I agree these are young men and they are responsible for their performance or lack of performance. But when you see these night after night below average performances and the same mistakes with many individuals over and over you have to believe our coaches are underperforming also. With these 16 years of drought for most of those years it has been Coaches John Smith, Chris Perry and Zack Esposito not any of the wrestlers. We have upgraded recruiting but recently I went for a few minutes to the Penn. St. board (probably envious). I read part of thread on recruiting that brought up Jax Forrest, they of course want him. They mentioned us , Ohio St. and Iowa. If they don't get him they want us to get him because we squander talent. It hit hard and was depressing to read that. Our performances and reputation drop and drop. Thank God I am a University of Georgia football fan. I was also blessed that I have gone to 4 National Championship Tournaments 1 in Kansas City, 2 in St. Louis and 1 in Oklahoma City. They were very enjoyable.
Columbia dual
- Thread starter DPJ
- Start date
Ok, I listened to most of this. A few takeaways...
- Cody Sanderson has taken notes of every PSU practice for the past 10+ years. One way this is used is if someone complains about an injury or is just hurting, they look back to see what the training was over the previous week. That is kinda interesting. I'd heard PSU was very organized and methodical. For example, they carefully plan everything, like flights and arrivals times. I guess this is another example.
- PSU taper-offs during the season so they are fresh for March. They practice for 2 hours during the early season, go to 90 minutes mid season and then only 1 hour by the end of January. Many teams reduce duration & increase intensity late in the year, but PSU seems to start that process much earlier.
- They emphasize scoring points during practice. They don't worry about giving up points as long as they are trying to score. Guys aren't trying to be "stingy".
- PSU spends a lot of time "play" wrestling as opposed to live-go's or drilling. One guy goes at 80%, the other guy at 70%. This helps them to learn new positions and also get better at scrambling. Another thing Cael does is tell one guy to do everything "wrong" when defending a shot so they can discover new techniques. Apparently Jason Nolf developed his side roll counter because of this approach.
I’m sure someone that knows has the desire to make a move for the right price. If it is a magic recipe some of the guys they recruit don’t respond to it. Getting three times the blue chippers than everyone else helps too.
I think PSU probably continues the shorter practices in the postseason, both before Big10s and before Nationals. They want guys fresh. Compare that with what we did the last 2 seasons. This year we had two-a-days leading up to Big12s. And last year I saw an interview with Dakota Geer where he said they had a 40 minute live-go before NCAAs. Very different approaches.
But there has to be more to it than that. PSU performs better at Nationals than Big10s. Maybe they use conferences to scout for NCAAs. Develop match strategies. As an example, Vincenzo Joseph lost to IMar at Big 10s and then beat him when it counted. The following year he did it again, lost at conferences then won in the finals.
Also, I agree PSU gets more blue chippers than everyone else. And some have not delivered. Some didn't even make their starting lineup. Top 10 PFP guys, even some top 5 PFP guys. They are usually quickly replaced by another top recruit or a top transfer. But something has to account for the ones that do work out. PSU is 45-5 in the NCAA semis over the past 12 years. Over that same period, they are 37-0 in the NCAA semis when they are the higher seed. Really incredible.
But there has to be more to it than that. PSU performs better at Nationals than Big10s. Maybe they use conferences to scout for NCAAs. Develop match strategies. As an example, Vincenzo Joseph lost to IMar at Big 10s and then beat him when it counted. The following year he did it again, lost at conferences then won in the finals.
Also, I agree PSU gets more blue chippers than everyone else. And some have not delivered. Some didn't even make their starting lineup. Top 10 PFP guys, even some top 5 PFP guys. They are usually quickly replaced by another top recruit or a top transfer. But something has to account for the ones that do work out. PSU is 45-5 in the NCAA semis over the past 12 years. Over that same period, they are 37-0 in the NCAA semis when they are the higher seed. Really incredible.
The match I remember, what shocked me was Kemmerer beating Starocci so easily at the Big 10 finals and then Starocci beat Kemmerer in the NCAA finals. Penn. St. does make great adjustments and seem to have great plans for their matches at Nationals.
This. They don't change much between Big Tens and NCAAs. But yes, they make adjustments in between. So, there isn't much game planning for Big Tens, but always for NCAAs. Imar talked about that in an interview, that they always had something different for him at NCAAs. Look at the adjustment Brooks made to Amine. Shortened the match by returning him.
Interesting to note as well. PSU are some of the best riders and returners - and they almost never lift and return. They've clearly figured out the energy expenditure isn't worth it.
