will replace John but I would not hold my breath waiting for this change and as I said before he will go when he wants to.
 
I'm think Mr. Blonde's point is that you don't have to be a superstar athlete in order to be a top coach. He used the top 10 teams at this years NCAAs as an example. It wasn't a shot at John as we didn't finish top 10. If you want to say it was a fluke because of injuries, fine, then count John. But his point still stands. Look at Tom Ryan. Not a star wrestler, but he's delivered as a coach.

Another point - I think RTC $ has delayed some guys from being college head coaches. Look at some of the recent gold medalists. Burroughs, Taylor & Dake are over 30 and still competing. Varner & Stieber are over 30 and they are both RTC head coaches.
 
The car crash, the injuries to Wittlake, Sheets, Mastro, might be forgetting one.

Ohh, gotcha. But are you convinced that all these setbacks were just the result of an avalanche of bad luck? In hindsight, the crash, or something like it, seems to have been inevitable. This board has also entertained the idea that the injuries might have something to do with the way the cowboys train and rehab. Idk?
 
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Ohh, gotcha. But are you convinced that all these setbacks were just the result of an avalanche of bad luck? In hindsight, the crash, or something like it, seems to have been inevitable. This board has also entertained the idea that the injuries might have something to do with the way the cowboys train and rehab. Idk?
I agree on the latter point, I think they really need to look at training and why the injuries. But it was a bigger avalanche of bad luck last year. But also go back and look at Marsteller and what he has recently shown he could've been capable of and how much it messed up the team (pulling Joe from RS early etc) for the next 4yrs because Chance came in and got involved in the wrong stuff (Joe too). Isn't this where you expect your young assistant coach to be involved as he is closest to understanding the athletes & college. Is this a wrestling problem, an OSU athletics problem, OSU campus, Stillwater or an Oklahoma problem? Or maybe like the Gundy t-shirt showed, times have change and there's only so much control or influence you can have over athletes/students. Reports are that Popolizio has found a way but prob doesn't work everywhere and doubtful any could influence/control a Ferrari type.
 
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I agree on the latter point, I think they really need to look at training and why the injuries. But it was a bigger avalanche of bad luck last year. But also go back and look at Marsteller and what he has recently shown he could've been capable of and how much it messed up the team (pulling Joe from RS early etc) for the next 4yrs because Chance came in and got involved in the wrong stuff (Joe too). Isn't this where you expect your young assistant coach to be involved as he is closest to understanding the athletes & college. Is this a wrestling problem, an OSU athletics problem, OSU campus, Stillwater or an Oklahoma problem? Or maybe like the Gundy t-shirt showed, times have change and there's only so much control or influence you can have over athletes/students. Reports are that Popolizio has found a way but prob doesn't work everywhere and doubtful any could influence/control a Ferrari type.

Pat Pop has a very strict "no drugs, no alcohol" policy. It's literally based on his time in Stillwater, LOL.

John is one of the very few guys in the sport who could say - absolutely NO drinking, drugs or partying - and it wouldn't affect his recruiting. But John isn't that kinda guy, and he kinda likes the old school "cowboy" mentality. Okie St guys are known as hard partyers, but the best ones still show up to practice at 6 am. There's a toughness there that isn't produced at most schools (read: OkieSt's MMA alumni).
 
A lot of that group with Dallas Bailey and the transfer guy….from Northwestern maybe…Benefiel.
 
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These conversations add no value to the program. I think Eddie's issues were his tremendous disappointment he did not AA in OKC.
 
These conversations add no value to the program. I think Eddie's issues were his tremendous disappointment he did not AA in OKC.

This is a message board. It's all about the "conversations" - the good, the bad, the ugly.
 
These conversations add no value to the program. I think Eddie's issues were his tremendous disappointment he did not AA in OKC.
This is why I ask TBH. “OSU wrestling is known for partying” gets thrown around on this board occasionally, an image which doesn’t help the program either. Of course out of any group of college aged dudes there is going to be some partying… that’s a given pretty much anywhere.
 
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Man I don’t remember any of those guys.
Probably because they partied too hard and sucked. Benefiel was a Fargo champ and big time recruit. As was Meade and a lot of others.

OU tried for the super religious/teetotaler angle last coach and it didn’t work out. It is used against us is my understanding but I doubt we are any worse than a lot of other places.
 
Probably because they partied too hard and sucked. Benefiel was a Fargo champ and big time recruit. As was Meade and a lot of others.

OU tried for the super religious/teetotaler angle last coach and it didn’t work out. It is used against us is my understanding but I doubt we are any worse than a lot of other places.
Seems to be working for Pop at NC State. Somewhere in the middle might be best, though
 
I think Eddie's issues were his tremendous disappointment he did not AA in OKC.

