Recruiting
- Thread starter Racpack
- Start date
Dellagatta one stings a bit, have to admit. Those saying we’re casting a broader net, I hope that’s true.
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Don’t fall asleep on the California recruit Luke Gayer. He will surprise a lot of you in a positive way!
Yeah, that's kind of a dickhead move on his part. Maybe we are better off without someone like that. As Bill said, don't sleep on Gayer. That kid is a beast.
Mullen says he's trying to make a decision before the start of his football season
pennstate.rivals.com
- Unsure of what sport he wants to play in college
- For wrestling he is hearing from Penn State, Michigan, Rutgers and VT the most
- For football he's hearing from Temple & Army the most. Heard from Rutgers and Kent State a little bit as well.
- For his last official visit, he's deciding between ASU and VT.
- Says he will probably take an unofficial to Rutgers since it’s close to home
Happy Valley Insider - Jimmy Mullen talks Penn State Wrestling visit, decision timeline
One of the nation's best wrestling recruits / three-star football prospect Jimmy Mullen talks recruiting.
pennstate.rivals.com
How many commits have we gotten without an official visit? Unofficial visit seems to be the token visit and kiss of death ☠️💀🤷🏻♂️Mullen says he's trying to make a decision before the start of his football season
- Unsure of what sport he wants to play in college
- For wrestling he is hearing from Penn State, Michigan, Rutgers and VT the most
- For football he's hearing from Temple & Army the most. Heard from Rutgers and Kent State a little bit as well.
- For his last official visit, he's deciding between ASU and VT.
- Says he will probably take an unofficial to Rutgers since it’s close to home
Happy Valley Insider - Jimmy Mullen talks Penn State Wrestling visit, decision timeline
One of the nation's best wrestling recruits / three-star football prospect Jimmy Mullen talks recruiting.
I'm pretty sure he said the exact same thing after his Stillwater, Oklahoma visit. However, I still think our chances have gone from slim to none.
Yeah, I wouldn't read into his words too much because he seemingly gave every visit very high remarks but hopefully we can get that last visit to close him. He's been around a bunch during the season and is very close with Casale so it's certainly not a kiss of the death without an official but it's not ideal.
That’s great to hear, a spot we need. I’ve had somewhat tempered expectations with the losses to Mays who is a guy I was hoping we would land but won’t read too much into that. Get ‘em in and build ‘em up.
Regarding Mullen, I would not read anything into RU unofficial visit. The difference is that Official visits are paid for by the school including flights if necessary etc. and a recruit can only take 5. Unofficial is kid shows up on campus and the coaches show them around. Taking RU as unofficial is perfectly reasonable and unlikely a reflection of interest.
# 1 @ 120 McGowan (Blair) and # 2 Heavyweight Mullen (St. Joes) are the 2 top juniors not committed. Not many other top 100 juniors remain uncommitted. The # 7 junior 132lber Tyler Vazquez is from Delbarton and hasn't committed. Hopefully, wrestling can get a kid from a top prep school such as Delbarton or Blair. Rutgers lacrosse has players from top prep schools.
I'd guess Mullen 50% chance, Vazquez 20%, and McGowan 0% 🤷🏻♂️ so don't hold your breath. McGowan has 3 Ivyies and 3 other B1G schools in his top 6.
Vazquez 70% taking his visit in the fall
🤔 Very interesting and hope you're right, as I he seemed to be leaning elsewhere.
I'm not sold on Mullen like everyone else. If we don't get him, I wouldn't really be too upset. After Feldman dismantled him, I saw the separation from a bonafide AA/ possible finalist, and an over-hyped Jersey heavyweight that has beaten decent to ok competition. We need to concentrate on our middleweights, big time. We need to invest in stud 157/ 165 transfers or recruits...period...end of sentence. The downward emotional spiral of the team during meets starts at 157 and gets worse. Bulsak was the only shining star and true competitor from 157 to heavyweight. At those weights, the guys were studs coming out of high school, but as usual, ala Scott Winston/JoJo Aragona, we see the downward trajectory, season after season. Start looking for a Richie Lewis, Bulsak or Perotti type. Good credentials out of high school, but have that particular "attitude" to prove something at the next level. Those are the best "gets" because we don't lose money and always get a return on investment.
Mullen won the NJ heavyweight title and would have been the 5th wrestler in state history to win 4 state titles if not for covid. 3 of the other 4 had pretty good college careers and the other had off the mat problems. Mullen made the Cadet world team and destroyed everyone in his path. He got beat badly on the scoreboard by Feldman but is also a year younger and is the only junior in the top 10 in most rankings at heavy and he’s ranked #2 just about everywhere.
