Penn State Media Day is today; Find updates here

[GregPickel]

Good morning everyone!

It's Penn State wrestling media day today.

The event kicks off at 11 with Roman Bravo-Young and Nick Lee. Cael Sanderson then talks 11:30 - Noon, and the event wraps just before one after we hear from Aaron Brooks and Carter Starocci just before one.

I'll try to provide live updates but will also be doing some video recordings that will keep me from doing so from time to time. But, when I can, I'll be posting them here.

 

[PSU Mike]

Greg has a plan!

 

[GregPickel]

Greg has a plan!

Now I just need it to work! Lol.

 

[BMW199]

What time is Suriano speaking?

 

[DavidM]

Serious question. I realize that a lot of comment about Suriano the Great have been trolling/unserious/humorous, but does anybody REALLY think he might join the Lions in January for their stretch run? Or Hildebrand?

 

[nerfstate]

Serious question. I realize that a lot of comment about Suriano the Great have been trolling/unserious/humorous, but does anybody REALLY think he might join the Lions in January for their stretch run? Or Hildebrand?

I have a smidge of inside-type knowledge: Suriano was definitely very close to it at one point--but that may have been before he was told he had to return his Sunkist Kids RTC stipends first. How that, as well as the NIL offers he's reportedly getting, has changed things is anybody's guess. No inside knowledge on Hildebrandt.

 

[APSPSUwrestlingfan]

Good morning everyone!

It's Penn State wrestling media day today.

The event kicks off at 11 with Roman Bravo-Young and Nick Lee. Cael Sanderson then talks 11:30 - Noon, and the event wraps just before one after we hear from Aaron Brooks and Carter Starocci just before one.

I'll try to provide live updates but will also be doing some video recordings that will keep me from doing so from time to time. But, when I can, I'll be posting them here.

Any link available to listen live?

 

[nerfstate]

No livestreams of this this year?

 

[GregPickel]

No livestreams that I am aware of. We'll have Cael video. I'll post wrestler videos once PSU moves them later today.

 

[APSPSUwrestlingfan]

No livestreams of this this year?

Much better coverage on old board. This board feels empty.

 

[GregPickel]

RBY says he's viewing this as his last college wrestling season but doesn't entirely close the door on the idea of coming back with the free covid year.

 

[GregPickel]

Lee says he never got into too big of a discussion about wrestling at 149. He'll be at 141.

Both are pumped to wrestle in front of fans again, of course.

 

[APSPSUwrestlingfan]

RBY says he's viewing this as his last college wrestling season but doesn't entirely close the door on the idea of coming back with the free covid year.

7 posts on old board since your post and they were 6 minutes earlier.

 

[GregPickel]

On his summer MRSA bout, RBY called it "pretty intense" and it kept him in the hospital for a couple of nights in the hospital. Ultimately, while calling it a "scary time," he said it only set his training back three or four weeks and didn't seem too bothered by that.

 

[GregPickel]

RBY: "I want to empty the tank every match and just keep pushing the pace," when asked about a focus for this season.

 

[GregPickel]

Nick Lee on having two brothers on the team: "I have to always remember to take a step back and focus on myself. I want to help out my brothers but they have to figure it out just like I did. We have the best coaching staff in the world. I offer what I can here and there ... we have the best coaching staff in the world, so the best thing I can do sometimes is step back and let those guys take over."

 

[GregPickel]

That's it from Lee and Bravo-Young. We'll have Cael on the zoom momentarily.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael Sanderson up in just a second.

 

[GregPickel]

Well, stand by. Technical difficulties.

 

[BWFight]

Well, stand by. Technical difficulties.

Is Flo broadcasting this event ?

 

[GregPickel]

Is Flo broadcasting this event ?

Ha, it's just the way it goes wth ZOOM.

 

[GregPickel]

Still in a holding pattern, folks. Updates will start popping in here as soon as there are updates to share.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael opens with a lineup question:

Not going to specifically say who is starting and who is not, but some of the weight classes, you know, just because of returning starters. 125 is a more competitive this year, Barlett at 149, 157 and 165 are competitive, and then kind of the usual suspects at the rest of the weights.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on Carter Starocci:

He works really hard and is one of those guys we have to convince to take his foot off the gas as we prepare for competition. He leads by example, works really hard, is going to compete, and is a very confident kid. I would say all of our guys improved and jumped a level, but it's up to them to go out there and take advantage of that. Wants to see out of Carter, more experienced wrestlers, wrestling to score points and if you're trying to win big dual meetings or Big Ten/national titles, you need bonus points, so hopefully team can improve in that area. Thinks a lot of that is leadership and energy and attitude you take out onto the mat. If we can do that, we'll be good to go.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on female wrestling and its growth:

My role is to coach the Penn State wrestling team and the NLWC. We've had four female training in the NLWC, and they're apart of the club. As far as the growth of women's wrestling, I don't know what my role is in that. I'm trying to do my job and take care of the kids and people in our program right now, and that's been taking up a lot of our time and energy. I have a pretty good relationship with Wrestle Like A Girl and the movement there, and I think we've taken big strides in the last year or two or however long that we've had girls in our club. It's something that has been very organic.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on Max Dean and Beard at 197

That was a situation where I think they were leaving where they were and he was restricted in the transfer portal, so we didn't know there was any interest in Penn State. I got a text from Coach Gabe Dean, and we talked, and. he said PSU was a school he'd be interested in, and the rest is history. Max is a really good dude and works hard, and I'd say him and Michael Beard has definitely elevated his game. Having two of the best guys in the country, obviously we got some wrestling to do there and we'll see how things play out throughout the year, and we're confident with both Max and Mike at this point.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on 125

I think, again, that's a weight that will kind of work itself out as we move along here. We have more guys competing in that weight than we have at any other weight. Howard filled in for us, last second, coming off a surgery right after his high school state tournament. He didn't have lots of time to prepare then jumped into a surgery after the NCAA tournament. He's not back to full speed there. We have several kids working hard who are going to try and make that their weight class. It's not like some other weight classes where we have established guys. That's something that, as we compete, and as a team for us, we're training year-round and have stuff going on year-round, but we like to get into competition and make adjustments as we go. This year will be no exception for that.