If it was an one-time thing, how was he able to find a dealer between the time he lost his second match and the end of the tournament? The idea that you can go down to the corner and score is largely a myth.
 
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Maybe something else to consider...I can think of incidents at PSU, Iowa & Ohio St. All involved drinking, all involved the police, 3 involved assault charges, 2 involved jail time, and 1 involved a gunshot.

I don't know if the OSU partying reputation is accurate or not. Or how it compares to other programs. But it seems pretty clear that all schools have to deal with some people doing dumb things.
 
Maybe something else to consider...I can think of incidents at PSU, Iowa & Ohio St. All involved drinking, all involved the police, 3 involved assault charges, 2 involved jail time, and 1 involved a gunshot.

I don't know if the OSU partying reputation is accurate or not. Or how it compares to other programs. But it seems pretty clear that all schools have to deal with some people doing dumb things.

It's not exclusive to OSU we just haven't won a title in 16 years so everything that isn't perfect gets a spotlight shined on it. Penn State has had several instances of some of their top wrestlers "missing weight" and "having the flu" during dual season... but they show up in March and that's when it matters most.

Also the Ferrari situation is the most recent example of a guy going off the rails in college wrestling. We've been pretty unlucky to have a handful of these in that 16 years. So the spotlight turns into a magnifying glass. Rightfully so.

How do you fix it? I have no idea... but I do know that winning a team title makes people care about this stuff a lot less. Gives you the ability to cut problems off of the team and folks don't question it... like Penn State and Iowa have both done with Gavin Teasdale most recently... or Iowa with Seth Gross when that stuff happened.
 
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After he lost on Friday night he went to a club and found the stuff. Pretty sure I recall at the time that it was his disappointment for not AA ing that he found the substance for the first time.
If it was an one-time thing, how was he able to find a dealer between the time he lost his second match and the end of the tournament? The idea that you can go down to the corner and score is largely a myth.
 
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After he lost on Friday night he went to a club and found the stuff. Pretty sure I recall at the time that it was his disappointment for not AA ing that he found the substance for the first time.
If you know, you know. No argument. I'm just pointing out that scoring drugs in a club from strangers is incredibly difficult.
 
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I don't know that, but it was painfull for Eddie. I do not know where I heard about this and it may be inaccurate, but I was told it was just one time.
 
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I don't know that, but it was painfull for Eddie. I do not know where I heard about this and it may be inaccurate, but I was told it was just one time.

Come on man. Guy loses at NCAAs and then drowns his sorrows in COCAINE. And you believe that's his first time?
 
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Come on man. Guy loses at NCAAs and then drowns his sorrows in COCAINE. And you believe that's his first time?
It was quite a story back then. There was a lot of people saying that someone else was using and put the blame on Eddie because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have no idea what happened, but he was back on the team and forgiven. Take that for what it is worth.
 
I remember how excited he was prior to the tourney. The day before weigh-ins he was more than a pound under weight and really excited. He was very disappointed.
 
It's not exclusive to OSU we just haven't won a title in 16 years so everything that isn't perfect gets a spotlight shined on it. Penn State has had several instances of some of their top wrestlers "missing weight" and "having the flu" during dual season... but they show up in March and that's when it matters most.

Also the Ferrari situation is the most recent example of a guy going off the rails in college wrestling. We've been pretty unlucky to have a handful of these in that 16 years. So the spotlight turns into a magnifying glass. Rightfully so.

How do you fix it? I have no idea... but I do know that winning a team title makes people care about this stuff a lot less. Gives you the ability to cut problems off of the team and folks don't question it... like Penn State and Iowa have both done with Gavin Teasdale most recently... or Iowa with Seth Gross when that stuff happened.

Who? Name them.
 
If it was an one-time thing, how was he able to find a dealer between the time he lost his second match and the end of the tournament? The idea that you can go down to the corner and score is largely a myth.
Huh?? Not if you’re looking. Not hard at all. Especially in a college town.
 
Huh?? Not if you’re looking. Not hard at all. Especially in a college town.
Ok. Walk me through this: a guy who has never used cocaine goes to a club in Tulsa, makes unsolicited inquiries about the availability of cocaine presumably by tapping randos on the shoulder, finds somebody that not only has cocaine but is willing to sell it to a complete stranger?

That's an after school special.

Edit: BTW I'm not saying it didn't happen, but that ain't the way these things usually happen.
 
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Turned out ok for Eddie. John told him he needed to meet certain obligations before he would be allowed back on the team. Eddie did and he was reinstated. He went on to AA that season. I remember how excited Eddie & John were.

BTW, Eddie was just named assistant coach at VMI.
 
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