fishbane

I believe Gable coached for 21 years as he won 21 Big Ten team championships. 21 for 21 in Big Ten championships is a remarkable accomplishment and something unlikely ever to be equalled. Back to AAs that would make for 152/210 or 72.4% for Gable. Cael has 90 in 160 or 56.3%. Either is an exceptional rate. Though Cael's is slightly inflated because of the oddball 2020 AA standard. Gable's may be considered slightly inflated because of higher scholarship limits. Currently the max is 9.9 for wrestling and it used to be 11. It was reduced by 10% sometime between the 1992-1993 and 1994-1995 seasons. Now the NIL might more than make up for the 10% difference in scholarship, but at least at this point Gable had more season with 11 scholarships than Cael had with NIL.

Not sure on that, but Sanderson is 6th all time in individual AAs. 1) Harold Nichols 156 2) Dan Gable 152 3) John Smith 150 4) Jay Robinson 124 5) Bobby Douglas 110 6) Cael Sanderson 90 The totals for Sanderson and Smith probably include 2020 no tournament AAs.

In the 20 years before Smith got the job, OSU had only won 2 national team titles. Smith has done a lot better than that and college wrestling has changed significantly since the OSU dominated the sport in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. Really what coach has done better in the last 50 years? It a short list. Gable 15 national titles, Sanderson 9 national titles, Nichols 6 national titles, Smith 5 national titles. The reality is that when OSU hires a replacement he will likely not do as well... very few have.

Cael has had enjoyed some unprecedented success at Penn State and the total individual NCAA champions he's produced has really accumulated. To date he has coached 32 individual NCAA champions at PSU. This is one fewer than John Smith coached at OSU and he became the head coach there in 1991. Cael only got the PSU job in 2009. Adding in the two champions he coached at ISU, Cael is at 34 and ahead of Smith despite starting 15 years later. The only coaches with more individual NCAA champions than Cael are Ed Gallagher (OSU 37), Harold Nichols (ISU 38), and Dan Gable (Iowa 45). Cael has 4 wrestlers currently ranked #1 by the #1 ranking service, Intermat, and a 5th wrestler that's a returning national champion. It seems possible that Cael will move into 2nd on the all-time list behind only Dan Gable this season. Cael has a realistic shot at catching Gable by 2024-2025, which is crazy. Cael's averaged 4.2 individual NCAA champions over the past 5 tournaments and he's only 11 back. The 5 title contenders he currently has on the squad (RBY, Starocci, Brooks, Dean, and Kerkvliet) have 10 combined years of eligibility remaining including this season going through the 2024-2025 season. 2024-2025 will be Cael's 19th season as a head coach which would be 2 fewer than Gable's term at Iowa. What do you think the all-time list will look like at the end of the season? The end of the 2025 season? Can John Smith get 4 more champions to match Gallagher's school record?