Recruiting and signing dates for 2015

[oberebo]

It is very early in the process for signing recruits graduating in 2015. Oklahoma State has two commitments in Boo Lewallen and Kaid Brock official announced as committed. There are a total of 61 members of the high school class of 2015 that have committed. The earliest that any 2015 graduate can sign the letter of intent is April of 2015 and the last date they can sign is August of 2015. Arizona State has the largest # of Commits so far with four which includes the brothers Valencia. Minnesota picked up a commit today in Freddy Stroker ranked #15 overall and they had an early commit from Robert Stevenson ranked #10. Iowa has one commit in #93 Cash Wilcke at 184. Penn State has yet to have any commits announced. Our commits are Kaid Brock #33 and Boo Lewallen #46. The four going to Arizona State are ranked #29 Josh Maruca at 149/57, Freddy Stroker # 15 at 149/57 and The Valencias ranked #1 and #5 overall. Arizona State is leading the recruiting wars at this time. Virginia has two solid commits in #26 Sam Krivus and #6 Fox Baldwin. They also have another commit in Corbin Allen at 157.and #42 Cameron Harrell at 149/157 which would put them at 2nd in the recruiting wars at this point to Arizona State. Michigan has two very good recruits in #2 Logan Massa at 149/57 and #32 Austin Assad at 125/33.

 

[mike tognetti]

the earliest signing for the class of 2015 will be in Nov of this year. I think on or around the 10 for about a week.
This post was edited on 8/20 7:27 PM by mike tognetti

 

[osu2082]

Any ideas or guesses on what other recruits and weights we are in the mix for?

 

[Needanap]

Oberebo

Just a small correction.

The four going to Arizona State are ranked #29 Josh Maruca at 149/57, Freddy Stroker # 15 at 149/57 and The Valencias ranked #1 and #5 overall. Arizona State is leading the recruiting wars at this time.

As per earlier in your message Stroker has committed to MN. The other ASU recruit is Lance Benick (197). He is from Minnesota and I believe was ranked somewhere around # 10 for the 2015 recruiting class

 

[oberebo]

Tognetti is correct there is a one week period from November 12th to November 19th of 2014 and then the regular signing period is 4/15 with the final date of August 1, 2015. Needanap,, Forgot to add Lance Benick and he is ranked #12 by Intermat. He would have been ranked higher if he had not lost to Robert Steveson who is now ranked #10 and going to Minnesota.

As far as who we are looking at I do not know. We need to be looking at another 125 pounder and a 197 and a heavyweight. I already said I really liked Samuel Colbray of Oregon at 197 since Steveson and Benick have already committed but that is in the future and not this year.

I am looking at Flo's top 14 pound for pound The Valencia's have committed and they are #1 and #7. #2 is Spencer Lee but he is only a Sophomore and is at 113. Mark Hall is ranked #3 and shown at 170#. He has definitely shown interest in us in the past but I have no inside information on him and he will be a Jr. this year. Mason Manville is ranked #5 and he is currently uncommitted and presently in China with Daton Fix and Cade Olivas where they will compete in the Youth Olympics on 8/27. Nick Piccinnini from New York is ranked #8 overall and is the right weight at 126. KeShawn Hayes has not committed and is at 132 and ranked #13. I do not know where the coaches are looking but Nick Piccinnini looks great. He absolutely destroyed Luke Pletcher from Pa. who is ranked now behind him at #11 P4P.

 

[proud2bpokes]

Colbray may be hard to get out of Oregon since his dad wrestled at Oregon State. He would be a great get though.

 

[oberebo]

In looking up the NLI signing dates yesterday I neglected to look at the early signing dates primarily because the last line of the rules shows INITIAL signing date of April 15th and FINAL signing date of August 1, 2015. The line above that shows (EARLY PERIOD) of November 12 to November 19th. I guess I am too literal and thought that Initial meant first.

