Brooks black

@JoshMLowe: Brooks Black, ranked No. 5 c/o 2013 per @InterMat verbals to Illinois. Projected 285. 2x National prep champ, 2x JN FS champ.
 
This is a tough pill to swallow but I wish the kid well except when he wrestles us! More $$$'s for Chance Marstellar now!!!
 
Damn! Really wanted this kid to come to Iowa. The hawks really need a 285 pounder. What ever happend to the Colin Blevins kid?
 
well that kinda sucks. I guess we can't get them all even though we all know where the best place he could have gone was Iowa.
 
Sam Stoll (Minnesota kid) will be the #1 HWT in the class of 2014 and the same high school as Broc Berge. Hope the Hawks can get him, and already having his HS teammate committed should help, but I've got to think he'll be tough to pull away from the Gophers - especially with their tradition at HWT.
 
No we need bonus-point national champion machines! Any and all weights. Go after the best and score the points. I'd rather have Chance with 4 titles then a HWT with 2 AA's. Hypothetically speaking of course.
 
Sam Stoll (Minnesota kid) will be the #1 HWT in the class of 2014 and the same high school as Broc Berge. Hope the Hawks can get him, and already having his HS teammate committed should help, but I've got to think he'll be tough to pull away from the Gophers - especially with their tradition at HWT.

I'm sure Minnesota will try to keep him in state but they signed HWT Michael Kroells last year who seems to be the apparent successor to Nelson barring injuries. I'm not sure how much money Minnesota would be willing to spend to keep Stoll with Kroells already in the lineup and likely tying up a decent amount of scholarship money that they could put toward more of a need weight. Stoll would have a clear path as the starter and hopefully a sizable offer from Iowa next year seeing the urgency of the situation so I like our chances of landing him. It also doesn't hurt we just signed his teammate Berge and his coach is a former Hawk. Stoll has already beaten Black before and seems like he could have a higher ceiling than Black. As long the Hawks can land him or Nevills out of California, not signing Black hopefully won't be a big loss.
 
I asked this question on another forum and I'm interested in your thoughts as well:

I've read a hypothesis that Black chose Illinois over Iowa because he didn't want to sit behind Telford for 1 year. There's also been speculation that Mark Perry's influence had a lot to do with Black's decision. While Illinois is a respectable wrestling school I'm not sure I buy either of these reasons.


First, there's no guarantee of starting after a redshirt year, especially at a B1G school; and the experience Black would've gained after 2 years in the room with the likes of Telford would've benefitted him immensely. Besides, if you want to be the best in the country it starts by winning (& losing) in the practice room.

Second, Mark Perry is proving to be a great young coach...but his loyalty has been to himself. In the past 4 years he's coached at PSU, Cal Poly, and now Illinois. The chances of him staying at Illinois for another 6 years until Black graduates is slim. I'll bet he's a head coach somewhere within the next 3 years.

My guess is that Black just felt like Illinois is a better fit for whatever reason(s). Thoughts?
 
In all fairness to Mark, wasn't he let go from Penn State when Cael took over? And additionally, didn't he bolt from Cal-Poly because he didn't feel the admin was committed to wrestling? Could be way off, apologies if so.
 
I asked this question on another forum and I'm interested in your thoughts as well:

I've read a hypothesis that Black chose Illinois over Iowa because he didn't want to sit behind Telford for 1 year. There's also been speculation that Mark Perry's influence had a lot to do with Black's decision. While Illinois is a respectable wrestling school I'm not sure I buy either of these reasons.


First, there's no guarantee of starting after a redshirt year, especially at a B1G school; and the experience Black would've gained after 2 years in the room with the likes of Telford would've benefitted him immensely. Besides, if you want to be the best in the country it starts by winning (& losing) in the practice room.

Second, Mark Perry is proving to be a great young coach...but his loyalty has been to himself. In the past 4 years he's coached at PSU, Cal Poly, and now Illinois. The chances of him staying at Illinois for another 6 years until Black graduates is slim. I'll bet he's a head coach somewhere within the next 3 years.

