Nightcrawler

Based on his most recent IG photo, I don't expect Ramos to show up at the US trials. I see him competing at Asian Championships that are coming up, instead.

Correct, two unrelated things. I don't know about any NIL things in particular, but Mendoza already runs his own small business, so while I don't think he would turn down a payday by any means, Seth doesn't seem like he chose Mizzou because they could pay him the most, or more than Illinois. Seth's recruiting process comments are on record, but from talking with his parents, it really came down to what school would be best for his future, not just his wrestling future. Seth is a great kid, very interesting. Aforementioned business doing woodworking, and I believe he now has his private pilot's license. In theory, he could fly himself down to any trips to Mizzou over the next year. I would have LOVED to see him in blue and orange. Loved it. But, Mizzou it is for him. Illinois is a great school with a lot of highly ranked programs, like Engineering. Mizzou also has some great programs. I don't believe he had plans of going into the field, but Mizzou has a fantastic Journalism program - top in the country by many metrics and rankings.

Long post since I have some decent knowledge on this stuff: I would agree with the latter but not the former. I know a good number of NW wrestlers and they speak highly of Storniolo. That said, yes, losing the assistants hurt. Howe left after the 2021-2022 season due to COVID-related reasons, or the handling of them by the university, rather. I don't recall why Brewer went to VT, but I remember seeing him cheering on Northwestern wrestlers he had worked with at NCAAs after the fact. And Kennedy - that one is a bit trickier. A lot of people don't know or forget that David Taylor is married to Kennedy's sister. Family likes to be by family. And with Taylor making the international strides the way he was, he wasn't leaving NLWC. So when the opening was created at PSU, Kennedy got (a) A chance to coach at the best program in the country, (b) Subsequently, the chance to improve his coaching resume towards a future head coaching position faster than he would have at NW, and (c) A chance to be by his sister, and nieces and nephew. Storniolo isn't perfect, don't get me wrong - but NW has other issues going for it too. The quarter system instead of semesters makes already challenging academics even more challenging. Stanford has a similar issue, as someone else noted. And, they have the artificially limited roster... which dissuades people who are otherwise interested because the question of who they would work with can become an issue, especially at the bigger weights. Their top recruit this year, originally, was Dillon Johnson at 285. But he decommited and then committed to Wisconsin. From what I understand though, that wasn't wrestling related. If you recall NW football being in the news for all the wrong reasons last summer . . . well, Johnson is going to pull the Football/Wrestling combination, and the bad press, resignation of head coach, etc. did NW in. But it shows that they can still get big names, and solid wrestlers. I know one issue that has plagued them is the academic reputation. It's a great school, but it's put on a pedestal enough that some bright kids still don't consider it. I remember one athlete I know the parents of who met with the staff, and they actually had to spend a good chunk of time reassuring the wrestler that he was smart enough to be successful there, and explaining the supports he would have if he did struggle, rather than just going to one of the other universities, where he figured school would be as hard as it always was for him... which was "not very." I would note that these other schools are very academically sound, even better than NW in many programs, but, at least in IL, arent built up on an academic podium. (e.g. U of I, Michigan - yes, we know its a great school, but with all of the athletic success, a lot of younger students don't know that right away)

This ignores the fact that U of I, itself, is not centered near the largest population areas. Northwestern is closer, but - especially this year - there wasn't much to go see. Losing their 3 best returning starters to Michigan killed them. U of I is about 2.5 hours south of Chicago. So, for western and northern suburbs, that's 3 hours on a good day. After a week of work, usually I want to rest and relax. To go to a dual meet at Illinois, it would be about a 4 hour round trip drive for me. I usually go to one or two per season, but those are for when it's shaping up to be a great dual, or wrestlers I have coached are competing. PSU . . . I give them credit for packing the house, since State College is in the middle of nowhere. But, and I mean this genuinely - I wonder how big the crowds they drew before Cael took over were. And even then, wrestling fans started coming more right away because of Cael, even before the team roster jumped up massively in quality. Poeta is a great guy and Illinois people love the guy, but he's not Cael. If Illinois had a team like Penn State, I think they would have a marked improvement in attendance.

I’m gonna say Lewis, but not with a high level of confidence. I’m just ignoring 125 because nearly anything can happen. I doubt Lewis will be the first, but he definitely has the toughest quarterfinal so I have to go with it.

100% accurate. Schroeder had the starting spot at 125, Ramos could have sat behind him for the year or bumped up and competed at 133. Worked out well for him, and getting back to 125 was/is not hard.

Oh, he would sign it, but he would also probably write a message about Jesus on Jesus! I think you ought to try to get Edmond Ruth to sign it to see what kinda smiley face thing he puts on it (reference to his post-semi interview)

Now, Norm, I don’t mean any disrespect. But the other two posts resonate way more. For one, it may matter in the grand scheme of things - we just can’t know it right now. Maybe Brooks goes on to lead a mega church and this is where his exposure comes from, and without it he would never have had the audience. I doubt it, but it’s certainly possible. But Headshuck and Jensen resonate with me more, as I said. But that’s just me. I mean, Jensen said it damn near perfectly to me. If it doesn’t matter, why are you doing it? There are hundreds of other guys in the nation that the wrestling absolutely matters to. If Brooks feels that strongly that it doesn’t matter, why didn’t he step aside and give the spot to someone that has a reverence for wrestling the way he has it for God? Agree on all parts. Give praise to God, Yahweh, Mohammed, Buddha, Vishnu, Satan, whoever you want. But then transition to the substance. KOT did a great job. With the Oscars last night, a decent amount of that. I am not at all religious (tough to pick up on, I know), but I know that tons of people are. I hate hearing about religion in speeches but I’m never going to get annoyed by someone praising whomever and then moving on from there. KOT, a well done example. Brooks… man, I wish he could give an interview where he doesn’t remind me of Billy Graham. But, that’s just me. And I recognize that to each, their own. But seems like people would rather hear wrestling breakdowns… which is clearly shocking given that it’s a wrestling forum.

