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Recruiting

Def sucks we missed out on Mullen!

With that said, we have had some solid classes w regard to the big board, both flo and from Willie.

I can't wait to see everyone else there develop, and am pumped to see what is going to come next recruiting wise. I agree that we still need a big time heavy coach.

With that said, I still think Pollard was an aces choice and will kill it for us in an official role. I can't wait to see how stevo and Pollard crush the NJ/d11 scene for Rutgers. Our classes have always been trending up. Go ru.
 
Finished 5th at 120 last year with losses to Conor Collins, Evan Tallmadge, and Nico Calello
 
Even if he could beat Janzer does it make much sense to wrestle a true freshman up a weight? Unless they really both wanna go this year seems like a RS is best for the longterm individually/teamwise
Would it be up a weight? He wrestled 190 in high school. And as far as making sense, if Soldano can beat Janzer, how does it not makes sense to wrestle the strongest line-up? Poz and Soldano are arguably among the three best wrestlers on the team. It doesn't make sense to me to have Poz and Soldano at the same weight and one of them on the sideline. Then again, if Janzer beats Soldano, it's a moot point. I certainly won't be disappointed either way unless they aren't permitted to wrestle off. I liked Janzer from the beginning and hope he can come back strong from his injury and time off. It isn't personal, it's about putting forth the best team.
 
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Would it be up a weight? He wrestled 190 in high school. And as far as making sense, if Soldano can beat Janzer, how does it not makes sense to wrestle the strongest line-up? Poz and Soldano are arguably among the three best wrestlers on the team. It doesn't make sense to me to have Poz and Soldano at the same weight and one of them on the sideline. Then again, if Janzer beats Soldano, it's a moot point. I certainly won't be disappointed either way unless they aren't permitted to wrestle off. I liked Janzer from the beginning and hope he can come back strong from his injury and time off. It isn't personal, it's about putting forth the best team.

There is a big difference in wrestling undersized in HS at 190 (only because they removed 182 but he wrestled at 182 in national tournaments) against opponents who he is light years better than vs. wrestling grown men who walk around at 210-220.
 
Some of those who follow the program closely spoke about the possibility of Poz taking a red shirt and letting the freshman go at 184 this year. Can I assume from the recent posts that that will not be the case?
 
Some of those who follow the program closely spoke about the possibility of Poz taking a red shirt and letting the freshman go at 184 this year. Can I assume from the recent posts that that will not be the case?
Poz taking a RS is still a possibility. Soldano being able to wrestle in 5 events allows for the decision to be made later than usual
 
There is a big difference in wrestling undersized in HS at 190 (only because they removed 182 but he wrestled at 182 in national tournaments) against opponents who he is light years better than vs. wrestling grown men who walk around at 210-220.
Yes, that's correct. I can only go on what I read here and what I have seen in videos. Being in the room with these kids would provide a much more important perspective. Given what I've just said and read in a recent post, Janzer certified at 197, meaning he didn't exceed that weight like most others did at their targeted weight classes. That suggests he isn't walking around at 210-220 pounds. That and comments last season that he couldn't keep the weight on. Is Soldano that much smaller? And again, aren't we better off with the strongest of the two? Last year, Clark was moved from 149 to wrestle at 165. Last I looked, he's still listed at 149 on the roster.
 
Poz looks great. All cylinders are firing
Good to hear but anyone can look good in practice. I want to see how he responds to adversity against opponents. That seemed to be the bigger issue last year after seemingly cruising through the covid year as an unknown coming in.
 
The names of the top 200 wrestlers in the class of 2023 and the college they are committed to was just posted on Rokfin wrestling by Willie Saylor. Not one wrestler has committed to Rutgers. The kid from Ohio is not in the top 200. The only uncommitted wrestler from NJ is Tyler Vazquez who is ranked # 41. Do we have a shot at him?

Anyone have thoughts only why we haven’t secured a commitment from at least one top 200 guy?
 
