scarletknights.com
You're right; Peterson is the only favorite. I could see them sitting out their starters at 133 and 174 to avoid any unnecessary risk of injury. I have no idea who would wrestle in their place. I'd like to think Olivieri has a chance, but our guys have had a tough time breaking the top ten, although weirder things have happened. Overall, it'll be pretty ugly. I'm curious how Soldano will do with Brooks and whether or not the experience has the same demoralizing effect on him as it did with Poz.
RU - 133, hopefully, 149, I give Soldano the nod at 184, and Boone should win HWT if he doesn't get hurt on Friday. I'd like to see Kanniard pull it off, but I fear he'll be offering up his legs.
For the most part this year, RBY will only wrestle one of the two duals if they have a Friday/Sunday match. Since they at home Sunday I think RBY wrestles Sunday and sits against RU. The only other guy who may sit is Brooks at 184. His roommate is a very solid 184 pounder, Donovan Ball. Brooks likes to let his roommate get mat time. If it’s Ball, him and Soldano will be a good one with an edge to Soldano. If it’s Brooks..well..won’t be pretty as he’ll take Soldano apart with his reckless style.
scarletknights.com
How in the hell can you equate wrestling in any shape or form to the atrocities we have seen in football? Football has languished in the bottom of the pit nationally while wrestling has had success, closely competed with top teams (not this year), and stays ranked in the top 25.
Do we have any shot at beating the top 8 Big 10 teams? Hence the comparison to football since they joined the Big 10. We are trending in that direction currently. Convince me otherwise.
Peterson, Shawver, and Olivieri have shown they belong in the big 10. If Poz can return to form he’s up there as well. Soldano is a work in progress but has had flashes of elite potential. Those 5 are going to pull most of the weight next year assuming Soldano doesn’t RS.
Programs were worse than: Penn State, Iowa, Ohio St, Michigan
The top 8 of the big ten on a good year could all be top 12 in the country in wrestling. Every team is good. Even our worst teams are typically right around top 25.
Yeah all things equal if Rutgers was perennially 8-10th in the big 10 and towards the bottom of the AP rankings I don’t think there would be much complaining
We need to go gangbusters in the portal especially at 165 and 174 if possible to make up for poor recruiting from last year. I'd go all in to try to land O'Malley at Drexel for 174.
What the hell are you talking about lackluster recruiting the last few years. The staff recruits the top wrestlers in the country. Some come to Rutgers and some of them choose not to. But it's not because the staff isn't trying to bring in the top wrestlers. White should move up to 157 and Clark should redshirt next year. Poz looks like he's making the move up. Shawver maybe at 133 next year. Who knows maybe some kids come home for their final year (Cannon, Griffith and Lewis).
I don’t think the last few recruiting classes have been all that great. Soldano headlined this years class obviously but aside from him, there wasn’t a ton of top end talent. The year before that was Olivieri and that’s pretty much it. I guess technically you can throw Peterson in there but that was similar to the Alvarez decommit situation. The year before that was more or less just Poz. Shawver has developed into a decent wrestler but wasn’t really a big name recruit.
This year? No, and i said that in my post. Past years, yes. Wrestling has had at least 2 AA for how many years? Produced B1G individual champions. Had 2 national champions which were the first ever in wrestling history. There's no way it's similar to football.
What about Mike O'Malley as a transfer target for 174? He'd be just what the doctor ordered.
White's being overpowered at 149 already and you think he should go 157? He'll get pummeled.
I figured we didn't have a shot at Griffith. Heard he was looking at Michigan should he leave Stanford.
Are either of those guys possibilities? I’d take any of the 3 without hesitation
I like O'Malley also, but someone has to enter the transfer portal to transfer. What gives you the idea he wants to transfer. His brother is a grad student at Drexel, maybe Mike also wants to get a grad degree their.
White should go up. He would be stronger. Pre-season White was 170.
I'm hearing different. But Michigan does pay wrestlers well.
Dang, wondering if it would have made any difference, this season ,if White went 157(Clark 165)… who goes 149 for us next year??
The weight cut wasn't hard for him. He's a very disciplined young man. Watching him this year I think 157 would have been a better weight. That's my opinion. Clark is a 157lber. Clark looks good this year. Getting better every match, his confidence is growing.
Doesn't matter whether our guys move up or down in weight class. They won't be successful if they can't execute some reliable takedowns. IMO
Assuming it’s the PSU starter going.. best chance of an upset are 1: Olivieri
I can't see Soldano catching Brooks in any scenario. The upper echelon guys are too much for Soldano at this time. They are too big and too strong. Brooks hasn't even given up a takedown yet this year. Brian will need to clean up his style/limit risks big time just to keep it close imo.