I agree that middleweight needs to be the top priority but you need Mullen to solidify that heavyweight spot given the uncertainty surrounding Hamilton. It’s not like we’ve been good there either and aside from 165 it has probably been our worst weight the last 5+ years. Worst case you have two elite recruits battling for one spot, but Hamilton will also be a junior to Mullens (redshirt?) freshmen if that ever happens.
If the chances of getting Mullen are 50/50, I'm pretty sure we're in the losing 50%. Whether or not he will be a top heavy in college, he'd be better than most if not all we've had. However, reflecting back on the recently shared definition of a "good fit at Rutgers" being someone who lives and breaths wrestling, Mullen is having trouble deciding if he wants to wrestle or play football.
My opinion is that he will not come here because we have his best buddy who may end up wrestling at 285 for us. Mullen would not want to compete for that spot with a dear friend. Just my opinion.
Aragona and Winston were equally as accomplished. You could argue the Ashnault thing, and as others mentioned, if he is not all in as a wrestler( ala Hamilton), we may never see him on the mat.
Aragona was a late bloomer in high school who only won a state title as a senior. Mullen is a 2x champ, and should be a 3x champ and it’s still May of his junior year. Don’t think that’s a very fair comparison.
Winstons lack of a development was probably because of a lack of talent in the room at the time. I wasn’t big into college wrestling 15 years ago so I don’t know the whole story.
Well, hopefully they never have interests in the same female companion so they don't hurt each others feelings.
Feldman is older and on a tier by himself, Mullen is the next best hwt prospect and been on p4p rankings for awhile.. he also won states as a freshman hwt which is extremely rare…4 years of consistently being elite in HS usually translates well into college.. Mullens the real deal if he sticks to wrestling but it’s pretty well known he’s interested in football too..
Winston’s injuries didn’t help.. and Aragona…maybe he can turn it around at Cambell but you can’t succeed on this level if wrestling isn’t #1..
I agree we need to find guys with “attitude” and obsessed w/ improving at wrestling but they are hard to find as everyone got “good credentials” and always says the same thing coming in “my goal is to be national champ” blah blah blah who cares but those really willing to live n breathe it are the ones that will be the best “gets”.
I’m not going to hold my breath for any individual. We got a strong class coming in next year from current seniors and had some encouraging signs from class prior. From the juniors, many of the blue chip prospects already spoken for. So let’s find some guys with heart and enough talent who want to be here and move forward.
Don’t put too much weight on state championships particularly NJ state championships in the upper weights. NJ is pretty weak in the last four weight classes and has been for a while. If you take a good look at the last 15 years you will see a lack of strong depth at those weights most years.
I am not saying a state championship is meaningless. Just look at the strength of the weight class first.
It's going to be interesting seeing Soldano and Casale in the mix. I'm sensing they both redshirt. If by chance we need Soldano, we may be seeing a Janzer or Poznanski transferring out unless Turley goes to 65, Poz to 74, Soldano to 84, and Janzer to 197. I hope Boone puts on some weight this year and gets someone to cardiac paddle him back to life and gets his ass moving on the mat instead of leaning on the left leg and pawing at people. It really was very uninspiring to watch him last year.
Agreed. Look at Cassar. One-timer without a serious D 1 offer and looked what he did. Just because you won it multiple times, doesn't mean that success translates to college...ala Mario Mason and our all-time shitliner, Andrew Campollatano.
I don’t entirely disagree but if you’re winning 2 titles as an underclassman in a big boy weight class, there’s some talent there.
Let’s not pretend that’s his only accomplishment either. He’s competing on the national level.
Mullen may not be the best or ever be the best, but he would be the best Rutgers could get. All moot though - he's not coming.
How in the World do you compare Aragona and Winston? Winston won 106 matches for Rutgers, was a 4x NCAA Qualifier, EIWA Champ and was slowed down by 3 major surgeries...He also won those 106 matches against top competition and a Goodale schedule.....Aragona won 13 bouts for RU
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I love how some people still can't stop harping on a 2008 recruit that came when we had 2.9-4.4 schollies, limited training partners, and had a ton of injuries and some other off the mat stuff. Let it go already. As for Aragona, can we first talk about Cael failing to develop Busiello, a 3X Super 32 champ and 5X NYS champ that lost to Aragona at BTS 🤪... What other top 5-10 programs pushed hard to land Aragona and offered serious $? We have to take some risks and they didn't work out. 🤷🏻♂️ It happens, but we developed plenty of others, just look at the AAs we've had.