Agreed, and I’ve said this for years, before Aaron Brooks. I think I started as a tongue in cheek joke with baseball because you see so many guys hit a HR and point up to the sky when they cross the plate, but you never see them flipping the bird downward toward the dirt after striking out. I genuinely don’t care if people are religious or not but if God is good, and all credit and glory goes to him rather than the athletes themselves (or splitting the credit at least), well then it follows that all negative outcomes would go to Satan. And yet, I’m still waiting for someone to do that in a game. Also STRONG agree here. I was up front at NCAA’s last year waiting to chat with a buddy of mine, and this 45 year old man saw Brooks walking by and got his attention and complimented him and his match. Brooks went into “all glory to God” mode immediately, and the guy said something like “I agree, god is great, but you’re great too,” and Brooks just couldn’t take the complement. I sat back and just watched. It was a solid two minute exchange and I swear it turned into the most odd argument/non-argument ever. Brooks must have replied to the last 4 or 5 things the guy said by saying “I’ll pray for you.” But - and I could be mistaken because I was a bit in awe and a bit laughing in my head by then, but the guy was literally just trying to say, essentially, “you can give god all the glory but you should recognize your role in this too; god isn’t the one putting in the hours of training, so even if you’re doing it because you think it’s god’s plan for you, you’re still the one actually doing it.” It was weird, man. Really, really strange. It was like the verbal equivalent of two people holding a pair of doors open for the other and both insisting “after you!,” except this one got to be all about God.

From Illinois here and mother of god do we have this problem too. Ramos, Ragusin, Gomez, Lewan, Hamiti, the list goes on. Poeta is doing a better job and the announcement of new facilities to come will help but still, we lose a lot of great out of state guys. Mendoza just announced his commitment to Mizzou. As far as Wisconsin goes, I think Bono needs to go, but with bridges being burnt, Askren doesn’t seem likely. But one thing I know is that while a homegrown coach helps, a big name is a big name. If Wisconsin could get a big enough name with no connection, they would still be better than Bono. My observations have been that the wrestlers under Bono just seem to maintain, or progress at the same level as others - they don’t progress enough to move past their competition. Hamiti is the first name to think of but comparing him with Carr and KOT is a bit unfair. But has anyone else truly progressed at a surprising rate? That’s why I’m not praising the recruits from IL he has coming Kelly is damn good, but Bono’s track record doesn’t have me thinking he’ll be coming in and making noise. Johnson is a freak of nature but I *really* don’t see how he’ll be a contender when he will only be starting after football and, again, the track record. Kid has huge potential… and huge legs… but I also can easily see dropping wrestling if his progress stagnates and changing the physique to move to interior line. Bono can absolutely help wrestlers develop. But he seems to lack that certain something to just get that 5th gear from his guys.

Any word on what’s up with… almost the entire rest of the lineup besides Ruth, Cardani, Pucino, and Madrigal? I knew Byrd was missing the season but then it seems like Illinois had six weights where they made changes in season, and based on records/performance, some of them had to be related to injuries. Mr. Poeta has what I think is shaping up to be a very solid lineup for next season, but if some of these lineup changes were due to injury, it may throw next year for a loop too.

Agree with both of the statements here; the referred one and your own. I can say that the interest and effort to go after top recruits is there - and much more organized than it has been. Under the previous staff, I know one too recruit who said one coach would call on Monday and another would call on Wednesday - the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. Illinois has suffered when it comes to getting top recruits for a lot of reasons, some being improved. Illinois is finally going to be getting new facilities, which is sorely needed when they have kids being courted by Michigan, for example. Tuition at U of I is very high; I know multiple athletes that chose Northwestern over Illinois because with the other aid packages available, they would come out with less debt. (And yes on the whole Northwestern has more prestige but UIUC is also a great school, with an exceptional engineering program - enough that I can name a few kids who there was mutual interest in, but they just couldn’t make the grades to get in). Adding AOC to the coaching staff is nothing but helpful; he’s an Illinois legend. Mike and Austin are both really easy going and really easy to talk to, which helps the recruiting (I feel like Ruth is, but I haven’t had the pleasure). Hunter always comes off to me like the man that is so quiet that when he speaks, everyone listens because it’s worth hearing. They’re on the right track, but keeping a lot of the suburban studs is definitely a work in progress. When the new facilities are built, or recruits know they’ll be up by the time they are there, that will help.

Haven’t seen this posted yet. College career hasn’t lived up to expectations from HS but we see that quite often. With Byrd at 133, not sure of the fit…? Maybe Byrd at 133, Madrigal at 141 (for all I know he got big during that RS year), and Pucino bumps to 149? My guess is that like many others, he wanted out of OU after everything going on, and school back home was appealing… but I also can’t see him wanting to go somewhere just to be a backup either. A short aside as an Illini fan and IL native: I could (and did) write a lot about ways IL can improve or roadblocks in the way. If you want to hear that, PM me. But I will say this: Nabbing any big names, to me, says that the kids believe in the future of the program - even if it’s a senior like Madrigal. The influence he has, from college and from his high school career, is not forgotten in Illinois. Plus, the Illini have some great recruits in the pipeline, like Webster, and others just under that, like Baysingar. Swaw has a lot of potential. But they’ve gotta find a way to be more active in the transfer portal for sure.