CAEL - how much credit does he deserve?

ICAlumni

ICAlumni

Well-Known Member
Look, we all know he sucks as a coach. We know he's a great recruiter. We've all seen him just sit like a lump on the sideline, doing NO coaching. I've never been impressed by him.
As I sit here the day after, i'm thinking about their team and what he walked into. It was a bit of a perfect storm if you think about it.

125 - Pataky, experienced senior decent during the year for duals and that's about it
133 - had nothing here... got a GIFT when Long got kicked out of school because it allowed him to wrestle this year... how many times would this ever happen?
141 - Alton is a stud and started strong but faded late; this was one of Cael's guys and is a natural
149 - Molinaro was just handed to him and just needed Metcalf to be gone... Cael had to do nothing here
157 - Taylor is the epitome of natural; just stay out of his way. The thought of what Brands would do with this kid is frightening.
165 - blah
174 - Walked into Ruth who was there already. Showed a few cracks late.
184 - Walked into Wright who was already there. This kid was the surprise of the team but I just don't see him doing it again his next two years. 184 is a loaded and young weight.
197 - blah
HWT - Walked into Wade who in my opinion is overrated anyway.

So basically, Cael brought in 2 phenoms who required very little coaching, lucked into a HUGE transfer and took the existing PSU team everywhere else. It's going to be VERY interesting to see how this all develops and pans out for him the next 3-5 years or so.
 
I had this exact same conversation last night. He walked into the perfect job. I HATE to say this but I actually felt kind of bad last night when Taylor got stuck. This kid is really good...even though I'm sick of the whole "Golden Boy" tag that's been placed on him. I'm very excited for the next couple of years to see him and DSJ go at it some more!!
 
There is no question that Cael can recruit but he has a history of underachieving with the talent he had at ISU.
 
I think these convos are a bit short sighted. I mean, the rest of the world will roll out that Iowa won the last three titles due to having two recruiting classes in one, etc, while ignoring the fact that these guys came with Brands and would have been where ever Brands was...but they can make the argument.

This will bear itself out over the next three years. There is a lot of talent in PA and they have great facilities. I dont think PSU is going away.
 
No, they're definitely not going away any time soon. You can't blame Cael for taking the job. A loaded lineup in a recruiting hot spot is pretty difficult to turn down. Where Iowa has the leg up on them is coaching. There is no doubt in my mind that Brands is the best coach in game right now. He did a great job of coaching these guys up this year.
 
Answer: Zero. This is the Gene Chizik scenario all over again. He is the best coach in the world as long as he has better talent than everyone else. Put him on a team where he has to coach and they underachieve and suck it up. You see coaching talent in a year like this for Iowa. Replace almost everyone and still get third. You won't get once in a generation guys like Taylor every year.
 
There is no one I want to beat more than Cael. And there is still no better coach in the world than Brands. And we still don't know if Cael can maintain a program. But yes, of course, he deserves credit here.

His wrestlers were aggressive, attacking, and looking for the fall the entire tournament/season. That is coaching. We have always ragged on Smith for the edge of mat, run out the clock style. In turn I give Cael credit for his wrestlers' style. His tournament was a nightmare for Cowboys and Hawkeyes: A team that was as slick as OSU and as aggressive as Iowa.

I think that he may deserve credit for ESPN giving the tournament the best coverage it's ever gotten. When the entire wrestling world was in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Minnesota and void of major populated areas and star power we weren't going to get coverage. Cael's college resume, olympic career, and decision to leave his Alma Mater gave college wrestling a new face and put wrestling on the east coast. If it's not popular on the east coast ESPN isn't going to cover it.
 
CRwrestling said:
His wrestlers were aggressive, attacking, and looking for the fall the entire tournament/season. That is coaching. .
Click to expand...

What's interesting about this is that during his time at Iowa State, it was rare when his teams wrestled like this. I remember interviewing him a few years back, when they finished second at nationals, asking him what they had to do to improve for the next year, and he talked about being more aggressive, and then he said that he didn't put that team together (even though he was Bobby Douglas' lead recruiter, something I found real odd when he said it).

The next years, ISU still put forth teams that struggled to get bonus points at nationals.
 
Cael coached his team to the Nat'l title. He deserves all the credit that any head coach would receive for doing that and I think most head coaches would probably say that their assistants helped out quite a bit in that feat.

That said, the question remains on Cael - do wrestlers get better under his watch? He had several at ISU that were home runs when they got on campus. Now he has several at PSU that are home runs day 1. Where Cael failed to make the hay at ISU was developing a good wrestler into a great wrestler.

The scary thing about Cael right now is that he may not have to develop ANYTHING. He might be able to fill a line up with home run recruits that don't need any development. We are going to have our hands full if this happens and it may very well happen. It seems like there's a lot of excitement surrounding their program right now.

Let's hope Tom Brands and team aren't waiting for Cael and his team to fall apart and rather are planning as if they are for real. I'm sure Tom is doing this. After waiting 3 days for PSU to fall apart, I myself am starting to realize that this team is for real. They didn't fall apart and they probably aren't going to for the next 3 years at least.
 
