Theo Brixton

I feel he was a very unlikely champion at that stage of his career. If you watch the matches, they were won with a grit that was reminiscent of Brands. And while he didn't end up facing Kudukhov, his bracket was stacked. Brands kept him on the straight and narrow in a way that no other coach probably would have, another essential component to his success. Cejudo was certainly talented but he needed Terry to unlock his potential. I feel one reason it worked is because he was young enough to be impressionable. I sense many of the more experienced athletes too jaded to buy into what Brands was selling and that was to their detriment. They didn't name names (or I at least didn't catch it when it was playing in the background) but it was apparent it was coming from multiple places. He had college coaches courting him that were no doubt giving him the hard sell that likely included disparaging Brands. Also, from how Kevin Jackson spoke, I would be surprised if he wasn't second guessing the training methods. That had to be a toxic situation, little wonder Brands left.

The next few years are going to be some of the most challenging of Coach Sanderson's tenure. The accusations will be flying and his honor will need defending. But when I read that Beau Bartlett's third-place finish was due to development rather than an elite, pound-for-pound recruit finally moving to his natural and, coincidentally, emptied-out weight class, I knew you guys were up to the task. Just remember: Iowa might have a bag but Cael's got a sac.

Basch right now:

My pleasure.

What is this, Where's Waldo? Not Hong Kong. Any truly international city in Asia has legitimate Western food, by my increasingly lowered standards.

This just came out and I have listened to ~2/3 of it. Nice podcast by WCML. A few things: 1. Henry Cejudo would not have reached the heights he reached as quickly as he did without Terry Brands. Period. Henry's run to the 2008 Olympic title represents one of the greatest coaching achievements in American wrestling. 2. Unsurprising yet annoying to hear the second-guessing of Brands' methods. I remember watching training videos in the run-up to Beijing. There was one video in particular of the team running the Cog and a number of Olympians were half-assing it. Their effort would be pathetic even for a weekend warrior. But not Cejudo. He was all in. There were multiple videos like this during that time. I wonder if any of the team that had dreadful performances ever reflected on that. 3. Funny to hear 40-year old Terry handling a workout that left the team sore and complaining. TNT's capacity for work was one of two essential skills they brought to wrestling. Their opponents were lucky that matches were only 5-7 minutes.

An objection, not the objection. The ratios are all wrong. Again, Chicago Tavern-style pizza is the best.

I say this all with love but... Your dawn, not mine. If I wanted lasagna, I eat lasagna. If I wanted a calzone, I'd get a calzone. But if I want pizza, I'm not eating it with a goddamn fork and knife. Deep-dish pizza is a teenage girl's conception of what pizza should be. I live in an Asian city where every Western comfort food has been bastardized to the point of rendering them inedible. But not once have I thought that dry ice-delivered Pizzeria Uno would be the answer to my culinary prayers. If this is civilization, that asteroid can't come soon enough. Apparently you haven't seen the future. You've been forewarned.

OU fanfiction.

We're talking about a guy living off of Mr. Pibb here. But truth be told, I think they're interchangeable. They're both trash compared to tavern style pizza in my book.

