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We sat behind Jason Welch's family at a US Open one time. His grandfather is funny AF. Sort of out of the blue, he turned around and looked at my wife. Then he looked at me, laughed and said " She could have done a helluva lot better than you!"

I’ll also throw in that he said in his intro press conference that before any of this happened, he and his wife were looking for a home in North Carolina once he retired. He basically said Palo Alto is too expensive to live after retirement unless you’re a tech employee. It seems like NC is a popular place to wind down your career and retire (Mack Brown is doing the exact same thing with the football program). Probably because you have beaches, mountains, and all 4 seasons of weather in one state (not always hot and not always cold).

Yeah, that is the case. I don't think they have enough money at that institution to afford those scholarships. Duke is really struggling financially, by all accounts.

Stanford hits UNC, NC State, Duke one weekend. The next year they hit UVA and VTech. That won't be too bad at all.

Nope. But I did stay at a holiday inn express.

I know the feeling, junior year weighed 182. Making 171 was killer as well. To top it off the guys at 189 looked huge.

Yup! I’ve heard that too. My dad worked directly with several different AD’s at Wake Forest my entire life so he knows a ton of people in the athletic offices at Wake, UNC, Duke, and NC State. Last I talked to him he said that he was hearing State will always prefer to stick with UNC first and foremost (due to the natural rivalry and long term history there). But he also said if push comes to shove State will look out for themselves first so the b12 is 100% in play for them.

I’ve been privy to a few conversations with various school officials about realignment and I have a pretty high level of confidence this will be a long-term disaster for the ACC. I’ll try to keep this somewhat short and concise. The thinking from some of the bigger brands in the ACC (FSU, Clemson, and UNC) is that this is completely detrimental to the conference. There are a large number of reasons such as: geography is not ideal for most sports other than football (imagine being a tennis player and needing to fly from Florida to California for one match during a rigorous week of class) and the schools invited don’t bring anywhere near the value needed to compete with the big 10 and SEC in revenue sharing. From what I’ve heard from people involved in these conversations is there is a high level of confidence that Florida State, Clemson, and UNC will be looking to leave the ACC in the near future. Basically as soon as they can justify paying their way out of the GoR. FSU damn near already did that this year. All 3 of those schools were *vehemently* opposed to the new schools joining. NC State was originally opposed, but ended up being swayed to vote “yes” in the end. What’s left of the ACC in 3, 5, 7 years etc. is anyone’s guess. Right now it looks like it will be more of a mid-major conference with schools like Cal, Stanford, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Wake Forest, etc. leading the way. Those schools can’t bring in anywhere near the revenue to compete with the B10, SEC, or even the B12 financially. I’ve also heard that Duke and NC State will want to follow UNC if at all possible. FSU and Clemson will try to get into the SEC and UNC will try to get into the B10. This is going to be a story that continues to develop over the next 3-5 years, but I would be absolutely shocked if by 2030 the ACC looks anywhere close to how it looks today.

I never cut big weight, but had annoying situations two different seasons. Freshman year, I was a natural 145, but my coach made me weigh in at 140 to have "lineup flexibility." I wrestled all but two matches at 145 (but having to weigh in at 140). Similar thing my junior year. I was a natural 189, but had to weigh in at 171, only to get "bumped" to 189 multiple times.

so does this help the chances of Stanford wrestling having a long-term wrestling program moving forward? I hope so but not sure. Stanford / UNC Koll fueled rivalry be a nice wrinkle. And very happy to add more depth to ACC wrestling.

The Athletic is re-branding it the All Coasts Conference.

It shouldn't be a surprise. He is an alum. The three schools that should have never been a surprise at his being hired for: - North Carolina, He is a national champ alum from here - Cornell, He was there straight out of college as an assistant and was the HC after seven years there - Penn State, His dad is a legendary coach from there Obviously him going BACK to Cornell would be a shocker due to drama. Obviously him going to Penn State would be a shocker right now. If Cael were to depart for... say UVU... then Koll being #1 target there would be a no-brainer. Or at least on the short list of #1 targets.