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The names of the top 200 wrestlers in the class of 2023 and the college they are committed to was just posted on Rokfin wrestling by Willie Saylor. Not one wrestler has committed to Rutgers. The kid from Ohio is not in the top 200. The only uncommitted wrestler from NJ is Tyler Vazquez who is ranked # 41. Do we have a shot at him?

Anyone have thoughts only why we haven’t secured a commitment from at least one top 200 guy?
If someone here des have the answer, theres a good chance they wont post it here and for good reason. You should attend the meet and greet with the coaches. It'd be a great way to get info right from the source.
 
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The names of the top 200 wrestlers in the class of 2023 and the college they are committed to was just posted on Rokfin wrestling by Willie Saylor. Not one wrestler has committed to Rutgers. The kid from Ohio is not in the top 200. The only uncommitted wrestler from NJ is Tyler Vazquez who is ranked # 41. Do we have a shot at him?

Anyone have thoughts only why we haven’t secured a committed from at least one top 200 guy?
We have a young roster and went all in on Mullen, so it was always going to be a small class regardless. Problem is now it lacks in the quality department which makes 2024 even more important.
 
We have a young roster and went all in on Mullen, so it was always going to be a small class regardless. Problem is now it lacks in the quality department which makes 2024 even more important.
Unless the team can get a stud or 2 in the portal, the 2023 class looks extremely damning.
 
We have a young roster and went all in on Mullen, so it was always going to be a small class regardless. Problem is now it lacks in the quality department which makes 2024 even more important.
I think the covid bonus year caused somewhat of a log jam on rosters and while some teams may have opted to just recruit one/two less kids per year for the short term, I wonder if our coaching staff just took a different approach and said well recruit like normal and shoot for the moon on Mullen and if we miss it’s alright because it’ll give us a year to clear roster space anyway.

Shawver, Alavarez, Peterson, White, Olivieri, Oneill, and Poz all have 3 or 4 years of eligibility left, and that’s not even mentioning Soldano, Casale, Fongaro or Gayer who are all true freshman or Kannaird, Clark or Raimo who could contribute somewhere.

The team has a lot of big 10 quality wrestlers with a lot of eligibility left. There was always bound to be a year with few recruits. Would have liked to have hit on Mullen but it is what it is.
 
Not surprising. Again until the RTC rules change these young freestyle champions would be stupid to go anywhere put PSU where you can train with the biggest collection of world team/champions available every day.
 
What rules?
The ones which allow professional RTCs (aka SKWC, NJRTC, or NLWC) to train with college athletes on a regular basis. Since the NLWC basically has seemingly unlimited funding, they can bring in and retain as many athletes as they wish and current PSU student athletes get to train/wrestle with the following professional athletes on a daily basis. It basically gives PSU essentially a huge warchest of talent and money that goes unregulated since its not officially part of the school

NLWC resident athletes:
Anthony Cassar
Kyle Dake
Thomas Gilman
Franklin Gomez
Nick Lee
Bo Nickal
Jason Nolf
Zain Retherford
Kyle Snyder
David Taylor

Now these RTCs have taken USA wrestling to new levels and in particular the NLWC is doing an amazing job and I hope they can continue their successes for our national/world team but there needs to be a some division between the professionals and the college athletes since it creates such an imbalance in the college ranks.
 
Yeah not that they’re doing anything illegal but there should be some competitive balance red flags when Thomas Gilman (Iowa), Kyle Dake (Cornell) and Kyle Snyder (OSU) are choosing PSU over their elite home schools.
 
I understand that no one has funding equal to the NLWC. The SKWC is likely a top 5 RTC in terms of funds. At our golf outing, Goody said we have between $700,000 and $750,000 in the bank.

With this much money, I wonder why don’t we have high level athletes to train with our college guys. Other schools have quality training partners.

We have Buxton as a head coach and he has done a great job with Rivera. Seeing these results it seems we would attract more guys.