[
The scary thing about Cael right now is that he may not have to develop ANYTHING. He might be able to fill a line up with home run recruits that don't need any development. We are going to have our hands full if this happens and it may very well happen. It seems like there's a lot of excitement surrounding their program right now.



At this level you HAVE to develop kids. It is extremely rare to see a kid make the move from high school to college and be as dominant as Taylor was this year. You absolutely have to develop kids. If Cael doesn't do this, the program will be where it was a couple of years ago and Cael will be looking for another job.
 
This. For the nest 5 years at least he will be able to go through a list of the best wrestlers on Intermat and fill out his roster. If he keeps winning titles this recruiting advantage will extend into the future. He is the best recruiter in the country. The top Pennsylvania guys will now be locks, and the best of the rest will be going his way as well.
 
At this level you HAVE to develop kids. It is extremely rare to see a kid make the move from high school to college and be as dominant as Taylor was this year. You absolutely have to develop kids. If Cael doesn't do this, the program will be where it was a couple of years ago and Cael will be looking for another job.
Click to expand...

Maybe that was a bad choice of words. The point I was trying to make is that he may get enough high quality recruits that the development required is minimal. AND I don't think you can go off any model developed before. It wouldn't surprise me to see him get a few highly ranked guys talked down to 1/2 a scholly or something. PSU scares the crap out of me. There I said it. It's always been a school that has because PA is a huge talent pool for wrestling. Also, I want to point out that it wasn't just Taylor that came in and had a good season. So did Ed Ruth and Andrew Alton (while not placing he scored bonus pts for the team). If 141 wasn't so stacked with experience we'd be talking about Alton in the same light. I personally don't think it's coincidence that three talented freshman had an impact. I hope I'm wrong.
 
Must not of heard his interview? He had no problems admitting that he walked into a program with outstanding wrestlers. One of his recruits, Alton, didn't even all american. Taylor didn't win a national championship wrestling against Jenkins a former team mate who left the team because he said, if you can believe Jenkins, that sanderson just didn't really like him. Remember what Jenkins said about Metcalf and what Metcalf ended up doing to Jenkins.
 
I don't know if Cael the coach is at a level on par with the top coaches as far as making wrestlers better. Someone mentioned the fact that he got his wrestlers to be aggessive. That may be, but I think those wrestlers already had it in their DNA. Look at McD, Metcalf, and Ramos, Brands isn't making them wrestler any harder. However, I would say that the one he did make more aggressive was Jansseen.

With the coaching aspect, when Cael can turn someone like Luke Lofthouse into an AA, or a Dan Dennis into 5 seconds from winning a NC, then we can talk. Maybe a ISU fan can correct me, but I don't recall any.
 
CRwrestling said:
There is no one I want to beat more than Cael. And there is still no better coach in the world than Brands. And we still don't know if Cael can maintain a program. But yes, of course, he deserves credit here.

His wrestlers were aggressive, attacking, and looking for the fall the entire tournament/season. That is coaching. We have always ragged on Smith for the edge of mat, run out the clock style. In turn I give Cael credit for his wrestlers' style. His tournament was a nightmare for Cowboys and Hawkeyes: A team that was as slick as OSU and as aggressive as Iowa.

I think that he may deserve credit for ESPN giving the tournament the best coverage it's ever gotten. When the entire wrestling world was in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Minnesota and void of major populated areas and star power we weren't going to get coverage. Cael's college resume, olympic career, and decision to leave his Alma Mater gave college wrestling a new face and put wrestling on the east coast. If it's not popular on the east coast ESPN isn't going to cover it.
Click to expand...

Then why weren't his wrestlers ever like this at ISU? ISUs MO under Cael was very similar to Okie State - wrestle the edge of the mat and wait for a mistake. This PSU team was not like other Cael teams.
 
brett108 said:
This. For the nest 5 years at least he will be able to go through a list of the best wrestlers on Intermat and fill out his roster. If he keeps winning titles this recruiting advantage will extend into the future. He is the best recruiter in the country. The top Pennsylvania guys will now be locks, and the best of the rest will be going his way as well.
Click to expand...

Dziewa and Evans were top PA guys.
 
forcheyhawk said:
Maybe that was a bad choice of words. The point I was trying to make is that he may get enough high quality recruits that the development required is minimal. AND I don't think you can go off any model developed before. It wouldn't surprise me to see him get a few highly ranked guys talked down to 1/2 a scholly or something. PSU scares the crap out of me. There I said it. It's always been a school that has because PA is a huge talent pool for wrestling. Also, I want to point out that it wasn't just Taylor that came in and had a good season. So did Ed Ruth and Andrew Alton (while not placing he scored bonus pts for the team). If 141 wasn't so stacked with experience we'd be talking about Alton in the same light. I personally don't think it's coincidence that three talented freshman had an impact. I hope I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

He didn't bring in Ruth. Alton didn't turn out to be as good as the #1 recruit in the country should be. In fact, Alton seemed to hit a wall mid season and not improve. At one point he was 24-0 or something and unbeatable, and then it seemed like he lost one for every one he won. Yeah, he's always a danger to pin, but he's very unorthodox too... reminds me of Marion... who I don't ever see him beating. His conditioning was also crap.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top