Was it in relation to this?

I'm not real close to the UVU program, but I am familiar because our valley has sent several kids there to wrestle such as Demetrius Romero. The facilities, in my opinion are not real great. I admit, I haven't been to their facility in a while so I don't know if they have updated some things or have plans to. Knowing many people connected to the program, one thing that is said about Greg is his ability to connect with kids and parents. They know he is going to take care of them beyond wrestling practice. Several parents and coaches have said they love Greg and they feel good leaving their kids in his hands. From the wrestling aspect of the program, the same people have said Jason Chamberlain was an amazing coach. He is no longer at UVU - He was only there a year. I believe he is now working as an Engineer if I heard right. As someone noted, if they go outside the program Adam Hall would be an excellent choice. If they stay in house it's obvious it will be between Lofthouse and Erkin. I am not sure about fully funded either, but I do know (as others have said) that they have full support from the university. The president goes to the matches and she is an avid fan. It doesn't seem like she would let funding get in the way of anything. They usually have a pretty decent schedule as well. This is just my opinion... but having followed the team for a long time, they have had some good rosters but seem to have a lot of injuries. If everyone is healthy this year I think they could have a couple guys make some noise. Drury is probably one of the most overlooked guy that could come in this year and surprise some people. There may be some people on here that have more knowledge than I do about UVU - we used to have wolverine on the last board who was a big fan.

Maybe they should try poaching Jason Welch.

good guess

I would take a hard look at Adam Hall, Chris Owens and Jason Chambarlain. Put enough money together and put those three together and that program would be very strong.

My Freshmen year I came out of Football at about 180(just 6'...though listed at 6'3!) We had a returning qualifier at '45, '52 and '60...but they weren't world beaters. So I start cutting, our coach was an idiot and shady. We didn't have to pass the hydration test. So I qualified for 144.-something. I remember asking the coach what he wants me to Wrestle at. The 160 was willing to bump up, so I could slide in there(especially since our '52 was like 5'6). His answer, "as much as you can." I got down to '52 and then our '40 got hurt, so he wanted us to shuffle down. 145 was...pure misery and our 145 ended up in the Hospital. At the same time, our 135 sprained his ankle pretty good and I remember hearing this along with our assistants(who would become the HC the next year and was an actual College Wrestler). Upon hearing he couldn't make the cut to 135...our coach, straight face says, "what about 130." He was an idiot. He coached a LOT of teams that won Conf and went to and won a couple State Titles, but never had a guy place higher than 4th in his 12 years. The next year we had multiple State Champs and lost Conf by a few points. The new coach was FAR more concerned about guys wrestling their best weights and each Wrestler being THEIR best. It'd eventually translate to more team success, but it immediately made the sport a lot more fun. Went up to '70 and never dropped back down.

I really don’t know that is true. The singlet is much more well known to outsiders- I think the singlet is an initial hangup before kids even get to weight cutting

Hope the travel budget is there or some of the none top tier 1 are close to being cut.

I think folks want the country to fail.

No, You didn't follow the assignment. that is at a Kroger one of the largest grocery store chains on the planet. I'm taling about when a flash mob breaks into mom and pop stores and destroy a business that they have taken years to grow. Although I'm not opposed to a couple getting thumped at some of the large chains

Ayers, Hahn , Nickerson and Sioredas are the HC who's names we keep hearing

Hope they get another good CEO type coach who is as good with politics and promotion as he is in the room. Can't be losing another West Coast program.