Can one of the insiders explain why we don’t have more high level guys? Every kid can’t go to Penn State.
 
I understand that no one has funding equal to the NLWC. The SKWC is likely a top 5 RTC in terms of funds. At our golf outing, Goody said we have between $700,000 and $750,000 in the bank.

With this much money, I wonder why don’t we have high level athletes to train with our college guys. Other schools have quality training partners.

We have Buxton as a head coach and he has done a great job with Rivera. Seeing these results it seems we would attract more guys.

Can one of the insiders explain why we don’t have more high level guys? Every kid can’t go to Penn State.
Better weather than Penn State? Actually, you raise a good question for which there is an answer. Might it be connected to the recent failure to attract an assistant coach?

Success breeds success. NLWC and others are successful in the same way we'd like to see SKWC be successful. If SKWC was nearly as successful in attracting talent, I doubt there would be much call for regulation. Aren't they just doing what they've been established to do? I'd rather see SKWC rise to the occasion than regulate the successful. However, the chicken or the egg scenario will continue to exist until something is done differently.

The NFL attempts to solve inequities by draft choices, but that will not work in collegiate sports for a number of reasons. What's left is rising to the occasion or imposing limitations on those more successful. That doesn't strike me as appropriate.

Can Rutgers become a wrestling power? Yes, I believe so, but not while at the same time maintaining the status quo. It does not appear that the SKWC will become a competitive power, or at least it has not demonstrated that so far. Maintaining the same approach year after year will most likely yield the same results. I asked about rules for RTCs but it doesn't seem there are many regulations if any at all. I will again suggest that the SKWC redefine itself or at least redirect the funding to hire talent that can provide the most benefit to the Rutgers wrestlers. The current RTC paradigm is to financially benefit resident athletes and hope it will also benefit the hosting team. In the case of NLWC, it works very well, SKWC, not so much. I'd rather see the money directly benefitting the Rutgers wrestlers.
 
Let’s be honest, credit to Goody for building the program he has. But if we intend to become a legit player in B10 wrestling, that’s always going to be an uphill battle with a former HS coach running the program. Guys like Cael and Brands have national image and appeal.
 
I hate the Goodale can’t shake the “HS coach” image to some people. He was a D1 wrestler and his stint at Rutgers is over twice as long as his stint in Jackson and he was a national coach of the year. It’s not like he was some gym teacher who got the job because he knew what a single leg takedown was. He doesn’t have the accolades Cael has but let’s not pretend he’s under qualified for the position.
 
He’s not under-qualified, and he’s proven that, clearly. But there is also a ceiling for what the program is capable for growing into without a coach with national visibility or boatload of NIL money. We are talking about recruiting, where some kids want to be coached by a head coach with personal accomplishments that matches their own aspirations, AA and such. Have we hit that ceiling? I don’t know. But reading this thread lately sometimes feels like we might have.
 
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He’s not under-qualified, and he’s proven that, clearly. But there is also a ceiling for what the program is capable for growing into without a coach with national visibility or boatload of NIL money. We are talking about recruiting, where some kids want to be coached by a head coach with personal accomplishments that matches their own aspirations, AA and such. Have we hit that ceiling? I don’t know. But reading this thread lately sometimes feels like we might have.
I don’t disagree with that at all but being a former high school coach has nothing to do with it.
 
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He’s not under-qualified, and he’s proven that, clearly. But there is also a ceiling for what the program is capable for growing into without a coach with national visibility or boatload of NIL money. We are talking about recruiting, where some kids want to be coached by a head coach with personal accomplishments that matches their own aspirations, AA and such. Have we hit that ceiling? I don’t know. But reading this thread lately sometimes feels like we might have.
1 place has that type of $ and they've damn near the whole world team training there. Nobody else currently has that type of RTC $.
 
