peanut

Definitely a lot of potential sleeping giants.

A school can be a sleeping giant even where there is a 0% chance of it waking up.

MFS Olympic wrestling will be live in a little over two months. There are only six weight classes, of course. It appears there are 16 qualifiers per weight, except for 74kg, where there are 17 qualifiers, including a refugee participant. The US, of course, has qualified all six weight classes. Luckily for US fans, in all but one weight class, there are multiple US-connected wrestlers to follow. Seems like a good deal for US fans. Here they are: 57kg Micic (SRB) RBY (MEX) Cruz (PR) Lee 65kg Rivera (PR) Gomez (MEX) Zane 74kg Dake Bekzod (UZB) 86kg AB Amine (SM) Ramos (PR) 97kg Snyder 125kg Parris Smith (PR) Dhesi (CAN)

OkSt hiring David Taylor stirred the college wrestling world up. In some ways it suggests that Cael’s system has definitively replaced Gable’s system as the gold standard. But it also showed that wrestling programs can be willing to invest big in potential coaches — who they may not have talked to before — and who they think will be big names and capable CEOs. Who else fits that bill? And for that matter, what wrestling programs could eventually use a new face? Or what programs are sleeping giants? Cael, of course, identified PSU as a sleeping giant and the rest is history. A few big names: Spencer Lee, JB, Snyder, Dake. Potential big names: AB, Starocci, Vito. Sleeping giants: USC. Maryland (near Pennsylvania & NJ & in a big metro area). UT Austin.

I think all six MFS athletes are capable of medaling. A solid performance would be four medals.

AB says the type of stuff you’d expect to hear from a young evangelical elite athlete. It’s all a matter of upbringing and influences. Give him some time.

I thought AB’s description of what he had to go through at OTTs before the finals was insane. Cutting weight into the early morning hours, difficulty sleeping, early weigh ins, then competing by midday — against the reigning world champ. Hopefully USAWrestling gets this fixed. And for everyone who thought DT might help AB prepare for Yazdani — I’m guessing it’s not happening.

He’s still 23 and will change as time goes on. Any older person who listens to a 23 year old talk will soon realize the gap in age and perspective. Overall AB seems like a good dude who is trustworthy and absurdly disciplined. Really can’t ask much more of a young man.

If Dake continues competing after the Olympics, it’s hard to see him becoming a coach. That’s a significant time and energy drain. I believe the one year prime JB had some sort of coaching position at Nebraska he said he felt like he was trying to be the best in the world in his spare time.

It is indeed possible for an athlete to have the largest NIL deal and to turn down competing deals that are smaller but large. The athlete could also understand himself to have turned down the smaller offers out of loyalty. For instance, the athlete could turn down a slightly smaller competing offer out of hand because he cannot imagine leaving his current team. Now, is there any point to dissecting claims made by athletes on social media? The answer is no.

Coleman Scott?

With Kennedy heading to Stillwater, who replaces him at Happy Valley?

Wrestling is a net expense; former wrestlers do not appear to be as attractive to schools as former lacrosse players (a sport that is expanding); wrestling makes compliance with Title 9 more difficult; and nobody at ND seems to want a wrestling team. Those are big barriers!

125- Lilledahl / Davis 133- Nagao / Davis 141- Bartlett 149- SVN / Kasak 157- Kasak / Sealey 165- Haines / MM 174- MM / Facundo / Ryder 184- Barr 197- Starocci 285- Kerk

PSU is looking to have a monster of a roster in 2024-25.

Iowa-trained coaches include (from the top of my head) Dresser, Ryan, Goldman, Zelesky, Davis, and Schwab. Not sure if they all looked like big-time hires when they began their coaching careers.

I was able to think back to Roderick but didn’t know who Griffith was. Well done.

Is DT retired from international wrestling? He may be. Pretty crazy if he’s done. But I believe in Brooks, so it’ll be okay.

In the past it seems like the main coaching tree was Gable’s. Big wrestling programs were happy to hire former Gable wrestlers. But now the tide may be turning. We may see more of Cael’s guys in the coaching ranks in the future. Of course, college wrestling may soon be cooked, so who knows.

Maybe, but I'm not sure about that. I remember reading a long time ago that Cael thought it was tough recruiting in Iowa--in part because the Hawkeyes were so popular. Meanwhile, he liked PA's output of All Americans, and thought a better deal would be being the top program in PA. It's not certain Cael could have landed as many elite recruits as the Iowa State coach. His PA-native champs include Haines, Starocci, Cenzo, Nolf, Retherford, Megaludis, Wright, and Ruth. That's a lot of in-state fire power.

People who pursue careers get disappointed and experience setbacks all the time. It really sucks but it's just the way it is. Of course, it's far from clear at this point who OkSt will pick. And even if they extend an offer to DT there's no guarantee he'd accept. He may prefer his life in PA.

I have no inside knowledge, but I'm guessing Smith wants Scott to be the coach. Scott was his wrestler, after all. The OkSt AD, however, is likely more open to the Cael coaching tree. But whatever happens, Scott and DT will both be fine.

What overlooked programs do you think are sleeping giants? (Serious question, IDK.) In today’s environment you need an RTC, donors, and NIL-ready businesses that follow your team. California should have a program that challenges for titles, but it does not, and I don’t see that changing. Maybe if USC gets a program (very unlikely) maybe they can hire JB.

If he loses next year he’s still a four timer, and will be placed with four timers. If he wins next year he’s the only five timer. Either way people will talk about him for a long time.

That wresting facility is cool. I don’t understand why windows are the number 1 priority on this forum.