Coaching changes

[ionel]

44 minutes ago, Antitroll2828 said:

Caldwell just moved back to NJ and opened a youth wrestling club and has been helping out at his high school , he was having a lot of success in Florida running a club with Greg Jones idk if he’s still apart of that .  I don’t see him moving to Iowa anytime soon lol he also doesn’t like metcalf he’s said as much in interviews 

If push comes to shove I think Metcalf will flip him to Iowa St.  

[flyingcement]

1 minute ago, ionel said:

If push comes to shove I think Metcalf will flip him to Iowa St.  

I was thinking if Caldwell attempts to flip to Ames, Metcalf might feel a need to push him away

[ionel]

Just now, flyingcement said:

I was thinking if Caldwell attempts to flip to Ames, Metcalf might feel a need to push him away

[mr.nonothingatall]

15 hours ago, JMill said:

Wisconsin must’ve heard Iowa State was shaking things up and got scared, so they extended Bono’s contract on Wednesday.

Bono was paid a little north of $280k in FY 2024, so it must be creeping up on $300k/year salary. 

In all seriousness, when an Athletic Director quits on Monday, why not reschedule the Wednesday meeting to extend six coaches’ contracts a little bit, even if they are just rubber stamped?  

https://uwbadgers.com/news/2026/4/15/general-news-uw-athletic-board-approves-coaches-contracts

Thru 2031 is crazy. After the year he had, which was an improvement on the previous year, I think a 1-2 year extension maybe but wowza. New AD will help tho, hopefully

[JMill]

40 minutes ago, mr.nonothingatall said:

Thru 2031 is crazy. After the year he had, which was an improvement on the previous year, I think a 1-2 year extension maybe but wowza. New AD will help tho, hopefully

Wisconsin gives all their coaches rolling five-year contracts, so it is really just a one year extension, but it is another $300k the university would have to be willing to burn to terminate his contract early. At this point, it’d take a booster to walk in with about $1.5mm to buy out Bono for a coaching change to be made. 

The rolling contracts were a decent idea as they allow coaches to tell high school recruits they will be there for their full college career, but that means a lot less now with the portal. I suppose not having to worry about one’s contract would allow them to keep their focus on coaching, but it also takes away the urgency to improve that comes with that uncertainty. Wisconsin Athletics’ motto is “Just wait til next year!”

Side note: Fickell turned down his extension after last football season, but that’s more of him betting on himself to have a better year and more bargaining power than it was him admitting he didn’t deserve one.

[mr.nonothingatall]

8 hours ago, JMill said:

Wisconsin gives all their coaches rolling five-year contracts, so it is really just a one year extension, but it is another $300k the university would have to be willing to burn to terminate his contract early. At this point, it’d take a booster to walk in with about $1.5mm to buy out Bono for a coaching change to be made. 

The rolling contracts were a decent idea as they allow coaches to tell high school recruits they will be there for their full college career, but that means a lot less now with the portal. I suppose not having to worry about one’s contract would allow them to keep their focus on coaching, but it also takes away the urgency to improve that comes with that uncertainty. Wisconsin Athletics’ motto is “Just wait til next year!”

Side note: Fickell turned down his extension after last football season, but that’s more of him betting on himself to have a better year and more bargaining power than it was him admitting he didn’t deserve one.

Awesome! Thanks for the info, certain makes a lot more sense to me now. Hopefully Wisconsin can bring there athletic back to its former self. 

[CoachB]

On 4/17/2026 at 10:08 PM, Antitroll2828 said:

Caldwell just moved back to NJ and opened a youth wrestling club and has been helping out at his high school , he was having a lot of success in Florida running a club with Greg Jones idk if he’s still apart of that .  I don’t see him moving to Iowa anytime soon lol he also doesn’t like metcalf he’s said as much in interviews 

[Dogbone]

Yianni on staff at Cornell is official. 

[MPhillips]

https://cornellbigred.com/news/2026/4/20/cornell-wrestling-adds-diakomihalis-to-coaching-staff.aspx

[CoachB]

Wonder who will work with the heavyweights now on the Cornell staff.

Edited April 21 by CoachB

[HRRBM]

I'm pretty sure Greg Kerkvliet (former Penn State 285 champ) recently signed with the Spartan Combat (Cornell) RTC.  So he will be a great fit for the upper weights.  

[Fletcher]

On 4/16/2026 at 8:38 PM, juniorvarsity said:

 

Illinois assistant after Hunter moved up and Poeta out

 

Poeta's gonna show up with a fake mustache and interview for the assistant job.

[bnwtwg]

1 hour ago, Fletcher said:

Poeta's gonna show up with a fake mustache and interview for the assistant job.

Psych Foeta

[Fletcher]

On 4/18/2026 at 11:52 AM, JMill said:

Wisconsin gives all their coaches rolling five-year contracts, so it is really just a one year extension, but it is another $300k the university would have to be willing to burn to terminate his contract early. At this point, it’d take a booster to walk in with about $1.5mm to buy out Bono for a coaching change to be made. 

The rolling contracts were a decent idea as they allow coaches to tell high school recruits they will be there for their full college career, but that means a lot less now with the portal. I suppose not having to worry about one’s contract would allow them to keep their focus on coaching, but it also takes away the urgency to improve that comes with that uncertainty. Wisconsin Athletics’ motto is “Just wait til next year!”

Side note: Fickell turned down his extension after last football season, but that’s more of him betting on himself to have a better year and more bargaining power than it was him admitting he didn’t deserve one.