Interesting information about the National letter of intent shows that the BASIC penalty for not fulfilling the NLI agreement: A student-athlete has to serve one year in residence (full time, two semesters or three quarters) at the next NLI member institution and lose one season of Competition in all sports. We all know that there are numerous exceptions.
For instance, if Cowguy is correct about Kyle Garcia being able to wrestle immediately what is the exception for this? However, the definition shown for the NLI is this: " The NLI is a binding agreement between a prospective student-athlete and an NLI member institution. A prospective student-athlete agrees to attend the institution full time for one academic year (two semesters or three quarters). The institution agrees to provide athletics financial aid for one academic year (two semesters or three quarters).

That would seem to imply that the NLI is fulfilled after one academic year and that the student athlete who does comply with that would be free after one academic year to transfer where ever he wanted. This apparently is where conference rules come into play and the granting of waivers by the coaches. I have to admit it is confusing to me.

 

[oberebo]

The number of High school athletes awarded Athletics scholarships to compete in college is about 2% according to recent statistics. Scholarships are at a minimum, for one academic year. In Division 1, institutions are permitted to offer multiyear scholarships. In most cases the coach decides who gets a scholarship, what it covers, and whether it will be renewed. The school must notify the student athlete in writing by July 1 whether the athletic scholarship will be renewed for the next academic year.

 

[Wheeling Cowboy]

Stroker leaves the state? Anybody with a comment on that? Seems odd.

 

[mike tognetti]

Looks like he was going somewhere and it sure wasn't Iowa. Seems from what he said, no love from the 3 D1 schools in Iowa. If you want to hear the Iowa version= https://iowa.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=813&tid=174130824&mid=174130824&sid=940&style=2

 

[oberebo]

Originally posted by Wheeling Cowboy:
Stroker leaves the state? Anybody with a comment on that? Seems odd.

I have to admit that 3-4 years ago I would have been smirking and feeling great about an Iowa defection. As it stands today not so much.

I do not want to sound the death knell on Iowa wrestling because they still have the biggest fan base in wrestling and will have in the future. However, the total picture has changed just in the past five years. Iowa will always be a factor to be dealt with but they have moved from the mountain top to just being a contender. Their recruiting in recent years has been blah and it does not appear to be any better this year. So far, they have recruited one wrestler for 2015 who may be good but is ranked 97th p4p.

The feeling I am getting from listening and talking to my circle of friends (All Cowboys of course) is that wrestlers are just not buying into the philosophy of coach Brands like they have in the past. Iowa has always prided itself on choosing wrestlers that they can mold into their style of wrestling. Today's top wrestlers do not want to be molded into the cookie cutter style of the past. They were successful in high school based on their individual styles and they want to continue
using that style in college but molded by coaches that can take those individual styles and hone them into a complete wrestler. This is coming from an admitted homer to Oklahoma State wrestling but there are many people that feel as I do that the world is passing by the Tom Brands style and that it does not appeal to the majority of wrestlers today.

For Iowa to jump back up to the top of the mountain it may take a change in coaches and coaching philosophy. Then again, I am just stating an opinion based on my prejudices and biases and those of my circle of friends. That circle includes Tognetti which shows how tenuous a hold on reality my thinking can be.

 

[mike tognetti]

You are lucky I came around because your thinking was like the Iowa style and I have brought you at least to the twentieth century. Still a work in progress but you do have a twitter account. I love Tom and Terry over at Iowa and they are great coaches but seems they aren't relating to the recruits or having them buy into their style of wrestling in the last few years. As I write this I'm thinking to myself that they are one of the favorites to win it this year, so what do I know.

 

[april racer]

I believe he is from PA, military family. Tog, you are correct, they have a good team this coming year. Clark, Gilman, Evans, brooks, Telford plus dweiza, and grothus.

 

[leroyjethrogibbs]

ober, those are words of a wise man

a bull in shape can win many matches, but one with finesse is tough to beat
This post was edited on 8/23 9:49 AM by leroyjethrogibbs

 

[oberebo]

LJ Gibbs, you are pretty smart for a southwestern Oklahoma good ole boy!