I have to say, I never thought there would be a thread of folkstyle fan fiction here. But since you insist, I'll indulge you... When I peered through the crowd, I caught a partial view of a single, worn Resilite mat. Its frayed edges were folded up upon the brick facade to fit in the narrow alleyway. As I made my way forward, I could see Ed Ruth taking the mat against a nameless foe. Ed was wearing a tattered, navy blue PSU singlet, a rarity among the competitors typically donning reversible pink and baby blue singlets sanctioned for "Wrestling". You wouldn't even have to know who Ruth was to know this was a folkstyle OG taking the mat. As the ref blew the whistle, the competitors sized each other up, knowing one wrong move might spell their demise. Ruth's opponent takes a deep shot but Ed is able to sprawl. It's sometimes said that lesbians with long fingers are well-hung. I'm not sure what they would call Ed's banana hands, a veritable John Holmes of the digits. He uses them to forcefully butt-drag his foe-- a move strictly forbidden by the "Wrestling" Federation. The reason being Commissioner Mulvaney wants "Wrestling" to maximize inclusivity and this particular hold might unintentionally damage the stitching of newly transitioned athletes. You see, the Federation's "Wrestling" has replaced all styles: folkstyle, greco-roman and women's wrestling to create a single, inter-gendered game of horrors. As Ed gained control, the crowd shouted "twoooo". The Chicago house rules pay no heed to the three-point bastardization that sent their beloved style into an irreversible tailspin. Chicago rules stipulate takedowns are worth two points and escapes are also worth two. However, no one dares to choose bottom when given the choice--riding time is revered in Chicago and each minute of advantage time is granted five points. Furthermore, no wrestler is saved by the bell--if one wrestler is in the advantage position after the first period, wrestling continues and no choice is granted during the match. Ed is now in the driver's seat and won't dare to take any uneccessary risks. His preferred ride is the Penn State ankle trap that he learned from coach Cael-- or Nittany Voldemort as he is known among the folkstyle faithful after he finagled multiple entries per weight for the PSU squad thereby destroying NCAA wrestling. Try as he might, Ed's foe could not escape and spent every last ounce of energy to break free. As the final whistle blew, Ruth's opponent collapsed into a tepid puddle of afterbirth, spent from his efforts. His coaches needed to scrape his lifeless body off the Resilite so that Corby could perform his perfunctory inter-match Stevie Wonder rituals with the Sterilaser, the mat disinfectant of choice since approaching the nearby establishments for a bucket of water and bleach might draw too much attention to their illicit endeavor. After some time, shouts of "THERE HE IS!" could be heard over the din of the restless throng. The sea of people surrounding the Resilite parted and in walked a bloated, middle-age Moses of the mat. It mattered none that he sported a paunch only made possible by Mr. Pibb and long-haul trucking. In fact, what would be a liability in any other domain has become a uniquely lethal weapon. James Flemming was a crowd favorite for his tenacious mat skills. His tactics were so brilliant even Shane Sparks couldn't be bothered with mat returns. The ref blew the whistle after allowing James to pull the singlet straps over his furry potbelly. He immediately moved to the edge of the mat where his strategy was to simply back out-of-bounds at the first hint of danger. No concerns for stalling, this IS folkstyle, after all. He only needed to weather the first period so that he could ultimately get his chance to take top. Here, lining up on his opponent's right side, he deploys his visceral adiposity with aplomb, driving his belly into his opponent's back. This forward pressure invariably thwarted his victim's first move, leaving them susceptible to the inevitable. The period begins and Flemming effortlessly moves to the head where he cinches his patented headlock. It is only a matter of time before he pries his prey over and the crowd goes wild. Here he holds his victim for the remainder of regulation at which point the crowd screams for more and the referee allows the match to continue. Only a verbal submission of Flemming's foe will end the match. Try as he might, his opponents jaw cannot take anymore and he relents, squealing and tapping the mat. The crowd erupts and swarms the mat. It takes three second-generation Polish construction workers to lift Flemming upon their shoulders where they carry him off to the Giordano's around the block for a celebratory deep-dish, a Flemming favorite.

I can't speak to Roselli's management skills but Cody wasn't exactly chopped liver at American. He built a nice program there. So the last two highly regarded coaches have been fired and I seem to remember many wanting Spates pushed out at the end of his tenure. Oklahoma isn't the recruiting hotbed it once was, it gets OSU's leftovers, the surrounding states are recruiting wastelands and the the flagship universities of Ohio and PA are now perennial powers, further limiting potential recruits. Compounded with sky-high expectations, this is a risky position to take on for any established coach. Anyone who has a good thing going will think twice about taking this position, regardless of the pay and resources. The grass isn't always greener, especially in Oklahoma. They could have waited until after 2024 to fire Roselli to see if they could land one of the newly retired legends as HC. Wrestling success is predicated on recruiting and a Dake or Taylor will be able to draw plenty of talent. At this point, it seems like their best bet might be to land someone with strong OU ties but Storniolo is the only HC that I can think of off the top of my head from OU. Frayer is well-respected but would he want to take it given the expectations and obvious hurdles?

This sounds like bragging.

Are you walking into a meth-fueled brothel (or bathhouse, not that there's anything wrong with that...) or a wrestling tournament? I can envision Dylan Palacio being equally at home in either scenario.

