wrestle87

Why is @Jimmy Cinnabon making a thread passing his own feelings off as those of “wrestling fans”….

I’m kind of astonished to hear this. He sounded rather done with the sport when they interviews him after world team trials. Can’t blame him, 99% of wrestlers end their careers that way.

Once we resign ourselves to the fact this is a solidly tier-2 or lower program, this will stop being interesting.

Coaches come in different types, disciplinarians, older brothers/uncles, hands off “that’s his problem” businessmen coaches, and coaches constantly patching up and covering up for their athletes when they do dumb stuff. The best wrestler to come out of ASU in the past couple decades has a documented baking soda problem. So much so that the AD took action, instead of the Head Coach himself. This is an AD at a school which often contends for the title of the biggest party school in the country. The bar for “moving the needle” on remarkable behavior is very high at ASU. There is no way you can be a coach and not know about things like “illicit habits” about your athletes. Dudes on the team just talk too much, you spend too much time together, especially when it is your program’s star athlete. Those relationships are 10x closer than with the backups. For an AD to step in and do something, making the announcement, etc. instead of Zeke, is a reflection of a dynamic that is a coach trying to protect his best kid in the short term (for personal gain), rather than help him in the long term. Both in High School and college I had coaches who would bend over backwards to patch up, humor, or cater to the “favorite son” on the team. It ruined team chemistry, and ultimately was pretty bad for the wrestler too.

Michigan and Ohio State have what it takes department-wise, but with the way things are heading, they will have a hard time standing out in coming years. Double the available slots to get access to the most modern “formula” is going to pull a ton of talent from the collective pool. I would expect that Cael may see more places show up and try to poach, bc before it was “yeah they’re penn state, what’re ya gonna do?” Now with more than one program with that playbook, scrutiny is going to go up a lot on tier 1B coaches, especially since they now see that they can in fact crack the safe and get people to leave. It’s amazing the speed of evolution on the coaching side.

This is amazing for Zain. He slayed so many demons today.

Especially in the NIL era. AA-ing is worth a few hundred grand. That’s fat stacks and no kid is going to pass that up. But even before NIL, nobody has ever questioned whether sauce was an integral part of football from D1 on up, yet somehow we just get magically blind and deaf when it comes to US wrestlers. It’s our sport’s version of believing in Santa Claus.

I mean when someone starts tapdancing this hard or peculiarly about adhd meds, it is because the ice is thinner than anybody actually knew. Also, skeptical eye detective finds it odd that said tapdancing is also on the dude with the most built body at all of NCAA’s. Taylor made the same Calavita special bump(hence that killer two car garage hairline), hard to believe he’s the only one. Our primary flaw as american fans is our complete lack of relative perspective. Yes, those big bad eastern europeans and russians would gladly juice to the gills, but our homegrown farm boys get ‘em with patriotism and hard work. [brought to you by NikeKelloggAdidasMorganStanleyMercedesRolexAsicsandNBC]

If I were Trent Hidlay and I was hearing this, I’d really have some strong feelings and questions about what exactly this dude who has been the ceiling to his career has been doing chemically for the past 6+ years. Jesus is great, especially when he gives you that yam-derivative jesus juice.

I was just about to ask “wtf?!” Steiber getting 1/3rd of what bo jordan is getting seemed a tad insane to me unless he is never in the room. Also, goddamn, good for Ohio State assistant coaches.

For any of you that ever had the terrible privilege of getting the funk from a match or tournament, that is worth every window you can possibly throw in. Everybody knows to stay away from the kid with the tube of Lamisil. Most wrestling mat funk (I’m not going to say all bc I am not a microbiologist) gets killed by UV rays, hence those neon deals they push around the mats at nationals.

Cael will keep this open until after the Olympics, then offer it to Dake, in the slyest move ever, limiting the options of the new #2 team in the country.

Oooooh, well that also changes the entire face of him coming in at Okie State too, old head coach throwing him a bone more like.

Oh dude……f*ing yikes. The ol’ “your pocket…now my pocket!” is a great way to get passed over for a coaching job. That sort of thing could be persuasive enough to convince a longstanding coach to retire too.

yeah please, little spark notes action would be great here

Real cop out answer from me here, but DT is the wrestling equivalent of Cael's oldest child. A few mistakes along the way (short-view staying at 74kg for so long), but ultimately 86kg was also a major gamble, there was no guarantee it would work. And, the reality is that whatever DT had to go through along the way are exactly the things that will make him a good coach. Good coaches aren't good just because they are good, they are good because they can identify where in a particular process an athlete, and they have experience overcoming obstacles that they can troubleshoot a way forward for that athlete that fits for their personality and style of wrestling. Cael's "whoopsies" moments with DT are major assets for DT becoming a coach. We think about Dake vs DT, DT has taken way more lumps along the way, and he's way more seasoned mentally in terms of being a coach and relating to others and developing others. DT is more like JB, losing has been so rare, that it monopolizes his mind and dictates everything he will be doing for the next 12 months. A coach needs to be able to digest and move on. So, world and olympic gold aside, the best thing Cael has given DT are the mistakes and hard moments, because they will allow him to be there as a coach. That was what made J Smith (and occasionally Gable) so miserable to be around at times. They hated losing so much that it inhibited their ability to be there for their athletes in a way that connected with them instead of just scared them.

Perfection. Somebody understood the assignment.

Now that’s just being obtuse…

If they keep anybody, they should keep Coleman. Whatever Perry has going on from a "lifestyle" perspective, it's not going to be a good fit for the new show that's coming to town. Perry would probably personally benefit a tremendous amount from being around this new group, but coaches need to be a heavy net positive to justify their position on a coaching staff like the one that is going to be coming in.

If they could do it for tournaments they may well pull off a number of all PSU finals. It would be insane.

Oh jesus, I hadn’t even thought about that. Is adderall on the NCAA list? That feels like something PSU would be all over.

The hawk environment needs someone who is a bit of a dick, has reached the top of the sport, and has enough salt to handle the hawkeye media when they get over their skiis. Jordan burroughs is a great idea. He is as salty as anyone, and would bring immediate relevance to the program that extends outside of the state of Iowa. The number of people nationwide who hear “brands” and think “woah!” has gone down probably 80% in the past ten years. To compete against Cael or DT you need a coach who is truly a gift to be in the room with everyday from the wrestler’s perspective. Jordan is the only guy left like that in the country. Snyder obviously has the mat skills, but he’s too soft spoken.

Yeah you are definitely right about that. Okie State strikes me as a “drink first ask questions later” kind of environment.

Penn State…not NOT known for being a great place to get absolutely hosed on a regular basis. It’s a big ten school, you know the beer flows like wine. That culture in the program changed because there was a higher prize on the line, which was a spot in the room around the best coach ever. A similar thing will happen at OSU. If you can either party or have a spot in what will likely become the #2 room in the country, you get your ducks in a row in a hurry. Yes he will have to trim the roster, but so did Cael. Coaches who hold themselves to interpersonal standards bring in the same type of kid. Gable and J Smith had teams of heavy boozers because they wanted monomaniacal gremlins who were willing to take abuse. A coach who is angry at the world attracts wrestlers who are angry at the world. A coach who is a dick recruits wrestlers who are dicks. Thank god that era seems to be 90% gone. OSU will get its ducks in a row. Academically, guarantee there are good programs somewhere in OK State, if not boosters can make pushes on that front as well.

He may not be a HC, but he is the poster boy for what a full lifecycle at PSU/NLWC can look like, he is the OG core of Cael’s brand. He’s one of maybe 5 people who know the process front to back. The only one who is more vintage Cael brand is Varner.