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Recruiting Targets

Do we have another bulk job candidate to bridge the gap to Doucet?
 
Yeah, Singletary lost his wrestle off to an unranked guy.

It's interesting to see how much some of these 285s actually weigh. Derek went from 197 to 240 in about 9 months and is now around 260. Tony Andrade went from 195 to 236 in about 9 months. Singletary was a 220 as a HS senior in 2017, and he only weighs about 232 now based on last week's Michigan State Open.
I see that Mastro is projected to 41 and Vasquez is projected to 65 by Flow. As juniors Mastro is apparently wrestling 20 and Vasquez is wrestling 38, both going up 1 weight class. I think these projections are too high. I would project Mastro to be a 25 or 33 based on past weight and growth from the past. When you are recruiting these weight projections are important because you only have 9.9 scholarship money and you only get so many top recruits and when you get the weight right it is good and when you get a number of weight classes wrong it turns out bad for the team.
 
Any commentary on how our guys looked at OCU, like Kaden vs Magaldo?[/QUOTE]
Our guys looked dominate against very weak competition. The sum of total matches for the 6 projected starters and Gfeller was only 18 matches. They had 9 pins, 5 TF, 2 MD, and 2 decisions. The decisions were Weigel-Marsden and G-Magaldo. G looked hungry like a lot of talented freshman do. This match never appeared to be in doubt. Hope he keeps that fire for 4 years. I thought Sheets had turned the corner on Blaylock, but Blaylock pulled it out in the end.

Of the freshman, Wittlake dominated like expected but Denney looked better than I expected. Connor Wilson was impressive the couple of matches that I saw. I didn’t see his injury in the semifinals against Jaxen Gilmore.
 
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Agree with your assessment. For some reason never got to see Denney's matches. Conner's ankle got rolled (think Picc-Suriano match) but luckily doesn't have the fracture, at least that can be seen now. Soft cast. Was pleasantly surprised by his performance, although I had seen him live before (thats him in the orange in profile pic). I also thought Sheets was going to win that one. Preston looked like he was content to just be even with Marsden. Really was hoping for more from Putnam at HVY.
 
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Thanks for the OCU insights. Was following some of the matches on Track but it's hard to get a sense of the action.

In the Gfeller/Magaldo match, it seemed like G got a takedown and backpoints but then Magaldo rode him for a while. Last year G struggled a bit on bottom against Eierman so I'm hoping he improved there.

I was a little surprised that Denney beat Stika, who I thought looked very good in Fargo. Was also expecting Putnam to beat Walker and win that tournament but I know guys are just shaking the rust off.
 
Sounds like John is going to use the fall to finalize his lineup for the spring. Obviously 141 and then 165-184 are the weights in play.

I guess we could still see a switch by the two at 125 & 133 but I don't think we will.
 
Adam Busiello flipped from PSU to ASU. Never figured on him being available, even with some chatter about tOSU going after him. He would have been a nice fit at 141, right between the 2 Mastro brothers.
 
Adam Busiello flipped from PSU to ASU. Never figured on him being available, even with some chatter about tOSU going after him. He would have been a nice fit at 141, right between the 2 Mastro brothers.

Interesting that PSU now has zero top 100 commits just a week before signing day.
 
Interesting that PSU now has zero top 100 commits just a week before signing day.
That's because in 2018 they had maybe one of the greatest recruiting classes ever with quality and quantity. Brooks 184 (2), Beard 197 (11), Bravo-Young 133 (12), Teasdale 125 (16), Lee 165 (20), Nevills HWT (22), Teske 125 (34). This class is where it became apparent things were not close to even ( fair) in recruiting. However you are right that I like they did not add much to their roster. I hope our athletic administration takes serious and quick action to even the field with facility improvements and training center improvements to get us back to the top. Brooks will come in next year so they have a star coming in 2019. Our 2020 class needs to be fantastic to get us back competing for team championships. We got a good start but getting someone like Ferrari and a great lightweight like Howard to add to our class could push us to the top. If we start these improvements soon they could help us finish this class with gusto.
 
That's because in 2018 they had maybe one of the greatest recruiting classes ever with quality and quantity. Brooks 184 (2), Beard 197 (11), Bravo-Young 133 (12), Teasdale 125 (16), Lee 165 (20), Nevills HWT (22), Teske 125 (34). This class is where it became apparent things were not close to even ( fair) in recruiting. However you are right that I like they did not add much to their roster. I hope our athletic administration takes serious and quick action to even the field with facility improvements and training center improvements to get us back to the top. Brooks will come in next year so they have a star coming in 2019. Our 2020 class needs to be fantastic to get us back competing for team championships. We got a good start but getting someone like Ferrari and a great lightweight like Howard to add to our class could push us to the top. If we start these improvements soon they could help us finish this class with gusto.

And how about tOSU's recruiting these past 2 years? Last year they signed 6 of the top 37, led by Hoffman & Sasso. And this year they got 3 top 5 guys - Kerkvliet, Kharchla & Decatur. They also signed Super32 champ D'Emilio and it's possible that he never makes their starting lineup. PSU & tOSU have been on their own tier recently recruiting wise, followed by the next group of Iowa, Michigan & Cornell. We are probably in the group after that, along with a bunch of others like NCST & ASU.

The funding for the RTC and the new facility seem to be long term solutions. But couldn't we be doing some things differently in the meantime? Like getting an upper weight coach/training partner. Chris/Tyler/Zack & Alex are middleweights. If we want to get an AJ Ferrari or a Braxton Amos then that needs to be addressed, right? Did we ever get a volunteer coach?
 
And how about tOSU's recruiting these past 2 years? Last year they signed 6 of the top 37, led by Hoffman & Sasso. And this year they got 3 top 5 guys - Kerkvliet, Kharchla & Decatur. They also signed Super32 champ D'Emilio and it's possible that he never makes their starting lineup. PSU & tOSU have been on their own tier recently recruiting wise, followed by the next group of Iowa, Michigan & Cornell. We are probably in the group after that, along with a bunch of others like NCST & ASU.

The funding for the RTC and the new facility seem to be long term solutions. But couldn't we be doing some things differently in the meantime? Like getting an upper weight coach/training partner. Chris/Tyler/Zack & Alex are middleweights. If we want to get an AJ Ferrari or a Braxton Amos then that needs to be addressed, right? Did we ever get a volunteer coach?

I think the recent results you have seen are due to us "doing some things differently."

We are going to have an uphill battle until we get the RTC club fully funded and endowed (will allow for a FT RTC club coach and assistant and then 5-8 paid senior level club participants) first and then a wrestling only facility second.
 
I think the recent results you have seen are due to us "doing some things differently."

We are going to have an uphill battle until we get the RTC club fully funded and endowed (will allow for a FT RTC club coach and assistant and then 5-8 paid senior level club participants) first and then a wrestling only facility second.

I think we all know (& agree) that we need the RTC and a new facility. And that both of those things are long term plays. But what specifically is being "done differently"?
 
I think we all know (& agree) that we need the RTC and a new facility. And that both of those things are long term plays. But what specifically is being "done differently"?

I think a renewed focus and effort to play the game in recruiting. While not near what you see in the revenue sports nut wreslters now want to be courted and social media is a big part of that.

Perry and Caldwell have made a noticeable difference IMO.
 
I think a renewed focus and effort to play the game in recruiting. While not near what you see in the revenue sports nut wreslters now want to be courted and social media is a big part of that.

Perry and Caldwell have made a noticeable difference IMO.

Yeah, I do agree there's been more twitter activity, although that seems to have quieted down since Plott committed.

I'm just not sure if social media & sales/marketing comes naturally to our staff. John has often said things like "you get in the wrestling room and you figure it out". That's why he won 6 gold medals. Compare that to someone like Tom Ryan. Ryan is probably not a "bad" guy, but he comes across as a phony salesman. John has to be cornered to give an interview, Ryan will find a microphone or a camera if it's within 10 miles. And then he'll proceed to say something he read in a motivational speaking book.

Back to doing things differently, how about this...we don't have the $ to sign an upper weight RTC athlete right now (probably $50K-75K per year), so how about flying Z Gelogaev in for a couple of weeks (give him $10K or so) and have him train with Derek?
 
Flo says a big recruit will commit tomorrow. It might be Nash Hutmacher to Wisconsin. If so, it wouldn't surprise me to see him play football and wrestle. Bono is a smart guy and he knows how to be creative.
 
