ADVERTISEMENT

Cannon down to PSU or Rutgers

We were told Rutgers or PSU. Now Michigan again? Feels like we are bridesmaid again bc if Nagao choose PSU why isnt it us?
 
Thought heard Michigan was outta race.. wow Nagao to PSU.. thought for sure Iowa
Per social media, Cannon has visited both RU and Michigan. What's interesting is that both Michigan and Rutgers want Cannon to wrestling 141. The plan is for RU to redshirt Olivieri. Mattin, the Michigan starter last year, is off to dental school and Nolan who was their likely replacement, is in the portal. The other kid on their roster is an unproven freshman.

Cannon has been a 133lber the last three years and is a two time All American at 133. This year he beat Negao 7-4. It is hard to understand why Cannon wants to wrestle 141. He may have got himself in a bind by entering the portal too soon. Can't blame Cael for taking Negao over Cannon as Negao has three years left.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ouchmyknee
Per social media, Cannon has visited both RU and Michigan. What's interesting is that both Michigan and Rutgers want Cannon to wrestling 141. The plan is for RU to redshirt Olivieri. Mattin, the Michigan starter last year, is off to dental school and Nolan who was their likely replacement, is in the portal. The other kid on their roster is an unproven freshman.

Cannon has been a 133lber the last three years and is a two time All American at 133. This year he beat Negao 7-4. It is hard to understand why Cannon wants to wrestle 141. He may have got himself in a bind by entering the portal too soon. Can't blame Cael for taking Negao over Cannon as Negao has three years left.
As wrestlers get older a lot of them don’t want to weight cut any more. Rivera’s best chance to win a title was at 125 or 133 but he rolled the dice at 141 because he didn’t want to starve himself anymore.
 
As wrestlers get older a lot of them don’t want to weight cut any more. Rivera’s best chance to win a title was at 125 or 133 but he rolled the dice at 141 because he didn’t want to starve himself anymore.
He went 41 because it helped with his international weight.
 
Rivera? He did an interview with I think Flo and they asked point blank why 141 and he said himself he didn’t want to cut anymore
I remember talking to him before his last year and we talked about it being a part of trying to go a collegiate weight that corresponds w the oly weights.
No sense in going 133 unless you can make the cut to 57kg. Prob could be both reasons tho if you saw it from him on flo.
 
Unless some mystery millionaire benefactor/alumni comes out of the woodwork, we are never going to be able to compete with PSU, Iowa, Michigan, and tOSU for these types of transfers unless the kid is dead set on coming to RU or back home to NJ.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rubigtimenow
Money talks folks
We are great about making excuses. It used to be that we were not fully funded for scholarships, then we were asked to give to the SKWC to hire resident athletes, then the practice facility is in a dungeon, or there was limited university support. Then we got all this stuff. Now it is parents want to send kids to more prestigious schools and not enough money. Only two teams in last year's tournament top ten are better academic schools than Rutgers. The money claim is not backed up by facts. There are a lot of rumors and no facts. Wrestling is a niche sport with a blue collar fan base. It is hard to imagine fans ponying up a lot of money to rent a wrestler for a year.

Maybe Cannon wanted to follow his two other teammates from Northwestern to Michigan or he didn't want to wrestle 141, or he liked the fact that every Michigan coach is an All American and Donny is our only All American, or he didn't connect with our head coach. I don't know. I do believe we are good at making excuses.

Let's get Griffith.
 
Last edited:
We are great about making excuses. It used to be that we were not fully funded for scholarships, then we were asked to give to the SKWC to hire resident athletes, then the practice facility is in a dungeon, or there was limited university support. Then we got all this stuff. Now it is parents want to send kids to more prestigious schools and not enough money. Only two teams in last year's tournament top ten are better academic schools than Rutgers. The money claim is not backed up by facts. There are a lot of rumors and no facts. Wrestling is a niche sport with a blue collar fan base. It is hard to imagine fans ponying up a lot of money to rent a wrestler for a year.

Maybe Cannon wanted to follow his two other teammates from Northwestern to Michigan or he didn't want to wrestle 141, or he liked the fact that every Michigan coach is an All American and Donny is our only All American, or he didn't connect with our head coach. I don't know. I do believe we are good at making excuses.

Let's get Griffith.
We heard a lot of the money issue even before NIL. I'd love to see an independent survey of wrestlers, both high school and portal, to find out their thoughts about Rutgers. The benefit might be that we learn something; the risk might be that we learn something. Those that think they already know what the kids are thinking are likely very wrong and/or don't really want to know.
 
NIL is not an excuse... As it is now... It's the scourge of the transfer portal... I find it a disgrace to sports, and want no part of it...
 
  • Like
Reactions: brentx35
We are great about making excuses. It used to be that we were not fully funded for scholarships, then we were asked to give to the SKWC to hire resident athletes, then the practice facility is in a dungeon, or there was limited university support. Then we got all this stuff. Now it is parents want to send kids to more prestigious schools and not enough money. Only two teams in last year's tournament top ten are better academic schools than Rutgers. The money claim is not backed up by facts. There are a lot of rumors and no facts. Wrestling is a niche sport with a blue collar fan base. It is hard to imagine fans ponying up a lot of money to rent a wrestler for a year.

