wrestle87

I would imagine they’d transfer fine. And as far as I know, you can transfer out of a service academy within the first two years without owing them anything. Once your junior year starts you are on the hook if you leave. Edit: whoops somebody already said this.

I don’t doubt that he would be interested in doing it potentially, but I think people underestimate the continuing value he gets from having access to the Penn State room. If DT goes to Iowa, he cuts most if not every influential wrestling mind from PSU out of his life, and goes from being aligned with that enormous battleship to being opposed to it. I also think people are forgetting that David and Cael, as well as their families, have a literal lifelong relationship. David’s family moved around the country to be closer to the Sandersons when he was little. That’s a much bigger thing to walk away from. I would think Dake would be a better fit for the Iowa environment than David. Dake has more of that monomaniacal fire that Iowa fans and emperor Gable are used to/expect, he’s kind of insane, and just goes about whooping up on everybody as hard as he can all day everyday.

I wasn’t very direct with what I was saying, Adam at that Olympics weighed in way underweight and was also rather beanpole shaped.

I mean, not bad not bad. Russia seems to have a few of those exceptions floating around the history books. My personal favorite wrestler of all time is a ~6 foot beanstalk who weighed in waaay under weight in sydney and wound up pinning Yoel Romero in the olympic finals. His brother was also pretty good.

Yeah...this. There was a very real reason the entire arena was booing in the finals...because they had also watched round 2, quarters, and semis as well... I also have to push back hard against the "they said he was the villain and they were mean to him" narrative going on. That's not true at all. What makes NCAA's so tremendous is that with every single match, someone's dreams get to live, and they do so by standing atop the crushed dreams of someone else's. For this to happen, because of the immeasurable amount of effort that goes into being able to wrestle in the tournament, it is expected that you EARN the right to continue to have your dreams live and breathe for another round. In this scenario, it is also expected that refs are VERY impartial. Because the stakes are so high, any mistake one way or another is absolutely not tolerated, because it is literally messing with an athlete's life work. Fix benefitted three times (4, but Vito was enough to overcome it) in a row from a finger on the scale trying to push his story further. When it happens once, OK that's just a ref being stingy. When it happens 3 TIMES IN A ROW... As the old saying goes... "I'm not sayin...I'm just sayin..." Also, mama fix...your son is 26.

No, the caldwell pin was an objectively bad call. That ref was just excited to be somebody that day, you can tell when you watch the video again. There are definitely phantom pin calls. Look at Truax Rogotzke in their dual, Truax had a shoulder inches off the mat, the ref just wanted to be a person that day and called a pin. In the Kelly/Penrith one, Kelly did a better job of scooting out towards the head. If you look when they roll over, Penrith immediately has one shoulder flush to the mat, and is almost able to pop his head out as they are going over. This is the difference between the wrong leg in banana split cradle which mendez and caldwell hit, vs the single leg defense spladle, which is the king of spladles. The single leg defense one starts far more square, and presents the shoulders to the mat more effectively.

This is hilarious, Brock Hardy is tremendous for taking this in stride. The caldwell metcalf spladle might have been at least as big as this.

Oof, this right here is both hard to argue with and painful to read.

Well...now we're getting to the other unspoken side of things that most people don't want to acknowledge...the influence of east german apple juice on modern sport...

That is a great point too, he was built like a baby deer down at 74 kg. Functional weight gain like that doesn't happen overnight.

Maybe one day if all world weights become olympic weights, it will be a bit more manageable, but the current weight class gaps are so enormous, you just run into a different level of physicality. The only person I can think who has been able to really manage a modicum of success across olympic weight gaps was dake when he made the olympic trial finals in 2016.

There's also the reality that Casey has been working with and coaching the best wrestlers the US has to offer for well over a decade now. He gets to be a huge part of NCAA wrestling AND USA wrestling in his current gig, it's basically a dream position, he's on the cutting edge of the sport in the US. Moving anywhere else will significantly decrease the quality of experience for him on just about every single front of life. If he wanted a HC position, I'm pretty sure he would have taken it already. As excellent as he is, I'm willing to bet he also knows what he isn't excellent at and what he doesn't want to do or deal with, which is why he gravitated to the mat and working in the room so much.

Hope so certainly, but I bet that's what Princeton thought about Chris Ayres too...

I HOPE the cut to 57 kg goes ok for him. If everything lines up well, he was a world silver medalist, he could compete for a spot. But...he's spent a long time at 133, and frankly he looked pretty solid at NCAA's, looked like he was using every 1/10th of a pound to get to 133, so I think the cut will be rough, and he may come out flat. But up at 65kg, I don't think he has a chance. The frame difference, and subsequent horsepower difference between weight classes is so enormous, I think he'd get bounced 1st round. His arms and legs aren't long enough, locking his hands for guts may become a challenge, and he just spent a whole season making 33, so maybe with some time off he gets up to 155 at his heaviest, any of the dudes he will be competing against will be coming down from ~175. I think it's too big of a jump.

Yeah, it gets kinda old, but their whole program has been given the all clear, or at least tacit support, to go ahead and be the mercenaries of the USA wrestling world. I know it ruffles feathers along the way, but it has helped them accrue a very serious contingent of olympians at their RTC, and having a solid RTC is kinda the backbone of any real college program at this point. If your college guys don't have the opportunity to get whooped up on by olympians, they won't be towards the top of the NCAA ranks.

Hence the "Likelihood of transfer aside"...