We probably do agree more than we disagree. The B1G didn't necessarily want UCLA - they wanted USC and the #2 TV DMA (5.8 million TV households and nearly nearly 15 million people) and UCLA was part of the package. Don't underestimate the impact of the cable channels here, either, even with cord cutting accelerating. The B1G gets about $1/subscriber per cable household for The B1G cable channel. Assuming B1G now gets cleared on the LA cable systems, that would be an additional $1-$1.5 million/month for the channel just in LA, not to mention the other CA markets which would will pick up the channel moving forward. (Wondering how many systems clear the ACC Channel in CA or TX with their moves, although that network gets much lower rates per household, because, well, the football just isn't that good.) Maybe there is a similar opportunity for B1G to clear all of the cable homes in NC by adding UNC, but every day another household cancels its cable service, meaning the economic opportunity for the B1G here diminishes over time. Again, Florida State makes me chuckle. They are hanging so much on last season when their fans wanted to run Mike Norvell after his first two seasons. Their attendance last year was still down 15K from 2014, which was the first season after their most recent national championship. They better win Saturday against LSU, because their hopes on and off the field could fall apart real fast if they don't.

My hopes are pretty high too. It took him 2 years to put together the 2nd highest rated recruiting class in the country at Stanford. He knows how to get kids to come (or as he says he recruits the parents and the kids will follow).

Again, with my bias established, I don't think it will take it near as long since he is a known name. He isnt trying to convince people he will be able to be sussessful he has proven it

So what is the thought process on what Koll can do at UNC, I look at what he did at Cornell and think he could have UNC looking at at top 5 finishes in a few years, but I am a UNC guy so I was just wondering what nuetral observers think about it

Happens to the best of us, Dr. Proctologist.

Wait a second.... I thought the NCAA was a non-profit organization for amateur athletics?

"perineal"; clever pun, or just that damn auto-correct again?

I agree with most of your points, but your initial premise is partially incorrect. This is all about money and revenue sharing, which football is the main driver of. We can sit here and laugh all day about how bad Florida State has been the past decade, but it’s irrefutable they bring money to the table. And a lot of it. They are absolutely peeved that they have to equally share the same amount of revenue with schools like Boston College and Wake Forest, who don’t bring anything to the table financially. This is being worked on by the ACC, but still hasn’t been solved yet because why would BC and Wake and similar schools be willing to give up money they were initially guaranteed? Meanwhile your money workhorses in the SEC will make 30-40 million dollars more in revenue sharing. They can use that money to totally leave behind the ACC in every sport in the era of NIL. B10 and SEC schools will make double what ACC schools make in 10 years if nothing changes. It’s a crappy hand that was forced when the conference realignment carousel kicked off last year. Will UNC get crapped on by Michigan and Ohio State football? Sure, probably. I’m not sure how that’s much different than the ACC arrangement though. UNC is a perineal 8-4 team and that wouldn’t really change in the B10. Our games against OSU and Mich will look like our games against Clemson. But what UNC does bring is ridiculous brand power which = money. That’s really what all this conference moving junk is about. Im with you though, I yearn for the day of going back to regionally based conferences and not super conferences.

The list of ACC schools looking to leave the league for football purposes, other than Clemson, is comical. Florida will campaign against FSU or Miami, which has flat stunk in football for the past two decades, from being invited to the SEC. The football history of UNC, NC State, UVA and VT is negligible. I can understand UVA and UNC wanting to join the B1G for the academic prestige; enjoy the annual drubbings against Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, etc. Ultimately, among big time schools, you can argue that only Penn State has benefitted from the realignment of the past 20 years, and they weren't previously in a football conference. Imagine how things would be different if the Big East hadn't stiffed them decades ago. Finally, I am really looking forward to the inevitable collapse of these new super conferences and a return to more regional competition across football and all sports. It is inevitable that some combination of Bama, UGA, Florida, LSU, Auburn, Tennessee, Texas, etc. looks at Kentucky, Vandy, Ole Miss, Miss State, MIssouri, etc., and says "Why are we sharing our football money with these jokers?" and the other conferences will follow suit.

