This will be the family’s forth time passing on RU. Was there ever a serious chance either boy would go here? I know the father has a connection, but it doesn’t seem to be a serious consideration in their plans.
Recruiting
- Thread starter Racpack
- Start date
The father has a connection? Mine is just an opinion based on what I've observed of the family. They strike me as users. They bounced around between high school programs either because of trouble or what benefitted them most. I would expect that Angelo is being offered money. Might Iowa offer a tad less, hedging their bet because of the brother being there? Might they offer to take AJ if he doesn't go to jail? That would probably cement the deal.
I said it a few years ago, I don't want anything to do with this family. The word is that Angelo is not like his older two brothers, but you still get the family.....who lets face it are a freaking train wreck. Hoping he picks Iowa, so they can cause problems in their program.
Penn State lurker here.
For those of you with a Rokfin account, Willie’s “First Word” yesterday re: his Matscouts 2025 Big Board had quite a bit of Rutgers talk. You might want to check it out.
For those of you with a Rokfin account, Willie’s “First Word” yesterday re: his Matscouts 2025 Big Board had quite a bit of Rutgers talk. You might want to check it out.
Guys relax. We have a real chance here so stop bashing. Give us a chance here for a few weeks.
Don’t have rofkin account, can you or anybody elaborate on this?
My apologies. I was responding about Santanello. I”m In India… massive case of jet lag. Sorry for confusion. But I agree with your take on Angelo. Sounds like we at least have a shot there so fingers crossed.
Last edited:
He was basically saying that 2025 has a loaded recruiting class, more so than 2024. And the super powers (Penn st. Iowa and Ohio st. ) Have loaded rosters with young talent, so we might see some big names in 2025 head to places like Pitt and Rutgers.
He also then went on to talk about all of the money coming off the books for Iowa, so I’m not going to get overly optimistic…. Yet
Okay. Yeah, Santanello was discussed too but it seems to be a done deal for Pitt. Most recent discussion has been Ferrari. Bill seems to think we have a shot at Angelo. He certainly knows more about the situation than I do. However, I believe the kids tend to be overly kind with their communications to the coaches recruiting them. Note how many times Rutgers just missed and came in 2nd. Angelo's words in that last article mentioned nothing of the Rutgers program. He talked about the campus and MMA. He did say he was impressed with training partners at VT and mentioned Brands at Iowa, along with his brother being there.
I keep hearing it's all about money. If that is true, Rutgers has to offer more than Iowa - enough to make it worth not joining his brother. On the other hand, if his brother cannot pass admissions at Iowa (and can at Rutgers?), we could end up with them both, or so could VT. AJ could also be a card to play. If Iowa is desperate enough to rejoin the top, they might make that deal. I think Rutgers is desperate enough.
Goodale said in the past there is absolutely no interest in AJ Ferrari
When did he say that? I thought he had a good relationship with AJ… and besides we are after Angelo.. everyone so quick to point fingers, bash, and condemn when they barely know these kids personally.. I’m a believer of second chances and if he’s found guilty then he won’t wrestle anymore end of story..
I can’t find the tweet, and I can’t remember if he tweeted it himself or if someone tweeted a quote of him but he was asked point blank if he was pursing AJ immediately following his release and he very bluntly said no.
You never know. Maybe wants to blaze his own trail. Can be done and can be done at RU.
Hmm interesting, was anybody pursuing AJ after his release and allegations though?? Don’t think Iowa openly stated they were after AJ Ferrari, heck, I’m not sure they were pursuing Anthony.. it was more like he came to them I heard… but yeah anyways if AJ is dropped of his charges and cleared to wrestle I think it’s a totally diff story.
No offense, just reading this made me laugh. We are talking about college wrestlers/athletes! Love RU…love wrestling…would not pay a kid a dime to wrestle at RU. I’m trying to understand the psychology behind grown men feeling so passionate about their college wrestling program that they want to pay kids to wear a singlet. Not to mention where does this end? One Ferrari Bro doesn’t open the flood-gates to more recruits coming to RU unless we plan on paying ALL OF THEM! I’d rather donors with money to burn throw big money at attracting the top coaches in the world to develop talent. Upgrade facilities. Create international pipelines.
Agree.
Next year I believe that Missouri, NC State, Va Tech, Ohio State, and Cornell will not have any transfers starting and I bet they all finish ahead of Rutgers at the NCAA tournament. Maybe we can’t beat Ohio State or Cornell. But we should not be behind Missouri, NC State, and Va. Tech,
These schools have a clear culture, build their programs for the long term, and have former All Americans as coaches. We have Donny who is a great coach. No team in the Big Team has less All American coaches than Rutgers. Recruits look at the resume of the coaches.
Those saying they should not pay the wrestlers need to wake up. I hate NIL more than anyone, but it’s not my choice in the matter. It’s here and we can’t change that. Not paying our athletes would have the equivalent effect of saying we refuse to put any athletes on scholarship previously. Even worse because scholarships were regulated and NIL is not. We could choose not to pay them, fine, but others gladly would, and guess where they’re going to go? We complain about recruiting not being strong enough as it is.
If we choose not to pay them, we might as well drop out of B10, if not D1 altogether.
If we choose not to pay them, we might as well drop out of B10, if not D1 altogether.
Last edited:
Their shouldn’t be an either or approach. We should be addressing both items; Strengthening the coaching staff as well as participating in NIl to strengthen the current roster and recruits. To only focus on one, would be a huge mistake and keep us from growing and competing with the top teams in the country.
