alex1fly

I think you're on to something re: new moves and opponent analysis.

Schedule is out Nov. 10 – Bucknell (7 p.m.) Dec. 1-2 – Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Las Vegas, Nev.) Dec. 8 – Lehigh (7 p.m.) Dec. 10 – at Oklahoma (2 p.m.) TBA – at Minnesota (TBA) Dec. 19 – at Wyoming (TBA) Dec. 30 – NC State (Sicily, Italy - TBA) Jan. 12 – at Pittsburgh (6 p.m.) Jan. 14 – at West Virginia (12 p.m.) Jan. 21 – Oregon State (2 p.m.) Jan. 26 – Northern Iowa (7 p.m.) Jan. 27 – Iowa State (6 p.m.) Feb. 2 – Arizona State (7 p.m.) Feb. 4 – at Missouri (2 p.m.) Feb. 10 – South Dakota State (6 p.m.) Feb. 18 – Oklahoma (2 p.m.) Feb. 25 – Iowa (2 p.m.) Mar. 9-10 – Big 12 Championships (Tulsa, Okla.) Mar. 21-23 – NCAA Championships (Kansas City, Mo.) https://okstate.com/news/2023/9/29/cowboy-wrestling-announces-2023-24-schedule

NBA and NFL teams have salary caps. MLB does not. Should college athletics? That could be debated Yes or No pretty convincingly either way.

It would be pretty fascinating if rankings were established at an early season tourney rather than the previous season’s NCAA results.

I'm sure everyone will hate this idea and it will also never happen, but as a fan I would love to see a league-wide tournament at the beginning of the season. Either individual or duals. Cool matchups, set the stage for where everybody is at, start the season with a highly anticipated event. Kind of like a pre-test and a post-test... where did you start the season and how much did you grow during the season? Anyways, just bored and excited for college folkstyle. But not ready for the cold weather that comes with it. Ah well. Makes ya tough.

Do y'all know for sure that there's nowhere to UNI to practice? Or are you just sharing tweets.

Obviously a lot rides on a solid bounceback this year for the Pokes... but IMO he is not in a hot seat. Last two NCAAs have been rough but look at the context. 7 top ten finishes at NCAAs in the last ten years with multiple AAs and multiple NCs and a 7-year streak of winning the Big 12 Championship. Pulls in consistently high recruiting classes. Embraced NIL and the portal this offseason. Built a new locker room last year and is actively fundraising for future facility upgrades. Hired two new assistant coaches and brought several senior level athletes into the new RTC (Cowboy Wrestling Club) this last year. Changed up training routines. He has several years left regardless of NCAA results.

If there’s regular compliance trainings then that means there are people on campus familiar with the rules and could have steered these kids towards not getting banned with a 5 minute conversation or an email or a “don’t do this!” poster on the wall, HR style. It’s maybe a harsh punishment, I don’t know, but also seems so preventable.

This +1000. 99% of these discussions are simply fans cosplaying.

Wittlake is leaving to do grad studies in his home state. He grew up a few hours away from Oregon State University. If I had to guess I'd say wrestling will be helping him pay for graduate school.

Lol this is pretty good You're not wrong but you are cherry-picking examples and ignoring the rest. There has been the whole range of emotions from Smith the last few years, on the mat and for the media, from disappointed to annoyed to hopeful to ecstatic. It's been the hardest two years in program history, with several athletes that did well in practice but come matchtime barely made offensive moves and struggled with fundamentals. So it's entirely possible he's annoyed at his staff for their room coaching and/or matside coaching. This season should be different with the new lineup and new coaches in the room. Personally I miss having Smith as a main matside coach.

No way the dealership is giving away vehicles without themselves gaining financially in some way. Possible they just *delivered* it since they're the dealer in Stillwater.

Spencer Lee

Just listened to the Dynasty Defined podcast where Lee interviews Coleman a month or two ago. Great interview, on Spotify if anyone is interested. Coleman is well spoken and seems to embrace the administrative/fundraising/outreach aspects of running a program in addition to coaching kids to their individual strengths. All good things for OSU.

Hey if you guys say it enough it might become true. That’s how we do things in the (mis)Information Age.

I have a hard time seeing a freshman Thompson beating a 2x All American and freestyle national champ in Plott. I do hope Thompson is a stud though.

Lot of back and forth on if Wittlake is done. He shows up in some preseason rankings but I'm skeptical.