This works out pretty well for wrestling. Other sports, not so much. Better have some good pitching for baseball! Stanford wrestling could handle a weekend (every other year) where they travelled to the Triangle to wrestle the Wolfpack, UNC, and Duke. Not great for your bullpen's arms in baseball.

I don't see why that would be a determining factor, this is Alirez's last year

Bono

Talented immature primadonna.

30lbs is insane! Never could of done it. Freshman year weighed 165 and cut to 160 lol. That was brutal for me.

Stanford will hire Mark Schultz with Rulon Gardner as his head Assistant.

As brother @bnwtwg has noted, the Freestyle preseeds are out for the World Championships. I personally believe that the best three wrestlers at the weight who will be wrestling in Belgrade are not included in UWW's seeds. Top four if you include Thomas Gilman. There is certainly a case for Abakarov being in the top four, though. He's seeded #2 and deserves it as returning World Champion. The wrestlers not included in the top eight seeds are Zavur Uguev of Russia, Rei Higuchi of Japan and Zane Richards. There's an interview of Higuchi posted on the UWW website that I think is pretty revealing. In my mind, he was going over his top threats. He had this to say: "But a lot has changed at 57kg since he last wrestled internationally at this weight class. Most of the wrestlers have changed weight classes or have retired. Zaur UGUEV is the defending Olympic champion. Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB) is the world champion. Two youngsters are champions in Europe and Asia. Iran has lost its stronghold on the lightest weight. But Higuchi is updated. 'I don't care about the World Championships,' Higuchi says. 'I watched Final X and Zain [sp] RICHARDS (USA) winning it. AMAN (IND), Abakarov, Uguev, Aliabbas RZAZADE (AZE). I watched them all.'” Except for Rzazade, but including Higuchi himself, I think that his list contains the names of everybody who can win the Gold Medal. So excite!

This is almost exactly my story, except I only had to drop to 155.

Carter Neves already decommitted… so it begins

I was just involved in a Twitter thread about the UFC and their weight cutting. I suggested using the NCAA Wrestling standard. They won't go to 1-2 hour weigh-ins or even same day for multiple reasons...one being the athletes don't want that. The other, it's an entire event they use to sell the fight. But the fix College Wrestling made in...I think '97 is the way the UFC should go.

Interesting. I stress starve when I'm stressed or anxious, too. Just caffeine, water, and some sugar like I have to make weight in a couple of days. I wonder if it's a common thing that a lot of former wrestlers do.

I wrestled "BITD" in college. Once, only once, I dropped 18 lbs. in about 20 hours. Plastics, including sitting for 3 hours in whirlpool with them on. Back then we had the weigh in several hours before a match. I made weight, stepped off the scale and downed almost a gallon of Gatorade. Not smart I know. But I wanted to wrestle a former Olympian. Needed to drop the weight to do that. Too bad the guy decided not to wrestle that day.

My sophomore year I went from 185 to 152 at 6’2”. It was a miserable time getting down to weight. I had a negative association with running after that season. Spent a lot of time on the treadmill.

I’m down almost 20lb in last 3 weeks. But that’s been accomplished through getting back to work routine habits after summer break, eating better, running a 5K every other day, and drinking “the good stuff” on weekends only again. Plus, a stubborn attitude to not let these high school brats think for a second they have an edge up on me in neutral a month or two. I’ve been in wrestling too much of my life to believe any less than hard work and some self control will work over a long period of time.

Something inside of me got messed up from consistently losing weight as a kid. Now I stress-starve regularly. Whenever I have something important or exciting coming up, I go couple days with just water and black coffee. During the first month of the pandemic i lost ten pounds

What the current Russian government & military is doing is rotten and disgusting - no better than dogs. No Russians should be allowed to compete in any sporting events that are affiliated with peace, understanding, and good will. Participation in these events needs to be earned. The disgusting behavior of the Russian authorities disqualifies them. They've earned nothing.