My guess is that Black just felt like Illinois is a better fit for whatever reason(s). Thoughts?
I don't think Perry had that much influence in Blacks decision. I believe the thought of him having to sit behind Telford for a year entered his mind. Maybe the thought of wrestling right away was the reason and not having to redshirt. Your right about Perry when it comes to his loyalty to himself.
 
I asked this question on another forum and I'm interested in your thoughts as well:

I've read a hypothesis that Black chose Illinois over Iowa because he didn't want to sit behind Telford for 1 year. There's also been speculation that Mark Perry's influence had a lot to do with Black's decision. While Illinois is a respectable wrestling school I'm not sure I buy either of these reasons.


First, there's no guarantee of starting after a redshirt year, especially at a B1G school; and the experience Black would've gained after 2 years in the room with the likes of Telford would've benefitted him immensely. Besides, if you want to be the best in the country it starts by winning (& losing) in the practice room.

Second, Mark Perry is proving to be a great young coach...but his loyalty has been to himself. In the past 4 years he's coached at PSU, Cal Poly, and now Illinois. The chances of him staying at Illinois for another 6 years until Black graduates is slim. I'll bet he's a head coach somewhere within the next 3 years.

My guess is that Black just felt like Illinois is a better fit for whatever reason(s). Thoughts?


AF – My guess is that we lost Black to Illinois for any number of reasons. While I agree there is no guarantee of a starter spot after a redshirt year at most schools in the B1G, Illinois has about as easy of a route as they come for Black to start after his RS year with only Lopez back after Walker graduates. At Iowa, it would have been very likely that he would have sat behind Telford for a year costing him a full year of real match experience against all the other team’s starter. He may have valued this year of experience as the starter higher than spending another year in the same room wrestling against the same partner in Telford and only having three years where the results matter. I don’t know what path would lead him to greater success down the road but he must have felt experience as a 4 year starter was more beneficial. Some kids also want to be a part of a program that seems to be on the rise and with the addition of Perry and all the recent success in recruiting, he may feel he could be part of a team that builds their own legacy of championships rather than be just one more piece of the most storied program ever. I think the addition of Wynn Michalak to an already solid coaching staff helped in his choice knowing that he would have a great workout partner to push him in the room in addition to the guys on the roster. One last factor I’m sure that had an impact is the amount of scholarship he was offered. My guess is Illinois offered more than Iowa and if he wasn’t raised a diehard Hawkeye fan, he may not have had the same willingness to accept the lower amount for the opportunity to wrestle for the team he’s always dreamt of wrestling for. It would have been great to land Black because from a team standpoint, I think it would be better to have a sophomore Black who has one more year to build up his body and improve in the room replacing Telford vs. a RSFR Stoll who still might be a little wet behind the ears comparatively. That said, I think if the Hawks can sign Stoll, Snyder or Nevills next year, they’ll be just fine and missing out on Black won’t be much of an issue.
 
Maybe with Black going to Illinois it will make it easier for Stoll to commit to the Hawks. Help me out. Whose Snyder? Don't see him listed at HWT.
 
Kyle Snyder from Good Counsel, MD. He is an absolute stud at 220 but seems like a strong U of Maryland lean at this point. Haines from PA at 220 is a beast as well but seems to be a Penn State lock. Stoll makes the most sense but Nevills out of CA really impresses me too.
 
Kyle Snyder from Good Counsel, MD. He is an absolute stud at 220 but seems like a strong U of Maryland lean at this point. Haines from PA at 220 is a beast as well but seems to be a Penn State lock. Stoll makes the most sense but Nevills out of CA really impresses me too.
Thanks. Never thought of looking at 220#.
 
Thanks. Never thought of looking at 220#.

Sure thing. Here's a match of Snyder vs. Haines this year at Super 32s with Snyder winning pretty impressively. I could see Snyder going 197 or Hwt in college. I would LOVE to see him as a Hawk at either weight but won't get my hopes up. Stoll is a big body that has a lot of potential but needs some work on his balance and body control as well as some lower level attacks in my opinion.

http://www.flowrestling.org/coverage/249818-2012-Super-32/video/659485-220-lbs-finals-Kyle-Snyder-MD-vs-Thomas-Haines-PA
 

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