BruceyB

Wait.. Jax and Bo are old for their grade? Is this new?

I didn't get that from the conversation at all. I took it as "We've been sleeping on how good Joey Blaze actually is."

Before his performance at trials, I definitely underrated him. I figured he was likely a 5th-7th type guy next year and thought his finals appearance was due to an upset that was extremely unlikely to replicate itself, and the quadrant of the bracket below him falling perfectly to pave a path for Blaze to the finals. The Cannon failed challenge debacle happens and the 5 seed goes down in OT to #12 Fish. #20 Chumbley is able to knock off #4 Hipolito in double OT. And then he beats Fish to make the semis. So Joey Blaze beat #25 Santiago in round one 7-0, #9 Askey in tiebreakers 2-2, upsets #1 Kasak, and beats #20 Chumbley 4-2 to make the finals. His performance at trials, albeit in freestyle, showed that maybe his run wasn't so much a fluke, and he might have just been improving.

You created so many straw men in this post I'm not going to bother to refute them. But anyone who argues that participating in a four match event FOUR months before NCAAs is going to hurt PSUs performance in March is just grasping for a reason to defend their non-participation. And Cliff Keen is grueling? It's 4-5 matches over the course of two days. How soft has our sport become where we think wrestling two or three matches in a day is grueling? Cael obviously has his reasons for not having his wrestlers face any competition outside of the big10 schedule, and you are right that it's not his job to do what's best for the sport, and he clearly isn't afraid of expressing that right. But the arrogance it exudes and the "we're above everyone else" attitude comes with that choice. Cael is alienating PSU from the rest of college wrestling by not participating in quality out of conference duals, tournaments, or events.

Fair enough.

I wouldn't proclaim this yet. If the 2 out of 3 looks similar to the US open, then I'd agree. But freestyle matches have a lot more variance than folk. I wouldn't over analyze one match. That being said, I expected Carr to look a lot better at the trial tournament.

You actually subjected yourself to an hour and a half of these two pumping each others tires? I saw this on my youtube feed and thought, "that has to be the most insufferable podcast ever recorded."

Exactly. I would like it if they participated, obviously, but I don't care all that much. It will be a great event regardless. I'm more bothered by the message they are sending by being the only ones in NCAA wrestling that are above this event. The arrogance is more off-putting than not participating. They don't participate in a single quality event outside of their B10 schedule.

Brock Hardy was 22 and 11 months at his first NCAAs in 2023. And that was his first of 4 years of eligibility.

So every coach in D1 wrestling is willing to participate in an event that is detrimental to their teams success in March.. except Cael Sanderson. Wow, PSU is showing everyone the secret to winning NCAAs, and they're all too foolish to follow suit! Participating in this event would do nothing in any way to hurt PSU's potential in March unless they are truly just trying to refrain from any legitimate competition outside of their B10 schedule. How is participating in the All-Star Classic conducive to helping his wrestlers win at the NCAA championships? He certainly hasn't had any issues with his athletes participating in that event which has been held in Rec Hall the past two years. It's his team and he can certainly do whatever he wants, but I do think that when every other program is willing to participate in an event, and you turn your nose up at it and the $200k prize, it makes you look like a bit of a prick. It would be different if multiple teams were opting out, but when you are the only one stopping this event from being as good as it possibly could be, that's a disservice to the sport. Cael is saying "we're too good for your event, and won't validate it by participating."

On FRL they said he had completed 3 years of college in Japan and competed for his school, so my guess is that they are treating those as 3 years of eligibility used, leaving him with a RS and year of actual competition. That's just my understanding from the bits and pieces that I've heard/read.

He has one year of eligibility, but I know at least on FRL they assumed he would still have the option to redshirt and compete in 2026-2027.

There is a Three 6 Mafia song from 1999 that would be the wildest walk-out song in human history, given the context. I feel like you'd know the song I'm talking about.

It's "over 1M in total purse." but I have to disagree. Cael hasn't publicly (to my knowledge) expressed any excitement or support for David Taylor moving on and taking over a rival program. You'd think it would be easy to say "I'm proud of David and excited that one of my first recruits at PSU is going to another program.. it will be a fun rivalry.. etc. etc." But it's seemed like the opposite. He dodges questions about DT and OSU, and just says he's worried about his team. It just furthers the cult mentality that people project upon PSU. David goes to OSU after 15 years in Happy Valley and multiple former/current PSU wrestlers essentially expressed anti-David sentiment. Wrestling in an event in November in no way would effect PSU's ability to peak for March.. the events are 4 months apart. He may believe it's best to avoid hard competition early in the season, but it likely has more to do with seeding than the ability to peak for March.

I could be wrong, but I get the feeling that he doesn't want to participate in the event as it is hosted by Oklahoma State and HC David Taylor. Their participation would show them willingly cooperating and supporting the event hosted by turncoat David Taylor. If this was going to be hosted by PSU, I think Cael would host it, win, and cash the check for $200k. It's stubbornness of wanting to discredit the event his former pupil is hosting by not participating. There is a reason that they are the only school in D1 wrestling that opted out. People can say it's because Cael only does what helps win in March, but I believe there is more to it than that.

I'm guessing Truzz is suggesting that there is more variability with Woods, but higher potential. McKenna has been scrapping at this weight for a long time now and it's hard to say he's really shown much growth. Woods has been wrestling freestyle for less than a year and managed to win the trials tournament.

Why are you being so pretentious on this topic? It's a wrestling forum. I didn't even know that Cabo was Spanish for Cape until this thread. Want to roast me?

You mean the amazing viewing experience of one men's FS match followed by one women's FS match followed by one greco-roman match, then repeat?

This kind of X from the late 90s?

He didn't give up a takedown in the high school season. I went back and looked, he lost to Deluca on a fleeing the mat call (he probably would have been taken down if he didn't lunge off the mat). And he lost in ultimate tie-breaker OT to Davino. So no TDs in either loss. But man, I have to say it. Marcus Blaze is one boring SOB in folkstyle. We're really in store for Bartlett 2.0

Gene Mills is the one that proposed the bet. It was his idea. Let the man do his thing.

Separating the top four and then random draw is the perfect format. It creates more excitement in the early rounds rather than watching top 4 slaughter the bottom 4 in rounder 1.

I could be completely wrong, but by looking at Vega, he just looks like a guy that would benefit from a year of strength training and filling out his frame. I'd be worried he's going to get moved around and overwhelmed by more mature and stronger guys at 141. Luckily he has his 5 dates so we can get an idea of where he's at during the season.

This is a no brainer. I don't know if I've ever actually watched Vega wrestle. Is there really a chance that he'd be ready to take out Jamison or Swiderski?