PENN STATE
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Fryowa
Administrator
Ain’t gonna matter. No one is touching Penn State until Sanderson retires and by that time it’ll be Bo Nickal
#1DieHardHawk
Well-Known Member
Nothing of surprise there. I thought Parco might take Van Ness this time around, otherwise pretty much as expected.
Cael has a huge advantage over Tom and Terry in a number of ways:
1. Money. Lots of it.
2. An eye for recruiting talent, not just "toughness," and he knows how to maximize it.
3. He doesn't preach intensity and aggression. Rather, he instills focus and confidence. There's a bit of a "Zen" approach to his coaching that allows his wrestlers to lock in and maximize their talent.
Tom and Terry are legends and great coaches, but you have to question if their "battering ram" coaching style is sustainable with the wrestlers over the course of a season or career. At some point, incessant preaching of toughness and proper preparation habits has to result in diminishing returns.
Cael has a huge advantage over Tom and Terry in a number of ways:
1. Money. Lots of it.
2. An eye for recruiting talent, not just "toughness," and he knows how to maximize it.
3. He doesn't preach intensity and aggression. Rather, he instills focus and confidence. There's a bit of a "Zen" approach to his coaching that allows his wrestlers to lock in and maximize their talent.
Tom and Terry are legends and great coaches, but you have to question if their "battering ram" coaching style is sustainable with the wrestlers over the course of a season or career. At some point, incessant preaching of toughness and proper preparation habits has to result in diminishing returns.
What was amazing was the discrepency in takedowns between the #1 and #2 teams. Not counting Ayala's TDs vs the PSU reserve, Iowa had a TOTAL of 2 TDs the entire night vs Penn St. starters. Considering Iowa boasts two #1 guys, two #2 guys, etc, that's an amazing stat.
Often when Iowa gets in these matches, they wrestle conservatively. It didn't feel that way last night -- they were sufficiently aggressive....Penn St. guys just refused to get taken down, no matter how deep the Hawks got in on shots.
Obviously, it's the Nits and everybody else this year. The battle for 2nd-4th will be real interesting at nationals.
As a true Fr, Ferrarri looked pretty darn tough vs a 4x national champ. I thought the stalling penalty point he picked up in the 1st period was BS...he'd made as many offensive moves as Starrocci at that point -- they just penalized him for not moving to the center of the mat, but it wasn't like he was running out of bounds. If he hadn't made any offensive moves, I get it, but man, that was cheap.
Often when Iowa gets in these matches, they wrestle conservatively. It didn't feel that way last night -- they were sufficiently aggressive....Penn St. guys just refused to get taken down, no matter how deep the Hawks got in on shots.
Obviously, it's the Nits and everybody else this year. The battle for 2nd-4th will be real interesting at nationals.
As a true Fr, Ferrarri looked pretty darn tough vs a 4x national champ. I thought the stalling penalty point he picked up in the 1st period was BS...he'd made as many offensive moves as Starrocci at that point -- they just penalized him for not moving to the center of the mat, but it wasn't like he was running out of bounds. If he hadn't made any offensive moves, I get it, but man, that was cheap.
Fryowa
Administrator
Money is 99.999% of it.
Their coaching style works great if you have guys who work well in that environment. The 2020 team was a perfect example of guys who love to be coached that way and they were the best Iowa team since the 80s. The 80s teams were also examples of it because they learned that style from Gable.
The problem is that once you start getting up there in the money department like PSU is, you can get divas. Tom doesn't operate in that world.
What Tom and Terry need to have success is one of 2 kinds of people wrestling for them...
1) Ridiculous talents who are mentally tough, like Metcalf, Perry, Lee, Kemerer, etc.
2) Guys who are psychotic. Like true blue, dangerous mental illness territory and off their rockers. Guys like Gilman, DeSanto, and any of the Ferraris.