Maybe Cannon wanted to follow his two other teammates from Northwestern to Michigan or he didn't want to wrestle 141, or he liked the fact that every Michigan coach is an All American and Donny is our only All American, or he didn't connect with our head coach. I don't know. I do believe we are good at making excuses.

Let's get Griffith.
There are people literally in the wrestling room telling us that it's about the money. What facts would you like to see? A W-2 form? A written statement from the commit detailing his purchase price? As we have none of these, I'm going by people with a foot in the door.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DowntownT_Brown
It sounds like they made legitimate push here. At the end of the day we lost out to one of the big boys, as was expected. I do hope if there were assets set aside for Cannon we can apply them somewhere else, even if high level HS kid if not portal transfer. This NIL and portal dynamic will only further separate the haves and the have nots. I get the sense the program is at a crossroads here. It’s important to firmly establish themselves in that middle class less risk falling off. The third world teams are going to find themselves in a bad place struggling to compete. We’ll see there will be programs which won’t survive the trend.
 
I can tell you we will be outbid for Griffith so start your bitching now. If Michigan told Cannon he would go at 133 and we wanted him at 141 and that affected his decision was that wrong? Do we stick it to a loyal and talented Shawver just to get Cannon? My answer is no!
 
  • Like
Reactions: plcoolg
Most leaders - the President - CEOs, and even Head Coaches - have "insiders "that pitch the company line. It can sway constituents or enable the leader to claim plausible deniability.

It always seems that we are making excuses. Do we ever say got beat out because the other team had a better value proposition, I contend that my hypothesis that he choose Michigan because they had better coaches, his teammates went there, he could wrestle-off for 133, or he didn't connect with the head coach is equally as possible as they gave him more money. If our insiders were told it was a money issue, how much more did Michigan offer Cannon?.

Two recent transfers to Penn State publicly stated that money was not a determining factor.

I agree with Bill's recent statement that Cannon could go 133 at Michigan and agree that Shawver earned the 133 spot. He might even beat Cannon.. Just don't believe Bill's claim that money was the issue for Cannon
 
Last edited:
Most leaders - the President - CEOs, and even Head Coaches - have "insiders "that pitch the company line. It can sway constituents or enable the leader to claim plausible deniability.

It always seems that we are making excuses. Do we ever say got beat us out because the other team had a better value proposition, I contend that my hypothesis that he choose Michigan because that had better coaches, his teammates went there, he could wrestle-off for 133, or he didn't connect with the head coach is equally as possible as they gave him more money. If our insiders were told it was a money issue, how much more did Michigan offer Cannon?.

Two recent transfers to Penn State publicly stated that money was not a determining factor.

I agree with Bill's recent statement that Cannon could go 133 at Michigan and agree that Shawver earned the 133 spot. He might even beat Cannon.. Just don't believe Bill's claim that money was the issue for Cannon
Money is the reason for most transfers.
 
College wrestling is pretty much ruined with nil. I expect a lot of fans to bail.
 
There was a noticeable effort by the staff to go after transfers this year.
If the staff continues this momentum, we'll see an uptick in the results.
If a team like Michigan sees a chance at a podium finish by adding one wrestler, this is a much easier sell to donor's.

I am happy with the additions over the off season.
If we can get the new Heavyweight an All American, that will be the second upper weight transfer we took over the hump.

Question for WNG, do you see Griffith getting into coaching or joining a RTC after his career?
 
I can tell you we will be outbid for Griffith so start your bitching now. If Michigan told Cannon he would go at 133 and we wanted him at 141 and that affected his decision was that wrong? Do we stick it to a loyal and talented Shawver just to get Cannon? My answer is no!
There’s still loyalty during this nil portal era? What happened to throwing 3 pretty good guys at one weight and having “iron sharpen iron” duke it out for starting spot? The job of the staff is to build the best possible roster in the most efficient way w/ available resources.
 
Do we stick it to a loyal and talented Shawver just to get Cannon? My answer is no!
I agree. I wasn't big on Cannon anyway. Griffith is different. But if it's all about money and the kids can't or just don't balance their decisions with other factors, that's unfortunate. Maybe it's more a matter of the dollar gap between offers. So, what to do?
 
I agree. I wasn't big on Cannon anyway. Griffith is different. But if it's all about money and the kids can't or just don't balance their decisions with other factors, that's unfortunate. Maybe it's more a matter of the dollar gap between offers. So, what to do?
If we didn’t already have Shawver then Cannon would make a lot more sense, depending on his $$.. but yeah he woulda went 141 anyways.. thing w Griffith tho is it’s only one year so is he going to move the needle so much that its really worth the $$$..
 
Careful getting too hung up on NIL; it's just the latest obstacle, although a substantial one. How was recruiting before NIL? That wasn't very long ago. We shouldn't focus on one thing as if it's the only reason recruiting is difficult.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT