At 174, his wrestler (Bubba Wilson) currently sits as 2nd alternate. He believes history is repeating itself with Starocci and has publicly put Cael on notice.
His guy should have wrestled better and earned the spot. Starocci earned that spot and if he too hurt so be it. That is the great thing about wrestling. He had his shot to earn it but failed to. It not Starocci fault he finished 9th place. Losing 15 matches has more to do with him being left out then Starocci. The coach should shut the hell up and get his guys ready to compete instead of crying on social media. The kid was 17-15 and he had every opportunity to earn a spot and didn't. If his coach spent more time coaching up his guys and less time on social media then won't need to whine about not getting an at large spot.
That's harsh. For the integrity of the sport, you shouldn't medically forfeit at the mat. That deprives the first alternate the opportunity to fulfill their dream. In the end, both the injured wrestler and the first alternate lose.
I’m still a little surprised Wilson didn’t get an at large selection compared to some of the other guys at 174 that did..he was ranked above Augustine, Simma, and Wask…guess I’d be mad too if was Nebraska fan…
The final Coaches poll and RPI came out this morning. Wilson was not ranked in the top 33 of the coaches poll and was 27th in RPI. Wask was 32nd in coaches and 13th RPI Simma was 30th and 23rd RPI and Augustine was 24th and 21st. Nebraska coach bitching prior to seeing final polls.....
I was lookin at flo ranking which had bubba at 18th and Santaniello at 22.. usually they r good and objective with their rankings.
So coaches are supposed to tell the future and know how healthy a kid would be in two-four weeks? Why should one be forced to give up a dream? Why is one person dream more valuable then another's? It a pretty big assumption by the coach that they knew for 100% weeks before that in two weeks he still would not have been healthy enough to wrestle. Did Nebraska coach see the x rays, talk to the team's medical staff and evaluate Nick himself? Even if the ankle was broken 4 weeks before it is possible to heal enough for him to compete. The coach should worry about his own team and not comment on things he has no clue on. A true competitor and coach would be focused on earning the chance and not hoping it handed to them by an injury. I am sorry but a barely .500 wrestler barely missing out making nationals tells me there should be fewer bids to nationals. They are taking 33 out of 73 guys. I sorry if I don't have much sympathy for someone missing out when over 45% of wrestlers make it.
I understand being upset but what happened 7 years ago has no impact on today. He had his shot and failed. It a life learning lesson but instead this coach whines like an entitled toddler.
The irony is that if Starocci wrestles, the Nebraska kid finishes 10th since Starocci likely wins the whole thing.
Damn that’s crazy that it was… 7 years ago.. time goes by so fast the older we get.. wild…
Nick withdrew the day before nationals. Did PSU know he wasn't going to wrestle? Manning thinks they did, but who knows? I sure don't. My point is if someone knows they are not going to wrestle, they should withdraw before the reseeding deadline. However, if they are questionable, they should stay. I think we can agree on that.
I believe his teammates who say he was practicing prior to withdrawing over a coach who is speculating. Either way is it classless and wrong for a coach to make that accusation publicly with obviously no first hand knowledge of the situation.
Yup all this for wrestler who went 13-10 this season, 1-6 in conference, earned the 12-seed for B1G Tourney where he went 1-2 in the regular tournament bracket.