Bono just needs more time. We know he can coach based on his success at UTC and SDSU. He's got Askren sending the best kids in Wisconsin anywhere but to UW - it's impossible to build a successful team without in-state kids as the foundation. Despite this, he's still doing no worse than Barry Davis.

[jbai3_12]

34 minutes ago, Fletcher said:

Bono just needs more time. We know he can coach based on his success at UTC and SDSU. He's got Askren sending the best kids in Wisconsin anywhere but to UW - it's impossible to build a successful team without in-state kids as the foundation. Despite this, he's still doing no worse than Barry Davis.

Bono needs to swallow his pride and make amends with whatever caused the riff between Askren Academy and the University. 

It is silly not to be doing everything you can do to have, at the very least, the top recruits from AWA having Wisconsin in their top three.  

[HungusMungus]

any update on Readers replacement? very quiet out of Madison, but thats par for the course Bono doesn't communicate anything.

[Fletcher]

5 minutes ago, jbai3_12 said:

Bono needs to swallow his pride and make amends with whatever caused the riff between Askren Academy and the University. 

It is silly not to be doing everything you can do to have, at the very least, the top recruits from AWA having Wisconsin in their top three.  

How do we know Bono hasn't already tried that? Maybe Askren's the one who needs to make amends? Silly to discourage your club kids from going to the state's flagship university.

Truth is we don't know what the dispute is (though there are rumors) or who's at fault. So it's not really fair to assume Bono's the one who has to swallow his pride and make amends.

[ScottishSteel]

1 hour ago, HungusMungus said:

any update on Readers replacement? very quiet out of Madison, but thats par for the course Bono doesn't communicate anything.

According to their website, their Associate Head Coach is Jon Reader.  Would be a great fit there I feel if true

[jbai3_12]

59 minutes ago, Fletcher said:

How do we know Bono hasn't already tried that? Maybe Askren's the one who needs to make amends? Silly to discourage your club kids from going to the state's flagship university.

Truth is we don't know what the dispute is (though there are rumors) or who's at fault. So it's not really fair to assume Bono's the one who has to swallow his pride and make amends.

Then Bono can continue to do what he's doing...which is average at best. It doesn't really matter whose fault it is, its more about how can we come to a resolution so the best in state aren't going to other schools. That takes swallowing pride, putting aside ego, for the bigger vision of a top tier Big ten team.  And yes, maybe he has done that...or maybe he hasn't. 

[CoachB]

5 hours ago, Fletcher said:

Poeta's gonna show up with a fake mustache and interview for the assistant job.

[pcostilow]

12 minutes ago, CoachB said:

Yes, my name is Pike Moeta

[cl415]

On 4/18/2026 at 9:52 AM, JMill said:

Wisconsin gives all their coaches rolling five-year contracts, so it is really just a one year extension, but it is another $300k the university would have to be willing to burn to terminate his contract early. At this point, it’d take a booster to walk in with about $1.5mm to buy out Bono for a coaching change to be made. 

The rolling contracts were a decent idea as they allow coaches to tell high school recruits they will be there for their full college career, but that means a lot less now with the portal. I suppose not having to worry about one’s contract would allow them to keep their focus on coaching, but it also takes away the urgency to improve that comes with that uncertainty. Wisconsin Athletics’ motto is “Just wait til next year!”

Side note: Fickell turned down his extension after last football season, but that’s more of him betting on himself to have a better year and more bargaining power than it was him admitting he didn’t deserve one.

I don’t know if this applies to Bono but not all coaching contracts are like football and basketball, specifically related to the buyouts.

Most people just take the total money left on the table and thinks that is the buyout but it’s not always the case. For Example, Brands is under contract for a few more years but after June his buyout is only $500k. 

I would think a savvy AD who does 5 year rolling contracts would not be so foolish that they would have to buyout the total contract in the event of termination.

 

[JMill]

9 hours ago, Fletcher said:

How do we know Bono hasn't already tried that? Maybe Askren's the one who needs to make amends? Silly to discourage your club kids from going to the state's flagship university.

Truth is we don't know what the dispute is (though there are rumors) or who's at fault. So it's not really fair to assume Bono's the one who has to swallow his pride and make amends.

This video goes over that…. I think it’s more that kids brought up through AWA look for a college coach with a similar coaching philosophy as Askren, and it doesn’t seem like Bono’s is even close.

[JMill]

6 hours ago, cl415 said:

I don’t know if this applies to Bono but not all coaching contracts are like football and basketball, specifically related to the buyouts.

Most people just take the total money left on the table and thinks that is the buyout but it’s not always the case. For Example, Brands is under contract for a few more years but after June his buyout is only $500k. 

I would think a savvy AD who does 5 year rolling contracts would not be so foolish that they would have to buyout the total contract in the event of termination.

 

That could definitely be true about buy-outs, especially now that a lot of non-revenue coaches are making 2-3 times what they did ten years ago. 

[Fletcher]

10 hours ago, JMill said:

This video goes over that…. I think it’s more that kids brought up through AWA look for a college coach with a similar coaching philosophy as Askren, and it doesn’t seem like Bono’s is even close.

Interesting vid - thanks for posting. So Ben says they buried the hatchet but he thinks Bono's a bad coach. Why would Bono's coaching be successful at UTC and SDSU but not WI? Is he doing something different now? Hard to build a full roster without in-state talent, but that doesn't explain why current team members are transferring.

Interesting hint that Ingram may transfer. He looked tough this year but faded at NCAAs.