Given all the wrestlers named Cael, I am certain Sanderson could find many willing recipients for his stud services. Set up booths at Tulsa, Fargo and Super32 and Russia will be an afterthought in a generation.

A beef from Cael's end would be similar to his interactions with Flo. But if AWA keeps pumping out studs, Cael will keep it cordial regardless of Askren's jack-assery.

I am not sure I would go that far but anyone hanging out at the Treigning Lab is suspect in my book.

I thought this was going to be about David Taylor for a second...

When I have heard Askren talk about this, I remember it in reference to the guys consistently losing and giving up bonus like their black hole at 125. Or Beau Bartlett when he was at the wrong weight class but that was just pushback because of Pyles' jock-riding.

A man is only as faithful as his options...

I am glad Koll is staying at Stanford but it would be interesting to see what he could do at a school with the tradition and resources of OU.

I didn't mean that as an insult to Willie but it came across harsher than intended. I am sure most people here, myself included, would love to have a beer with @Husker_Du. But you are out your mind if you don't think Cael is picking his brain. That's a compliment of the highest order. Not sure I would completely agree with this. If wrestling is to be compared to academics, it's more like an art class than quantum mechanics. Everyone can sit at an easel and paint a bowl of fruit. The skilled teacher can critique and advise the 5 year old and the advanced student differently as he passes by so that it is productive for both. Even Askren has openly stated his surprise at the lack of development of some of PSU's lesser wrestlers. It speaks to importance of picking the right guys from the beginning. It also raises the question of what actually happens in a PSU practice. As an aside, I can't wait for Cael to have beef with Askren when Ben blabs some PSU gossip he hears from his AWA guys on FRL.

Do I think PSU is offering Truax $250 K? No way. I would have to see the bank statement with my own eyes for me to believe that is happening anywhere. This would be toxic to team culture. Here is what I think happens: established guys are taken off scholarship and given money from boosters to cover the difference, maybe a little more. This gives the coaches the dry powder necessary to give substantial scholarships to blue-chippers every year. If this is legal, it would be foolish not to do it. This is what I assumed happened with NLWC money before, without proof. Cael is a thoroughbred and relates to other elite athletes. I think his system, whatever it is, exactly, caters to this type of wrestler. For whatever reason, this system is not set up to coach up non-elite athletes. PSU has had plenty of holes in their lineup but it doesn't matter since the difference between a horrible wrestler and merely good is irrelevant in terms of NCAA points. It matters greatly in duals and is probably the reason Cael is vehemently opposed to changing the championship format. No doubt Cael is shrewd and uses every tool at his disposal to identify the right athletes. I suspect that is why he's your homeboy--what person has their finger on the pulse of high school recruits better than you? Who else on this planet knows which top recruits have overbearing fathers and will likely phone it in once away from home? Or were caught out past curfew at Cadet Worlds with some local babe from Tinder? These intangibles are essential to know who to pick. If I were Tom Brands, I would be kissing your ass too but I suspect he's too old school. Recruitment trumps development and Cael gets this better than anyone. I think TNT are still stuck in a bygone era thinking they can turn pack mules into champions. I am not even sure Gable could do that today. At this point, PSU is experiencing a virtuous cycle. Success begets recruits which begets success which comes back to the original point of the thread. The only thing stopping PSU from having 8+ champs a year is the fact that elite wrestlers want to compete. If the NCAA allowed multiple entries, PSU's B-team would be the second-best team in the country.

He's claiming that there were periods of time where other teams and coaches had comparable dominance. The era OSU won the bulk of their titles was a period where wrestling was less competitive than the today making dominance far easier to achieve. It is true that Gable had a dominant run in the 80s. But in that era, athlete development played a more important role than today. You couldn't simply "buy" (recruit, whatever) wrestlers. They were not college-ready like they are today. And Tom Ryan aside, transferring was also obviously less prevalent. It is clear that the assessment and recruitment of elite talent is the key to success today in a way that is fundamentally different than previous eras. This is what Cael and Co. excel at like no one else in NCAA wrestling.

Cole Matthews says hello. Real Woods was an immediate title contender at Iowa, no one can debate that in good faith. The same goes for anyone denying Truax is an immediate title contender at 184 next year. No one needs to invoke PSU magic (except Cael's jock-riders) if Bernie ends up at the top of the podium.