Plot twist: Kerk is flipping back to us.

And then flips to PSU a day later...

I'm just guessing on the Hutmacher thing. But how about if our staff asks Brock Martin if he wants to wrestle for a couple of years? He would be a great fit until Doucet is ready.
 
And then flips to PSU a day later...

I'm just guessing on the Hutmacher thing. But how about if our staff asks Brock Martin if he wants to wrestle for a couple of years? He would be a great fit until Doucet is ready.

I've never been a wrestler so I could be way off. That being said, wrestling doesn't seem like a fun sport to do as a hobby.
 
It is very difficult to start wrestling. Getting ridden was just a terrible experience. The more you do it the better you get, but doing it as an adult hobby would be tough unless you were just great and had no physical ailments.
 
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I'm not clear why you guys are thinking of it as a hobby. Some guys just like to compete, whether it's on the field or on the mat. Not everyone of course, but some. PSU wrestled Jan Johnson at heavy a couple of years ago when Nevills got hurt.

Martin was a 3x state champ and he tweeted this last year - expand it to see the reply from his dad. Things may have changed since then, but at least there was some interest.

 
I wouldn't really call that panicking. He was just reporting the news.
I agree that my calling that statement "panicking" was incorrect. I over-reacted. Sometimes you say things you wish you had not in the spur of the moment. My real point is that Penn State, Iowa, Ohio State, and others are going to get great recruits but we will also. I think in the recent past we have made mistakes in judgement and have created log jams at certain weights and lack of depth at other weights.This is not a knock on John or our assistants but just a reality. It appears that our two youngest coaches are adding a new dimension to our recruiting efforts and Coach Esposito and John are backing this recruiting effort to the hilt. We have had a great recruiting class to this date and the addition of one or two recruits will make it one of our best. Apologies to osu2082 for the intemperate post. The posters on this board at present far exceed my knowledge of recruiting. I just want our current successes to be acknowledged and not down-played.
 
I'm not clear why you guys are thinking of it as a hobby. Some guys just like to compete, whether it's on the field or on the mat. Not everyone of course, but some. PSU wrestled Jan Johnson at heavy a couple of years ago when Nevills got hurt.

Martin was a 3x state champ and he tweeted this last year - expand it to see the reply from his dad. Things may have changed since then, but at least there was some interest.


I just meant hobby as in he is at OSU to play football. Wrestling doesn't seem like a sport you do just to kill some time in the offseason. It is as grueling as it gets. That being said if it is something Brock wants to do I'm all for it. It would be fun to watch.
 
He is also roommates with Malcolm Rodriguez and retweets okstate wrestling

Yup, seems pretty tight with Daton too. Actually Rodriguez would be a nice fit for 197 but that one ain't happening.

You probably saw this already, but Gross wrestled yesterday so him and Daton could be a go. And Gable appears to be keeping his redshirt on for now, so probably no Derek/Steveson match.
 
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I agree that my calling that statement "panicking" was incorrect. I over-reacted. Sometimes you say things you wish you had not in the spur of the moment. My real point is that Penn State, Iowa, Ohio State, and others are going to get great recruits but we will also. I think in the recent past we have made mistakes in judgement and have created log jams at certain weights and lack of depth at other weights.This is not a knock on John or our assistants but just a reality. It appears that our two youngest coaches are adding a new dimension to our recruiting efforts and Coach Esposito and John are backing this recruiting effort to the hilt. We have had a great recruiting class to this date and the addition of one or two recruits will make it one of our best. Apologies to osu2082 for the intemperate post. The posters on this board at present far exceed my knowledge of recruiting. I just want our current successes to be acknowledged and not down-played.

No apologies needed and I certainly wasn't trying to downplay what has been a fantastic run of recruiting for us. We seem to have some renewed energy in recruiting and the results have been great.

I know our AD is working on identifying a large donor to kick off the wrestling funding so if that happens sooner rather ham later things are looking up for Cowboy Wrestling which is music to my ears!
 
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I assumed by Bono’s similar tweet that it was Whisky too. Wisconsin is not included in this list of 6. Now I have to be checking for an update all day tomorrow.
 
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