When's the last time Ryder's wrestled 174?
I'm guessing Thompson beats out Merrill at 197. Guys who are successful at 215/hwt. and come down often don't have the scrambling skills to keep up with the guys who were middleweights in HS or college.
I suspect his walking around weight is the same as the Ok. St. 141 lbers walking around weight.
I also disagree that 125 scrambles are different from 141-165 scrambles, but I acknowledge reasonable minds can differ.
Kennedy wrestled 141. I expect he could work with lightweights, up to middleweights. Not as much flexibility with Gilman. Do they have an upper weight guy though? I'd think you want a young assistant at each end of the weight spectrum.
Illinois makes the most sense. Ok. St. people say he's walking around at 215, so would slot in well at 197. I hope he's not expecting NIL money though - I don't think IL is a player in that market.
He's also an Izzy guy though and there seems to be an Izzy-to-Michigan pipeline.
Neves is an NCAA qualifier as a frosh, so UNC is not bad at Hwt. Ferrari may fit in better at 197. But if he waits until next season to decide, that may screw Neves out of his chance to hit the portal.
Heard from inside sources at Stanford that the team there didn't love Koll. He spent all his time fundraising and glad-handing instead of coaching.
Maybe that was necessary though, given the dire straits the program was in after almost getting cancelled.