 

[oberebo]

I agree with both April and Tognetti that Iowa fields a strong team this year but certainly does not field a team that is unbeatable by us and we are in what is termed a "down year" while reloading from the losses of Perry, Caldwell and Morrison and possibly Klimara.

Iowa will be strong in the first two weights with Gilman and cory Clark. Apparently Clark will go up this year to 133 after finishing 5th at 125 last year. Thomas Gilman was 16-3 last year at 125 before losing the spot to Clark and 7-2 in duals and won the Midlands. He will be a formidable opponent at 125 but this is a loaded weight nationally. 4X Neb. State champ.

At 133 Cory Clark was 5th at 125 and he is strong and big enough to handle the jump to 133. He was 22-4 last year and 8-0 in duals. He was ranked as high as 4th at 125 last year. He was a 4X Iowa state champion.

Josh Dziewa was 23-10 last year at 141 and 4-9 against ranked opponents. He lost to Collica in the dual last year 5-3 as Collica had an early takedown, a reverse and riding time.

At 149 Brody Grothus scored an upset over Josh Kindig in the dual where we won only at 141 and 174. Grothus was an at large wrestler at the NCAA after a 24-12 record. He was 5-7 against ranked opponents.

157 is expected to be manned by Brandon Sorenson who is a redshirt freshman and he was 24-4 in open tournaments and is a 4X Iowa state champion.

At 165 the Hawkeyes return Nick Moore who will be a senior and he was 2nd at the Big Ten last year and had a season record of 23-5. He was 8-5 against ranked opponents and after his upset of Caldwell 3-1 OT in the dual was ranked as high as 4th.

At 174 Mike Evans is the returning starter and IMO he is the only Hawkeye with a legitimate shot to be national champion. This is a stuff weight despite both Perry and the OU guy graduating. He was 28-7 last year 2nd in the Big 10 and is a two time AA. He was 6th in 2014 and Storley, Kokesh and Brown all are back and finished ahead of him. However, all of these wrestlers are capable of beating the others.

At 184 the Hawkeyes did not place last year but they have a more than capable starter in Sammy Brooks who was 18-7 last year at both 184 and 197. He is a redshirt Sophomore and was 7-3 in duals. He defeated our Nathan Boyd in the dual 7-1. He was a 2X Illinois state champion.

Nathan Burak at 197 was 8th at the NCAA last year and was 19-8 overall. His highest season ranking last year was 11th so he out-performed his rankings in the NCAA. He was 6-8 against ranked opponents last year.

Bobby Telford was 4th at the NCAA last year . He is a senior this year and in 2013-14 he had a 26-7 record and defeated Austin Marsden in the dual 2-1. Marsden placed 8th in the NCAA.

One over-enthusiastic Hawkeye fan (read as homer as Ober) predicted on their board recently that they would win it all with 10 All-Americans and no National champions. He predicted 3rd place finishes for both Gilman and Clark, 8th for Dzeiza at 141, 8th for Grothus at 149, 7th for Sorenson at 157, 2nd for Moore at 165,2nd for Evans at 174, 7th for Brooks at 184, 5th for Burak at 197 and 3rd for Telford at 285.

The above reads like an Oberebo prediction at this time of year. I do not believe it is probable but then again it is not impossible or even not credible. It is too early in the year to know. I will not make my predictions this year until at least December. By then we will know a lot more about who will be starting for Oklahoma State. The lineup for Iowa could change but it does appear to be somewhat set.

Recruiting for Iowa is way down but they do have a lot of time to garner some good wrestlers.

 

[oberebo]

One more thing. Let me say right now that I 100% guarantee that I will not predict 11 National champions in December for the Cowboys. This is just to head off Micco's post which will indicate sometime during the season that I predicted 11 National champions, two champions at one of the weights.

 

[jammenz]

In the official Iowa version they passed on Thomsen, Stieret, Stroker, Duggan because Brands saw something he did not like. Evidently it is impossible for a wrestler to not want to be a Hawkeye.