Please do not think I was promoting the notion of paying more or even paying anything to get a wrestler. I was pointing out that "it's all about money" and our inability to compete financially seems at odds with a realistic chance of landing Angelo.
I pretty much agree with your position. But it's a definite dilemma when we want to be competitive while the current recruiting situation requires resources we don't have and also find distasteful. If we can't buy a candidate, there needs to be an attraction other than money. There isn't. A dilemma, indeed.
Just spit-balling here…Why can’t we attract international talent and take a page out of the Montclair State book in late 90s/00s when they almost beat Iowa State with Florian Ghinea, Peter Georgoutsos, etc.? Look at most D1 hockey rosters and they are loaded with Europeans and Canadiens. We should be recruiting Bulgaria and Uzbekistan!
We would need a compelling reason to attract international recruits. For 2023-2024, we were unable to attract a top 100 recruit. Until we have coaches with AA credentials and a big man coach, recruiting will not be competitive. Yes, we will get the kid who has connections to the program or on occasion a top kid, But, that will not move the needle. We might be able to buy a transfer. But, soon all competitive programs will have money.
I made this or a similar suggestion not too long ago... to deaf ears. Many Europeans, especially Eastern Europeans, would love to have a chance to study in the US. I presume the quality wrestlers there also go to university. We have plenty of international and exchange students in the US.
I think he has a great idea, and you are also correct. Before you, I was the only one pointing to these issues. Now, the two of us are like Statler and Waldorf sitting in the balcony 😊 I have refrained from suggesting Goodale be replaced. Maybe he can become coach emeritus. Donnie cannot be passed over without the risk of losing him. I could see a co-head coach along with Donnie and with equal accomplishments. Then the rest need shaking up. We don't have the money, don't have the coaching draw, and the SKWC has one accomplished wrestler in Rivera.
I've asked about Hobbs. What does he want the wrestling program to be? Then, what is he doing or willing to do to make it happen? Maybe he's happy with it now; if that's the case, we should know.
Unfortunately the lack of freestyle success on the world stage from the SKWC would realistically preclude any international wrestlers of merit coming to RU. They would have to adapt to folkstyle but in reality they would ultimately be coming to develop their freestyle skills and train against top partners but that’s a very hard sell at the moment.
The whole premise of this thread is our recruiting or lack of and there are quite a lot of you who say it's not worth spending the kind of money other schools are spending ...guess what guys ..you want top 10 recruiting results then ya gotta spend top 10 money ...since some of you say you won't then stop the bitching about who we get and why we are barely middle tier ...you have champagne tastes and beer wallets and you get what you pay for ...Goody ain't the problem ...he can't get the kids he wants because we don't have the money to compete and it's a simple fact ...don't like the new era we are in ...too bad ..it ain't changing anytime soon ...stop bitching or put up and shut up!!!
Ask Florian what he thought of the opportunity to get a college education and wrestle and build a life in the U.S. And Now he runs a successful wrestling club. I’m sure there must be some international wrestlers that would cherish the opportunity to live/learn/train in the NY-NJ area while being part of a top 25 college program. Unless we hire someone like Brands or Cael, RU is never going to be able to compete with Iowa and PSU for recruits. And RU can’t compete with the attraction of an Ivy education. Gotta think outside the box = go international!
The international recruiting discussion is interesting. It's expensive and even more unpredictable. Anyone have examples? Two examples that I'm aware of:
Anthony Echemendia didn't work out at tOSU and supposedly had some off the mat issues.
Nick Muzashvili worked out really well at MSU becoming a 2x AA (3rd in 1999, 4th in 2000), but he came for 1 year of HS in NY after a HS delegation visited Georgia and brought him back.
Anthony Echemendia didn't work out at tOSU and supposedly had some off the mat issues.
Nick Muzashvili worked out really well at MSU becoming a 2x AA (3rd in 1999, 4th in 2000), but he came for 1 year of HS in NY after a HS delegation visited Georgia and brought him back.
Guys that live in those wrestling hot bed areas of Asia and Eastern Europe live very intense but also simple lives. In general they just want to provide for their families and practice their religion. You’re not going to see many opportunities to recruit guys who want to wrestle folkstyle and still attend college classes.
I think we should be focusing on improving our domestic recruiting first
Unlike hockey where the NCAA is just another stepping stone to the NHL, NCAA wrestling is kind of it’s own entity. Those Europeans who eventually want to wrestle the world circuit aren’t going to go folkstyle when they have freestyle academies where they already are. I don’t think the pool of guys is worth exploring
NDSU adds 4x all American Hayden Hidlay to their coaching staff….
We could have used him. Great credentials and would be a good big man coach. Plus Rutgers salary scale would pay him a helluva lot more than NDSU. Of course, he is no Joe Pollard who is too small to coach big man and lacks on the mat wrestling accomplishments. Did he ever qualify for nationals? Pollard is a nice guy who is likable and seemed to do good job as Director of Operations Just lacks the resume. We need to jump on opportunities to upgrade the coaching staff when available.
Angelo makes his college announcement may 31st 7:30 est… fingers crossed
Between Poz, Soldano, and recently Boone our big men have been among the most reliable performers the last few years
Which means what? We don't need a big man coach? How do you sell that to recruits? You can do without it? Poz, Soldan, and Boone wouldn't have benefitted from a good heavy coach? Or is this just defensiveness? It's either that or plain stupidity, and I tend to think the latter. Oh wait, you blocked me several months ago, right? So, you won't see this.
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
***WAR ROOM: Latest Recruit Scoop and Team News on Rutgers Athletics***
- Latest: Christian0007