Nice to see folks sticking up for Ok State. I don't think we have many fans on this board. The OP would have hit home if we hadn't already beaten it to death on the 34 and Counting board and there wasn't significant offseason movement. We've (OK State) placed Top 10 in seven of the last ten championship years. 2022 and 2023 placings were the direct result of Ferraris leaving holes at 165/197/Hwy due to their violent crimes and Mastro leaving a hole at 125 because he left mid-season either to run his zoo, because he got tired of getting yelled at for not getting off bottom or only taking one shot per period, or some combination of the two. Mastro had a lot of promise but chose to leave us in the lurch mid-season rather than work on the two things he needed to improve on. This year we have added Coleman Scott, Dean Heil, Eric Guerrero, and Gary Wayne Harding from UNC to our staff; that's a solid handful of NCAA championships, Olympic medals, outside coaching experience, senior-level competition experience, and perspective on how to develop individual wrestlers to their strengths. We've built out the RTC program with the Cowboy Wrestling Club and have freestyle champions in Fix, Plott, and Winchester plus have sent around a dozen athletes to freestyle tournaments this offseason. The university has ramped up the NIL program with an entire department dedicated to NIL for athletes. We've started using the transfer portal, adding several starters and freestyle-aspiring athletes this offseason. We built out a new wrestling locker room last year, upgraded the wrestling room, and have raised about $7 million of $25 million for an entirely new wrestling facility. The wrestling program has beefed up its social media presence considerably in the last couple of years to connect with fans/alums/recruits. Duals are a blast, GIA is a great atmosphere and the locals are consistently stoked about it. The current coaches treat people like family. Christian Carroll even mentioned that part of why he chose OSU was that Smith & Co are loyal to their athletes even though they could buy an entirely new lineup. So there! Lol Last 10 NCAA Championships: 2013: 2nd 2014: 3rd 2015: 7th 2016: 2nd 2017: 3rd 2018: 13th 2019: 3rd 2020: Canceled (COVID) 2021: 3rd 2022: 14th 2023: 18th

We Okie State fans are still recovering from the Ferraris trying to kill themselves, their teammates, and anyone that happens to be around them. This one hits close to home for sure.

Espo left for the OTC. My hunch is that he is a candidate, yes. But he either doesn’t want to be a full head coach with all the duties outside of coaching, or he is going to the OTC to get some different experience before competing for the Okie State head coach position.

1-2 years makes sense logically but big decisions like this are highly influenced by emotions. John has absolutely reloaded the Okie State staff with alumni greats... Gary Wayne and Chandler Rogers last year, Guerrero and Heil and Coleman this year. Hard to see John ever *not* being involved with the program in some way. It's been a central component of his life for almost 40 years.

See above. It ain't real until it's real. And there are steps between accepting a job and finalizing an employment contract. Administration runs the show when it comes to the timing of highly visible public announcements. I know coaches usually are a catch-all for blame but in this case it's literally how the organization works. Heck the coaches' excitement is probably what leaked the news in the first place.

Eh. His malcontent is based on individuals from what I can tell. Dude likes athletes that are driven and expresses plenty of satisfaction with kids in his media days and post-match interviews. He does get frustrated with kids that don't do basic stuff like, you know, make an attempt to get off bottom. Unfortunately we've had some real duds the last few years - like they were content to make the starting lineup and do well enough in practice but didn't want to progress past that point. Hoping that turns around this year. It should help that we likely aren't going to be plugging as many holes with athletes at incorrect weights thanks to various fiascos including the Focus kids.

I know how - some coaches don't give a sh** about that stuff as long as you're winning. Or they want to "give a second chance" dozens of times. Its definitely not just NCAA wrestling, either. Okie State doesn't play that way - John could've kept his National Champion and brought in the two younger brothers to compete for NCs. Heck John gets pissed at his wrestlers when they showboat even a little bit after a big win. The dude wants his athletes to keep it classy.

Whatcha mean? Focus kids are gone, Mastro kids are gone, their projected & adjacent weights are no longer backfilled by Witcraft/Gfeller/Sheets/Wittlake/Surber/Doucet, legacy dudes are gone. I do hope it's an upward trajectory for the pokes and I suppose there's a lot of firsts: first year of new lineup, first year of Cowboy Wrestling Club competing in the offseason, first year of having Heil and Guerrero back in the room. It'll be the first year without Coach Espo and the second year of having Gary Wayne.