Scott Leclair
Well-Known Member
Huge get for the Hawks!
#1 overall recruit for the class of 2026!
the Spencer Lee of his time!!
#1 overall recruit for the class of 2026!
the Spencer Lee of his time!!
Bo Bassett
- Thread starter Scott Leclair
- Start date
Fryowa
Administrator
It's a huge get but you need 10 guys. Penn State has 10 guys.
They also have the #1 and #2 recruits from the '25 class. Wrestling is tough pretty tough to watch when it's just a competition for a very distant 2nd place. In fairness that's the way it always was under Gable so we're getting what everyone else had for 20 some years.
I'll always be a fan but there's no excitement in it anymore. It sucked under Zalesky, but at least during that period there was some competition for 1st place. Now there isn't.
99topdawg
Well-Known Member
I don't remember. Was there any of this sentiment outside the state of Iowa during Gable's teams' run of championships?
Fryowa
Administrator
I just meant that during Zalesky's tenure, you had Minnesota, Iowa, and Oklahoma State all fighting it out relatively close at times for 1st place. Now you have Penn State ten miles out in front of everyone and it isn't even a question of who's going to win. Literally zero chance from anyone else.
Right now collegiate wrestling with PSU where they're at might as well be the Chiefs playing against an NAIA school. It's that far. Iowa is the clear #2 team in the country and we got our asses totally caved in by Penn State last Friday.
Our 165 was ranked 2 in the country individually and got teched. Teemer was ranked #1 and got beat.
One really scary stat...this year Penn State has scored 238 takedowns and only given up 23 all year. It's crazy.
It just makes wrestling not much fun to watch when you know already who's going to win the B1G and natty, unless you're a Penn State fan.
Hay Man
Well-Known Member
Does Iowa need to look at a change in coaching? The Brands boys have done a lot for the program from wrestling for the Hawks and now coaching. Something just seems to be missing right now.
Like Fry said, it's light years between #1 and the rest and it doesn't seem to matter where each Penn St wrestler is ranked. They always turn it on when it's a big moment, it's almost hard to grasp when one of them loses. 238 takedowns to 23 all year is incredibly crazy, didn't know it was that bad. What are Iowa's numbers on takedowns?
Like Fry said, it's light years between #1 and the rest and it doesn't seem to matter where each Penn St wrestler is ranked. They always turn it on when it's a big moment, it's almost hard to grasp when one of them loses. 238 takedowns to 23 all year is incredibly crazy, didn't know it was that bad. What are Iowa's numbers on takedowns?
Fryowa
Administrator
It's really not a coaching thing, you're not going to find anyone out there measurably better with a better pedigree or resume. If it was a deal where Iowa had fallen to like 6th or 7th in the country I'd say absolutely.
This is a matter of money first and foremost, with a side factor that Pennsylvania high school wrestling is the best in the country and has a hundred times more participants than in Iowa. Sanderson is going to get most of the area's guys to begin with, and then their tradition and money will get most of the rest.
I'd actually argue that Brands is punching way above his weight class. He stole Bassett out of PA, should have Bassett's brother, and there are some other high recruits from Bishop McCort who hopefully would come here. On that ridiculous 2020 team we had, 5 of our starters and qualifiers were from PA. What more can you ask?
Okie State got Jax Forrest yesterday from PA, but their coach (David Taylor) is a PSU alum.
Short of offering Cael Sanderson $5 million a year (I don't know if he'd even leave for that), there isn't really much you can do.
I can't think of a sport that's ever had such a big gap between best and 2nd best in history than what PSU is doing right now. I'm pretty bummed that Taylor got Forrest yesterday, but at the same time any top recruit who doesn't go to PSU is a net positive. I'd rather fight it out at nationals with 4-5 teams than have it be where we know one team is going to win for sure and we fight it out with 4-5 teams for 2nd place.
That's what I really hate. This year's national tourney the only "excitement" is going to be nothing more than watching a whole bunch of consolation matches to see who's 2nd best. Sports shouldn't be that way but I'd be a hypocrite if I said I didn't enjoy it when Gable was here.
Fryowa
Administrator
I think he say that Keuter is Brands' guy and he'd have to fight it out with him, and there's also probably not enough NIL to keep both those guys. I don't think Keuter would leave over money (he'd probably wrestle for free), but I'm guessing Ross wouldn't and it doesn't make much sense to pay him enough to come to Iowa and boot Keuter.
#1DieHardHawk
Well-Known Member
I was actually envisioning Ross at 97. There is still time to flip him, but it's not going to be easy.
Taylor definitely is going to shake things up for the foreseeable future. Getting our top in-state guys is not a good sign, especially when you consider that both Taylor and Cael have an advantage in PA.