Fryowa
Administrator
I hate his style with a passion, but Sanderson is by far and away the best defensive wrestling coach to walk the planet. Gable was legendary, but he didn't approach wrestling with a strategic mindset. Gable's approach to wrestling was to be a rabid dog, never take your foot off the gas, and hunt the other guy down until he pretty much gives up out of exhaustion...kinda like a gazelle that finally says "eff it" and gives up to a lion that's been chasing him for an hour. Never shut off. Tom and Terry wrestled that way (their old YouTube videos from college and Team USA are the best thing on the internet).
Where Sanderson is better than Gable (just about threw up typing that) is he coaches guys to wrestle strategically. Very, very rarely do you see any PSU wrestlers looking in their corner. They know what Sanderson wants them to do in any given situation and any given score. Sanderson will play defense and let you beat yourself, where Gable just trained his guys to be pit bulls pulling on their chains to kill you, and when he let them off that chain you were in deep shit. Wrestling ain't like that anymore. Guys are too athletic and the game has been "figured out," so to speak.
Just like brute force power I football used to work, now you need a QB who can throw and a Pro Bowl receiver. The lunchbox journeyman thing doesn't work anymore.
Hawkboys
Well-Known Member
I think Kirk gave the Hawks the pre-game speech. "Hey Guys, they're a talented bunch so lets just wrestle to not lose any matches and hope for the best!"
I know PSU is more talented across almost all weights, but they also wrestled way more aggressively across all the those weights. Maybe that's normal, but IA looked completely different, not in execution, but way more in approach against MD than they did against PSU.
I know PSU is more talented across almost all weights, but they also wrestled way more aggressively across all the those weights. Maybe that's normal, but IA looked completely different, not in execution, but way more in approach against MD than they did against PSU.
Fryowa
Administrator
As an Iowa wrestling fan since the 80s when I was born, I'm pretty confident that the Hawks weren't wrestling not to lose. Penn State is just that good. There's a reason that PSU's takedown margin is over 15 times more than their competition this year.
#1DieHardHawk
Well-Known Member
I get it, but I think you are selling Cael a little short here (and, yes, my nausea kicks in as well...).
No doubt, Tom and Terry work best with personalities that mesh with their coaching style, as is the case pretty much universally. They only have one peg, and will force-fit it with every kid in that room. You can't argue with their results overall, but I can think of more than one wrestler that came in with big upside, but continually looked kind of depressed and shell-shocked during their Iowa careers, and just never realized their talents.
Much like with football, the day and age of coaches grabbing face masks and screaming insults at players is going the way of the dinosaur. In no way am I suggesting Tom and Terry should change their approach, and I don't expect either to morph into quasi-therapists.
I think Sanderson has discovered a formula that generates amazing focus and purpose amongst his wrestlers, and I think he would steer clear of any diva types. Even if he had them, he probably has that Phil Jackson-like way of corralling them. A big part is money, yes, but he also has found lightening-in-a-bottle too. As much as I hate it, he deserves a tip of the hat.
Fryowa
Administrator
I think there’s some confusion here as to my point…
I think Sanderson deserves kudos within the framework of what he does. He’s doing what it takes to win. I just don’t like his style of doing it.
And I still do think the money is 99.999%. I’ve heard it directly from some Iowa staff that I won’t name, that PSU wrestling has 4-5 times the amount of money for NIL that Iowa does. Not only are their wrestlers making more than enough money to live on, they are making money to live very comfortably if they needed to. None of Iowa’s wrestlers are getting NIL money above what you’d get working retail somewhere.
There’s a financial commitment to wrestling at Penn State that absolutely crushes the rest of the field. I know that sounds far fetched but all it takes is one rich guy with a John DuPont level obsession with a wrestling program and they have more than one out there in State College.
Say you were a nine figure alum of PSU who made your mark in real estate or patents or hedge funds or whatever. $250,000 average for each starter would be $2.5M a year. That’s chump change for 3-4 big money donors. Iowa does not have anything even close to resembling that kind of NIL bank in wrestling. Of course PSU is going to get whoever they want. Add to that an eye for his personal kind of talent he wants, top notch facilities, best high school wrestling in the country with a huge population, and their past 20 years of history.
If all the sudden say $3-4 million a year came available for NIL in Iowa, we’d be sitting right where Sanderson is.