More often than not refs allow stall rides where you ride for 2 minutes and the person riding hasn't attempted once to put his opponent on their back. Penn. St. has gotten away with this as much as anybody especially when they trap that ankle. Flo FRL singled out Brooks on top as a staller. I was so angry at RBY ride of Fix 2 years ago where he leg trapped Daton's ankle never working on any attempted turn. AJ Ferrari was probably our worse on top with stalling when I think back to his championship run. But then I remember Daton gets stopped stalemate on a 30 second overtime with both legs in and Suriano is done for. We sure run into the wrong ref at the wrong time. Recently the refs allowed Starocci to ride out Lewis never even attempting to turn Lewis. Maybe they changed the rules when I wasn't watching, where for 2 minutes you can just hang on to your opponent?
They changed the rule. You only have to "aggressively work for a break down" - that's it. You don't have turn the guy, you don't have to even attempt to turn him. You don't have to "come out to the side" - nothing, nada. Penn State is taking advantage of the ruleset.
Harley, Kevin Ward tweeted this the other day.
I think the problem with the PSU ankle ride is that it isn't an attempt to "break down the opponent", it's just a tactic to not allow him to "initiate action". If you grab the ankle with a hand you get the five count, but not if you do it with a leg.
Yep, also Eierman/Nick Lee & Bo Jordan/Mark Hall. They are good at making adjustments.
I'm sure there were adjustments made for the Derek White/Anthony Cassar rematch, but it's hard to say what they were actually. Cassar was more prepared for Derek's throw-by, but I didn't really see anything else. It was a 1-0 Derek lead with 10 seconds remaining in the 2nd period when Cassar caught him napping and got the TD and back points. I think Derek was expecting it to be decided in the 3rd (or SV) and he didn't expect Cassar to shoot. There was nothing different about the shot, it was a single leg, same as Cassar tried at the end of their match at the Southern Scuffle.
Coach Smith hinted new wrestlers will wrestle this weekend. He did indicate we could have new wrestlers at 125 and 141 maybe.
There's been some chatter on the Rutger's board the last few days about Sammy Alvarez transferring. Mineo tweeted something about it today too. He's not listed on the Trackwrestling roster yet. Dusty Hone wrestled 149 last week, so he's not an option. Teague Travis is a possibility at 141.
At 125, Witcraft would only be eligible to make the drop if he weighed in light at the Scuffle, otherwise there's not enough time based on the descent rules. Cooper Birdwell hasn't wrestled yet this year. Blankenship is a possibility as you mentioned.
Where did Dusty wrestle last weekend? Did anyone else wrestle, Haas needs mat time, has strength , quickness, needs tough matches, high school was mostly dominating easy matches very few tough matches 1 or 2 a year. I hear he works hard and looks good in practice, needs mat time to reach potential.
I just looked on that forum and they are saying he is in Stillwater. He has had making weight problems and boy they hit us with some of our extreme weight cutting. He has really struggled at Rutgers and their board describes him as an enigma ( lots potential not lived up to). They think he would be 141 or 149. Looks like the staff and everyone is tired of Carter being at 141. 149 does not make much sense taking Voinovich out of the lineup if Alverez could beat him.
Hone wrestled at the Roger Denker Open. Haas didn't wrestle, he was probably with the team at Columbia. I'm hoping we see him in a dual or 2 sometime this year.
Harley, the weight cutting is old. One of the jokesters was a PSU fan..in that video above, Quentin Wright said he wanted to go 197, but their coaches made him cut to 184. Not to mention sucking Shakur Rasheed down to 165 & Brady Berge down to 149. They could barely stand up. Just ignore that stuff.
Sammy Alvarez has a lot of potential. If it does happen, I'm glad we are using the transfer portal. That signals a change.
Sammy Alvarez won the Edinboro Open today @ 141. Matches are on Flo. He was wearing OSU headgear.
High School Freshman. Majored and pinned a couple guys that wrestled Michigan's starter within a couple points.
He got big brothered at the Clarion Open by Ramos from Purdue but what that kid's doing is pretty remarkable.
He and his teammate, Bo Bassett, will be coming to Stillwater for a visit.
Pretty quiet on the Messenbrink front. I thought we would have heard which way he's leaning by now.
Don't think he's in the portal yet, so I'm sure stuff is on the down low.
I think training partners/coaches will be key for him. Can't understand why the CowboyRTC hasn't signed anyone yet. Suriano just signed with ASU. NaTo just signed with Michigan.
Apparently Micic is training in Indiana. Super technical, great workout partner for 125-149. Competes for Serbia like Voinovich. There'd be no conflict with Daton. And Mesenbrink is obsessed with technique, so he'd learn a ton from Micic.
When Sammy Alvarez in the lineup next season cowboy nation will have a nice surprise when they see what this dude is about. his record at rutgers was 63-15.