Taylor definitely is going to shake things up for the foreseeable future. Getting our top in-state guys is not a good sign, especially when you consider that both Taylor and Cael have an advantage in PA.
Fryowa
Administrator
Keegan Bassett, freshman. Bo has said before they're a package deal but who knows. Still way too early and it'll depend what the money situation is or how it ends up for Bo. Hell, Bo could have a great season and get offered to flip from Taylor or Sanderson. Happens all the time now.
Fryowa
Administrator
I've heard Ross isn't really done growing and most of the people I've talked to say he'll end up a HWT.
One thing to note as well is the past few years the trend is to keep guys at their natural weights. Cutting is becoming an old school mentality at the high school and college levels because your performance suffers so bad. It used to just be a thing that HS and college wrestlers all cut because the thought at the time was that a lighter weight class would logically be easier. But what coaches didn't understand at the time was nutrition and biology like they do now. Your body fully fueled at your natural weight performs a lot better when your fed and hydrates, when you starve and dehydrate yourself you're doing more harm than good. Kaleb Young , Cassioppi, and Nelson Brands are good examples of it. Brands and Young always cut a ton of weight and never lived up to their potential, During the great Cassioppi experiment (disaster) he cut down to a chiseled lighter weight thinking it'd help even though he added muscle, and it did him more harm than good.
Fryowa
Administrator
Iowa's new facility is the best in the country, but for a LONG time during it's heyday Iowa was practicng in what was pretty much a dungeon attached to Carver with exposed piping/wiring in the ceiling, support columns they had to wrestle around, etc. No dedicated weight room. It was the idea of wrestling for Iowa that brought the best athletes here. That used to be enough but NIL threw that part to the curb.
Facilities are a very small part of a thousand piece puzzle. Money is what makes it happen now over most everything else. Once in a while you can snag a guy based on feel but ultimately...you gotta have the cash if you want to build a team. Iowa does not.
Hay Man
Well-Known Member
Does Iowa have many wrestling donors that can make a difference and where do we stand with the NIL budget comparable to PSU? Are we as far away as we are on the mat?
Heck, growing up in Waterloo we were cutting weight in Jr. High! But by the time my sons were in Middle School in the early 2000s, they'd eliminated weight classes and just matched guys up according to whatever weight they weighed in at that day. A good change.
#1DieHardHawk
Well-Known Member
Yep. Cutting has become pretty rare, and it was way overdue IMO.
Same-day weigh-ins was instituted primarily to dissuade the practice. Back in my day, it was occasionally life-threatening. I knew guys that would starve themselves, take laxatives and wear these plastic/vinyl suits to bed to promote sweating. It was asinine and scary.
Ross may very well end up at heavy. Hard to say, but I could see him potentially at 97. Yet another example of why we need a weight class around 225-230...
Fryowa
Administrator
Below have been my thoughts for a very long time. Current NCAA folk weights make zero sense. Should be based strictly on a percentage all the way up with a 275 catch all for bigger wrestlers. Adds 2 matches to meets and nobody nowadays is pushing 285 anyway. One extra match before intermission and one after. Big damn deal. Still better than a 60 minute football game talking 3 and a half hours.
My figures in the middle are based on 7% and the differences are rounding errors to the nearest lb.
I have the afternoon off and still made a spreadsheet. Jesus.
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Fryowa
Administrator
Not that kind of difference.
Here's my thoughts which are worth what you paid for them...
The new wrestling facility was paid for 100% through donations. No school or athletic department money. That sounds cool and it is, but here's the rub...
The timing could not have been more horrible. The new wrestling facility was planned out and money secured before NIL became a thing. In my opinion, that money could've been much better spent putting a nest egg together to pay the absolute best wrestlers out there a ton of money and rip the dynasty out of Sanderson's hands. Make it a point of pride that we train in a dank basement like they did for Gable and get guys here who will win no matter how comfy their training center is or how nice the couches in the lounge are. The project was done with the right intent, but the timing was awful.
WAY off.
I know TnT personally and our extended families are somewhat close due to where and when I grew up. I'm not an insider to the program but we're on first-name basis. That's not a flex, it's just a dumb luck thing because of (like I mentioned) when and where I grew up and being in a small rural place.
I can tell you for sure that PSU has absolute truckloads of money compared to Iowa (or anywhere else) when it comes to NIL. Yes, Iowa alum have some bank, but it ain't nothing compared to old east coast money from that schoo and the huge population in their wrestling community. They also have a lot of really large individual donors who are wrestling people, going beyond the overall small donor base that the HWC rounds up.
