Jagger's Friday Mailbag - 8/18/2023

Howdy all and welcome to the InterMat Jagger Mailbag, brought to you by Carl’s Jr. I deeply regret missing last week but sometimes real life gets in the way. But now I have returned and I’m ready to start cranking out mailbags once again. A few of you reached out to me personally and I do thank you for that. As the wrestling world is focused on the U20 World Championships, some news from the college scene dominated the day so let’s get right into it. 

Should it be Tony time? Rhino 

Let’s just get into it, since this is big news for any time of year and it happened to come out in August. Perhaps even play a bit of devil’s advocate along the way. First and foremost, yes. Tony Ramos, who has already been named the North Carolina coach in the interim, seems like the logical successor to Coleman Scott. Continuity is important for a rising program and judging by some of the replies I got today, the team seems more than willing to support their new coach. 

So what of the Coleman Scott and OSU situation? Certainly, the timing is odd as we are roughly six weeks away from the start of practice. But I guess when the opportunity for a job that hasn’t been available in over thirty years you can’t just say you’re busy right now. That’s thirty years of John Smith disciples who at one point or another were likely mentioned as a possible successor. To end up being the name who is chosen to succeed John Smith is quite the honor, so I can’t fault someone for jumping at the chance. And what about this whole “coach-in-waiting angle?” Is the school on board with this? Did they give John W. carte blanche to pick his guy as long as he can mentor him on the staff? Will they pull the rug out from under them when the time comes? And when is that time? Is this the last year of John Smith? Two more years? Three? I guess we just have to wait and see. 

If you could pick one famous non-wrestling venue to host a dual or tourney what would it be? Mat Jerms Media 

That’s a good one and I’ll have to think about it for a minute. By non-wrestling you basically mean any non-sports venue. I thought that one dual at Moss Arts Center with Virginia Tech was pretty cool. I almost feel like watching matches from that vantage point is even better than some seat in a gym. Definitely nothing outdoors. I loathe all the outdoor gimmicks. Maybe have one in the office of Old Dominion President Brian O. Hemphill. Lord knows no wrestling goes on in that venue. (This joke has been approved by Jason Bryant) 

When taking the Lincoln Tunnel from New Jersey, why do they make it so incredibly difficult for travelers wishing to reach South Manhattan? If you don’t make it into the right lane, you get stuck going uptown. What’s the move here? Kevin McGuigan 

The move is to screw up the first time and never make the same mistake again. I plan my spot about two miles before the tollbooth depending on what direction I’m going, then stay as far that way as possible to avoid getting sucked into the hellscape funnel entering the tunnel and coming out on the wrong end. If you’re headed uptown stay to the left and if you’re going downtown then stay all the way to the right.

Did you see the Michael Lorenzen no-hitter? What did you think about Westin Wilson's first MLB swing a home run? Mickadelphia 

This is actually why I needed a mental health day. 

What’s the O/U for number of times the feed cuts out during Helen’s series tomorrow? Thicccholas 

Hope you took the over. 

I’m new to InterMat so excuse the question. Why is California not represented at the top of the NCAA D1 stand each year? Michael C. 

I’m just gonna go ahead and excuse the question.