I hear you, but I also think he is what made the RTC, didn’t they start the RTC for him? Having watched all the documentaries, watching him absolutely own david taylor, and then listing to them talk shop on technique, it always seemed to me that he technically was worlds ahead of pretty much every except Cael. Also, the old Koll quip about Kyle “Moonbeam” Dake and Kyle’s gonna do what Kyle’s gonna do, I think speaks to the gap between Kyle and the rest of the Cornell room at that time. There is a major gap between the best guys in that room, who were still very good by most standards, and what Kyle brought/brings mentally. He does, and I know Gabe did heroes work for Dake’s international career, but I thought Gabe didn’t show up until 2014, after Dake already finished his run. But I hear you, maybe he was rolling with Bosak most of the time.

It is not ridiculous to think that Gilman could have entered his own version of James Green territory.

People talk about this a lot and it seems like a very odd thing to give a wrestler credit for putting on weight. It’s not like he did it all after the age of 25 when he was done growing. FAR more impressive to me is that Dake did it entirely on his own. There was nobody in his room on his level, and his mind and mental approach were the entire catalyst and motivating factor for all of it. He doesn’t have any older brothers who beat the daylights out of him when he was young to get him good, it all just came from inside him and happened in his own mind. That is a very special thing to be able to do.

Fix has always been better at Freestyle, though obviously very good at Folkstyle as well. His scrappy square stance is aimed at getting him head pinches and chest wraps, from what I recall he has a dirty inside trip, a gnarly leg-ride gut, and a very solid leg lace as well.

Yes, undoubtedly. Regression isn't a good look over the course of a career for a very accomplished and capable wrestler like Hamiti. He's clearly the lifeblood of the room, and he would really benefit from being somewhere with wrestlers and coaches who are on or above his level, especially if Barnett is done. Likelihood of successful transfer aside, I think Hamiti would be tremendous at Cornell, as well as Northern Iowa. Those are two rooms that really show an ability to work with and develop a bunch of different styles, and they have coaches with wrestling minds that just love the sport. I would be pumped to see Lee Roper in Hamiti's corner.

Yeah, NIL has really smoothed out the playing field in the near term. I don't know enough about the coaching dynamics within the room, Cunningham is undoubtedly an invaluable part of the proverbial penn state pizza. And no, we won't miss dominance, but the overall level of wrestling goes in waves. Each team of amazing performers have their own feel, their own style and flavor of wrestling. There have never been teams that had that J-Rob Minnesota vibe. That was something you had to see during those years when it was around. If you missed it, it's gone, video doesn't do it justice. Same thing with the Rosholt Hendricks Era '05 oklahoma state teams, they were unapologetically in your face, and they always showed up when it counted. Nothing like them since. And now, with these teams. Penn State has a vibe that won't be replicated. There will be other amazing technicians and coaches who come through, but this experience is unique to that environment and what that room puts forth. To change lanes considerably to approach the concept from a different angle, no matter where you are or what you're doing, it's always a good idea to spend a few minutes appreciating a sunset.

I do, yes, 100%. I make no bones about it, at this point Cael has access to the best facilities, the best resources, and the most supportive athletic department of any wrestling team in the nation. He also has the best support coaching staff, and the best RTC program in the country. This all stems from the fact that he is the best raw coach in the country, and the bigger pieces fell hand in place as a result of watershed years, but the virtuous circle of money, success, knowledge and institutional support is self-perpetuating at this point. I do believe, however, that, like Iowa, and like Westside Barbell, PSU will only be this good for as long as Cael is fully engaged. He likely has two cycles of guys left in him. As impressive as his wrestling was, his coaching record I believe at this point far exceeds has on the mat accomplishments. Regardless of who we all root for, we should watch and enjoy it. Like J-Rob’s couple year run, the insane powerhouse that Okie State had from 2004-2006, and obviously decades of Gable dominance, we should appreciate the spectacle of these lineups, because one day they will end, and we will miss them just for their sheer presence.

Logic has nothing to do with it, just retelling the story of Iowa lightweights over the past decade. I don't really have a dog in the fight, but it's naive to look at that continual track record of guys getting pushed out of the program if they even sniff of having a down cycle. When it was just Ramos, "waaaah...tony's a baby..." This many guys deep now with the same story? We call that establishing a track record of being disloyal to your athletes. If you want to know what kind of a coach a person is, ask the longest tenured guys, the seniors and the legacy otc guys what they think about them, don't ask the freshman.

Are we talking about Ayala here? The Brands have a swimming pool full of crocodile tears when it comes to their 125/133 pound guys. I'm just going to leave a list of names here, and we'll see what sorts of stories come to mind. Specifically self-serving manipulation, playing each other against Tony Ramos, Dan Dennis, Thomas Gilman, Spencer Lee, Drake Ayala. Tony Ramos was the guy, they brought in Dennis. Dennis stopped wrestling so it didn't become a problem with Gilman, but ~2016 Flo was doing pre-Olympic coverage, Dennis doesn't have that level of ego, but "Did you guys see Gilman kick my ass? That was ridiculous." Gilman left (ostensibly) because the Brands brought spencer lee in. The main initial sign of a rift between the brands and Spencer Lee was them making him wrestle Ayala early last season, which was a whole situation which just burnt everyone's relationships with one another. The brands care about themselves first and foremost. If it weren't that way, this near decade-long carousel of recruiting over the top of their current guys wouldn't be a thing. They are obviously by no means the only coaches to do it, but please excuse me if I turn my nose up at the concept of them actually caring about their guys in a way that exceeds their interest in their own ego.