. My mistake. You clearly knew what I meant.'25-'26 PSU Lineup Predictions thread
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. My mistake. You clearly knew what I meant.
A high-level D1 head coach once told me that he never redshirts someone that is healthy and can make the varsity team because you never know if they will ever again be healthy and capable of making the varsity team.
Rocco, a true freshman finalist, doesn’t make the finals as a redshirt sophomore in your prediction?
Willie said momths ago that Duke won't make 157 after this year. We've seen no reason to disbelieve him.
Merrill is committed to Iowa State.
ASU does have a decent HWT prospect, incoming frexhman Melvin Whitehead -- but Taylor knew about him before committing.
Yeah. Tough one but I will keep that conservative prediction just like the rest until we see him under Cael's system. I am hopeful that translates into a much more aggressive offense from neutral. Nonetheless, that weight class is a beast.
We have several obvious national champ favorites but all are just listed as finalist. I think top 4 is justifiable for Rocco today.
Also if I am perfectly honest I see McEnelly on Tier all by himself. I can't confidently put a specific name to #2. I am avoiding drinking the coolaide on Ferrari just yet. AA certainly. Potential National champion? One defensive struggle with Carter didn't fully convince me. So Allred, Smith, Rocco and Ferrari, heck even Zach Rider are in play for establishing himself as the king of that next tier. On paper Rocco has the credentials for #2 but I would like to see it on the mat fresh.
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Hard to argue that logic. Tomorrow is not guaranteed.
A high-level coach I know redshirted DT, Zain, Nolf, Nico, Bo, Cenzo, ... and things seemed to work out to perfection for each and every one.
Bob, I'll take door number 2.
Make Penn State Altoona D-1 and populate it with those who aren’t starting on the Main Campus roster.
My 2025-2026 lineup looks like this:
Book AirBNB for Big Tens - Done
Book AirBNB for Nationals
Confirm Season Tix - exercise in patience
Get Tix for Big Tens - never been
Get Tix for Nationals - last time we went was Pittsburgh
Buy wife something nice for Birthday ( October sometime ) Christmas and Anniversary ( Same day as Christmas.......forward thinking masterclass )
Defer line-up decision to staff - again
Build excitement to see who finishes 2nd and beyond - again
Book AirBNB for Big Tens - Done
Book AirBNB for Nationals
Confirm Season Tix - exercise in patience
Get Tix for Big Tens - never been
Get Tix for Nationals - last time we went was Pittsburgh
Buy wife something nice for Birthday ( October sometime ) Christmas and Anniversary ( Same day as Christmas.......forward thinking masterclass )
Defer line-up decision to staff - again
Build excitement to see who finishes 2nd and beyond - again
Cenzo never wrestled a 4th NCAA tourney b/c of it. Bo wasn’t beating out Matt Brown his 1st year, so take him out of it. Nolf suffered a catastrophic injury and luckily healed and returned 100%, but his experience is proof of the risk.
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Syd could probably make 125.
Cenzo had to shirt his true FR year. He was 149 then -- wrestled Zain at 66 kg / 145 lb in that preseason. Zain and Jason were in the way.
Really?
As Mike Tomlin says, I don't live in my fears.
Fear of injury being a main driver behind a redshirt or not decision seems a bit sophmoric at best. It seems almost all of Cael's redshirt or not decisions have been strategic based upon what's best for the wrestler's personal development and/or the team benefit, and we have a decade of unequalled success to point to. To imply Nolf's knee wrenching injury has one iota of a linkage to redshirting or not is mind boggling. **** happens and a season ending injury can happen in your first match, your last match or statistically more likely not over a full career.
Your D1 coach's approach seems the antithicist to Cael's. Cael has pulled a fair amount of shirts with true freshmen, while keeping more than a handful of others. I suspect fear of injury has zero influence on Cael's calculus. Then again Cael is only the greatest coach of our age, possibly of all time. Your D1 reference is someone else, that thinks differently, and wins less. Maybe he is even more motivated by 'I had better use this kid now before he portals out'.