Let’s be honest, credit to Goody for building the program he has. But if we intend to become a legit player in B10 wrestling, that’s always going to be an uphill battle with a former HS coach running the program. Guys like Cael and Brands have national image and appeal.
Yours is a fair post. Honesty comes hard when mixed with personal relationships, loyalty, and emotion. I've never called for Goodale to be replaced. I"d like him to be a smarter manager. There may be a big opportunity there now to utilize Buxton better. Beyond that, things have to change and without change, there will be little if any further improvement. It's not just a money issue, but that was a good excuse until we learned there isn't a big money problem. There's lots of evidence of systemic problems if someone wants to do an honest analysis, followed by an action plan to address opportunities for improvement. Don't hold you breath. - Cue to Leonard to insert his giggle emoticon.
 
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Yours is a fair post. Honesty comes hard when mixed with personal relationships, loyalty, and emotion. I've never called for Goodale to be replaced. I"d like him to be a smarter manager. There may be a big opportunity there now to utilize Buxton better. Beyond that, things have to change and without change, there will be little if any further improvement. It's not just a money issue, but that was a good excuse until we learned there isn't a big money problem. There's lots of evidence of systemic problems if someone wants to do an honest analysis, followed by an action plan to address opportunities for improvement. Don't hold you breath. - Cue to Leonard to insert his giggle emoticon.
If we ever try to upgrade from Goodale, I would throw a king's ransom at Pat Pop at NC State.
 
Yours is a fair post. Honesty comes hard when mixed with personal relationships, loyalty, and emotion. I've never called for Goodale to be replaced. I"d like him to be a smarter manager. There may be a big opportunity there now to utilize Buxton better. Beyond that, things have to change and without change, there will be little if any further improvement. It's not just a money issue, but that was a good excuse until we learned there isn't a big money problem. There's lots of evidence of systemic problems if someone wants to do an honest analysis, followed by an action plan to address opportunities for improvement. Don't hold you breath. - Cue to Leonard to insert his giggle emoticon.
Matter,

I laugh at you because you throw around nonsense without any factual support. Detail with actual substantiation these systemic problems you mentioned.
 
See guys, once again I write something offering an opinion and making suggestions. I have done it before. Then, without exception, the brain trust of Leonard and SCNJ show up and attempt to discredit me by calling me someone else and a Penn State fan. If you have any question why I doubt their intelligence, think about this... I'm making suggestions to improve Rutgers wrestling and they think I'm a Penn State fan. That's really special logic.

How many times has either of them offered a thoughtful rebuttal of what I have said, using sentences and punctuation to convey an intelligent argument to what I have proposed? I think the number is roughly zero. SCNJ suggests others should put me on ignore or have the admin delete my logon. Sounds much like the discourse we see widely today in society when childish social warriors are offended by opinions that differ from their own. Boys, find the nearest safe room to hide and calm down.

I do answer questions asked of me, even when they're stupid questions from stupid people. Evidence of systemic problems? Try this... when the same thing happens every year when the team is faced with real competition; when wrestler after wrestler can't escape from bottom; when wrestlers do better their first two years; when next year will always be better; when highly rated wrestlers don't "pan out"; and an assortment of other repeated problems, that's an indication of something systemic. How obvious do things need to be, even for those challenged to understand? Remember when it was money until we found out it isn't? Then the weather. Then the campus.

Rutgers cannot attract the top wrestlers from NJ in a consistent enough manner. Rutgers could not attract any of the targeted assistant coach candidates. Wrestlers come to the RTC, collect money for a while, then bail out.

Here's another challenge for the big mouth brain trust. How confident are you that I'm Matter, Crackers, a Penn State fan - or for that matter, a fan of any other than Rutgers? I'll put up $5,000 if each of you will put up the same amount. Bill holds the money and I make full disclosure to Bill. The loser's money goes to the SKWC. Do you trust Bill? Do you have the balls to back up your mouths?

Oh, before I forget. Leonard: You say you laugh. I'm pretty sure it sounds like giggling.
 
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