Non-PSU Recruiting
- Thread starter Str8dblz
- Start date
Flattery will get you everywhere.
Should add: VT is a very good choice. They should thrive there.
Part of the issue here is their recruit ranking -- meaning, VT got both Collin Gaj and Aaron Seidel in 2025, and the PSU boards mostly didn't care, even though they're both excellent college prospects. Lehigh got Keanu Dillard, who's gonna be a 4x PA AAA champ, collective yawn here. It's possible that all 3 are better in college than the Bassett/Miller trio -- I wouldn't bet on that, OTOH Vincent Robinson was ranked far below Christian Carroll in the same class. Things happen.
Jefe, I don’t doubt anything you say, but i don’t quite follow.
My understanding is that any NIL offer has to be approved by the clearinghouse, and can’t be “pay to play.” So, it would be more like a pizza place paying low 5 figures for an ad in the local media.
What kinds of offers are the recruits getting in this environment? Seems like free tuition is about all they can be guaranteed. I’m sure I’m just ignorant of the ins and outs of how the offers are made now. Suppose I’m an age group world champ- what am I worth in the recruiting process? TIA.
VT also got Ryan Burton from the 2025 class (pretty close to Henkel last year) and got decent transfers in Bullock (Michigan) and Ethen Miller (Maryland).
Good point on Burton.
Bullock and Miller are both SRs. Unless they stick around SERTC after graduation, they'll only help the Bassetts/Millers for a month now, plus about 2 months between PA states and VT graduation. HS kids aren't allowed to train at RTCs during the HS varsity season.
Someone on twitter pointed out that VT must feel some retribution by getting Miller and Bo after TnT took what was essentially a foundational recruiting class with them to Iowa
20 years and a couple coaching changes since? Is there anyone left in Blacksburg from that time?
Much more recent is the Orange Bowl flop, yet nobody's talking about that as karma. I get that one is recruiting and the other isn't, also both involve Brands shanking VT and one is much more recent.
I think the VT-Iowa feud was much more personal to Dresser than it is to Robie. Dresser and Tom Brands were teammates at Iowa; Dresser was the coach of the local high school, Christiansburg, and had to pull the program out of the dumpster fire that Brands created when he returned to Iowa; and Dresser rebuilt it-very much with Robie’s help- from life support to a trophy-winning team. I suspect that Dresser, even as he is at Iowa State, still resents Brands for his gutting of the VT program more than Robie does as the head coach at VT.
Read on OhioWrestling board that PSU had interest in Boyle. Unclear how much interest and whether interest was reciprocal.
That appears to be the case; could move in the lineup after Feldman is done.
The sky is falling they sky is falling
fire cael
end of the dynasty the hawks got a guy that PSU didn't even look at
fire cael
end of the dynasty the hawks got a guy that PSU didn't even look at
It would make me laugh is he ends up at ISU for sure.... it is iowas first snag for 2027 (well... since Bassett left) and shows that they can still attract high end talent. I think dhabolt is next for them? if so... thats will be a good hual for the hawks who have become portal dependent!
They still attract talent. The problem is just like Arnold was going to be the next 4 time champ, and now Ferrari is the next 4 time champ, and Bo was going to be the next 4 time champ, and now this kid is the next 4 time champ the talent attracted to Iowa's tradition and grind never find the gold. Talent will show up, they will become tough as hell and they will be limited in their success. Then they will rinse it and repeat it expecting better results.
Bassett went 4 time undefeated champ per Iowa board as a commit to he maybe able to AA and make a final after decommit per the Hawkeye fans
By my math, after his redshirt, Amato will start wrestling just as Kueter and Arnold are leaving. So, just to tread water Iowa needs to land recruits in the 2027 class on par with their 2023 class, which means Kueter, Arnold and also includes Ryder Block. Amato seems to be about Block’s pedigree, so they need a couple top 5 commits now or they continue to regress towards irrelevancy.
Willie previously mentioned on that board the next reranking Amato was going to fall from #3, Flo has him #30 right now. This was before his performance at Elite 8 duals where some Iowa fans expressed concern about his offensive production there. Quite a few expressed skepticism for a while that he was really a Top 5 level guy.
Will say the kids potential is pretty obvious though.
Will say the kids potential is pretty obvious though.
Nate didn't make the Seals but is still in the Navy and has been back on the mat lately and looks great. I hope he finds that love again and we see him at Navy with Kolat
Minnesota changed his offer and he decommitted. Eric Thompson was his coach at M2 when Nico was in PA and theyre close
Iowa will never become irrelevant. Our need to needle them guarantees it.
Wrestling needs a strong Iowa, wether we like it or not
Why? Do we also need a strong Oklahoma and Iowa State and Clarion? We've done ok without them.
Disagree, wrestling was fine when okie st was dominating and when iowa was dominating making most other programs irrelevant. Wrestling will be fine if iowa fell to the middle of the pack.
Wrestling needs strong programs where the sport will draw the most attention. Long-term, there's no compelling reason why that must be Iowa over lots of other schools. It's a smaller state with another major in-state school competing for attention. (Same for OKST.)
Rutgers, Ohio State, and Illinois are major schools in much larger states with strong wrestling cultures, and with no real in-state competition for attention.
Several other schools meet 3 of those 4 criteria: Michigan, Arizona State, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota. (Admittedly, a couple would be harder pulls because the wrestling culture isn't as strong. That's on USA Wrestling to develop the culture.)
PA has enough population and a strong enough fanbase to support multiple strong teams -- Pitt and Lehigh at least.
Iowa has brand recognition, which is great, but so does Nebraska Football.
Sport X needs a strong Team Y has always been a meaningless phrase
Disagree
Iowa is a cornerstone of wrestling fandom and viewership. I love seeing PSU wipe the mat with them in a dual, but I like it when it’s our title contender taking out their all American contender
Iowa is a cornerstone of wrestling fandom and viewership. I love seeing PSU wipe the mat with them in a dual, but I like it when it’s our title contender taking out their all American contender
Iowa is a strong fan base becuase of their past dominance and what else is there for sport fandom in iowa. If iowa state would come back to past glory’s that would be great but to say wrestling has to have iowa in the title mix to survive is ridiculous.
If we retreat back into Big Ten history, we see that they said the same thing in the Chicago press about the University of Chicago football team. Multiple Big Ten champs, the faded out of the picture by the 1940’s. Football didn’t really need them and it doesn’t need Iowa Wrestling in any particular way now. Leave em’ alone. TNT are killin it.