Willie's take is consistent with PJ mentioning in this recent interview (3:20 mark of the video) how it was a grind to compete in multiple tournaments from U20 through Final X, specifically mentioning the weight cut to 70kg (154 pounds).
Of them, only Zain was capable of dominating in the year the redshirt occurred. When Zain took the shirt, it allowed him a shot at 3 titles and was also in what was basically a "punt" year. PJ and Blaze are capable of dominating right now, I expect both of them to go.
2x national finalist Nico was less capable of dominating than Duke and Blaze are right now?
Punt year… love that and wow are those days over. Team 1b is top three!
Mediocre Mike is way better at dropping quotables than he is at winning meaningful football games. Mediocre Mike to Cael is like parking your beater 80s Chevy Cavalier in front of the Porsche dealership.
I think the depth is actually an argument against asking guys to redshirt who don’t want to. In the past, a coach could say, we want you to redshirt for the good of the team, so that the team can win the national championship next year. That was easy to believe and palatable. In contrast, now, the team is going to win the team championship anyway next year, so why should a kid have to sacrifice so that the championship team can score a couple points more next year? Who cares about that? It’s a much tougher sell!
This is an idea that I brought up on the old board. Altoona is close enough that they could all train at State College and it's the same school, so there is no issues with transferring credits if someone makes the State College lineup the next year. Aspire to be #1 AND #2 in the country. LOL.
Potentially four years in Altoona vs University Park (or other top D-1 program's main campus)?
I'm just not feeling it for the vast majority of elite HS wrestler graduates.
I missed Nico, same as Zain, punt year. The punt year also allowed Zain and Nico to focus soley on improvment, worked out, they both won it all the next season.
Two third place finishes. Yeah not elite (SMH).
Still would
Love to see Rocco Dellagatta transfer in. Taking a grayshirt at Cornell. Legit 265lbs. Two time Jersey Champ. Fargo champ. Has beaten Merrill (WBF in a match he was winning), USAs U23 representative Herrara and other big named recruits. Four years of eligibility left. Has had a few inconsistencies but in PSU room has NCAA Champ possibilities.
Love to see Rocco Dellagatta transfer in. Taking a grayshirt at Cornell. Legit 265lbs. Two time Jersey Champ. Fargo champ. Has beaten Merrill (WBF in a match he was winning), USAs U23 representative Herrara and other big named recruits. Four years of eligibility left. Has had a few inconsistencies but in PSU room has NCAA Champ possibilities.
Uh, are you asking a serious question?
Or are you trying to make some type of rhetorical flourish?If you want to do something, and someone tells you “no, you don’t get to do that”, then what do you think you are sacrificing, if you obey? You are sacrificing choice. You are sacrificing your preference.
Thanks Bob, but I simply can't make the weight.
I am asking a serious question. What would taking a shirt be sacrificing? The kid chose this coaching staff and program to help him achieve his goals. If the coaching staff says we want you to take the year, work on x, y, and z and set yourself up for what could be a historical 4 year run and a push for an Olympic Gold, where’s the sacrifice? He’s training with the best coaches and competition in the wrestling world right now. If the kid doesn’t trust the staff to have his best interest in mind, then why would he come to PSU?Uh, are you asking a serious question?
If you want to do something, and someone tells you “no, you don’t get to do that”, then what do you think you are sacrificing, if you obey? You are sacrificing choice. You are sacrificing your preference.
For the record, I think most of this thread is nonsense. It’s a conversation piece at best. A lot of rumors and conjecture, no knowledge of what is actually going to happen. We should all realize by now that Cael has a plan, and what that is, none of us know right now. He’s playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.
Could there possibly be more than one tolerable view than your own on the subject? Goodness man. To be more specific, I was talking about a personal experience, a Penn State head coach of a nationally ranked team, and my own kid’s recruiting visit.