Guys he's looking at: Baylor Shunk, Jake Campbell, Brandon Meredith has been working his way back to 125, Marco Vespa, Gary Steen.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on RBY/MRSA

He's good to go, and a guy like Roman, he's training year-round. He's another guy that you got to kind of get him to slow down because he's training all the time. If you come in on a Sunday night, it's not an unusual thing to see him in there getting extra work. He's a very hard working kid. I don't think the timing of it would be that big of a deal. If not for social media, it's not something people would be aware of. He's a tough young man, and he's firing on all cylinders.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on NIL

I don't know if it's changed a lot. The unintended but obviously clear consequence of that involves the recruiting aspect, which it's not supposed to be a part of. A guy like Roman, he's worked hard and done a really good job with social media and building his brand, but as I tell ROman, the reason he has such a huge following is he's fun to watch wrestle. In addition to that, just putting great content and being a respectful kid people want to follow, he's capitalizing from that and is nice. I think our program is unique, and I think programs in our program will have and should have NIL opportunities if they come in and are someone a sponsor wants to connect with. Adds that he wants to make sure sponsors aren't putting any extra pressure on kids. At same time, if guys can capitalize on NIL and just have fun with it, not take yourself too seriously, then let's go, but it's going to be up to each individual and how they manage those things.

Adds every state has different state laws in how NIL can be used, and. he believes Pa. is behind in that perspective even though they were trying to get ahead. Use of it in recruiting is what we're thinking about. We want to be ahead of the game, not trying to catch up. We want to make sure we're leading the way in all things, and this is something we're trying to figure out.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on all 10 NCAA champs returning and how it's shaped the sport

I think the COVID year is an interesting thing. I think it effects everybody, some more than others. If you were a senior last year, and you were on scholarship, your scholarship is exempt this year. So if you had 10 seniors, and they're all on full rides, now you have 20. It's just a weird situation, because a few years ago, guys like Colin Moore and Vincenzo Joseph, they had a year taken, and three chances to go to the NCAA tournament, and now it's five. I think that's a silly thing to do but understand what their perspective is. You have kids with an extra year of eligibility. It is the best wrestler is going to wrestle at each weight kind of deal. It's kind of a strange time, but it is what it is.

 

[GregPickel]

My connection broke up so I missed this most recent question but Cael wants his team to compete and keep getting better as the season goes on. Said last year was a fun year and kids were wrestling when maybe they wouldn't have if it wasn't a free year. This year, maybe it's a repeat, but national and team and individual titles were won last year, and there's a whole new set of opportunities this year.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on whether or not he'd like some changes from last year to be kept

I think as a conference, every coach in our conference wrestling wise was saying they're in favor of getting extra bouts. I don't know if we got word back from the conference, but we were all in favor of that opportunity. You can only travel so many student athletes. If you can only travel 13 with one match, 15 with two on the road, if you're taking 13 to go wrestle whatever school on the road, when do those guys get extra matches? You also only have three backups to fill in. I know if we get out butts kicked the last thing you want to do is stick around in their arena. I think it's great to give kids an opportunity to get more matches is. Most sports don't provide opportunities for your backups to go play in different games, so I don't know how far that will go. Wrestling, it's easier for us to do that.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on ducking b ack into transfer portal at 125

Every program checks the transfer portal every day, so I would never say that the transfer portal is not an option, but you do what you can with what you have right now. Some of them haven't competed in a long time. We're excited to see how they do, and we're going to make the most of it. The kids that we wrestle are going to give their best effort, and that's what we're excited to see.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on having four national champs but still finishing second and if change should be made to scoring system

It is a team championship, and I do think the points that are awarded lean toward the stars. You can flip it. We had six or seven All-Americans. You can say how was PSU only 15 points away from Iowa when they had 10 All-Americans or whatever they had? When you look at the scoring it does favor having stars and favors pins and bonus points. A pin is worth two extra points, and a win in the consolation round is worth a half a point, and that shows you it does favor the stars, and I like that. Having stars and building up stars is good for your sport. I think people are trying to go the other way. They want to deemphaisze the ability that one wrestler has to score points. I think of it other spots. You have Shaquille O'Neill, he can score half your points for you. I like that. I like building up and having individuals

 

[GregPickel]

On Journeymen and National Collegiate Duals

Just looking for matches, and it's fun to change things up and see new faces. We're focused on getting our guys to finish their shots quickly, but I know we're going to wrestle and have some really marquee dual meets in Florida. We try to get some kind of a big event that the student-athletes look forward to around Christmas time, and this makes a lot of sense. We're excited to give it a shot.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on whether they can take and wrestle 15 to Spooky Nook

I think we can take 15, and we might throw six guys into their invitaitonal the next day, also, just to make sure we're getting matches. At this point, we just want to get matches. Everybody wants to win, but it's about development.

Sacred Heart will be ready to go,, and obviously Oregon State has a really solid team and a young up-and-coming coach. We're excited to get out there on the mat and get started. That's when we can make progress as a team, and see how kids respond in real competition.

 

[GregPickel]

We just have to be the best that we can be. We're not going to worry about everyone else. Obviously, we just have to step it up in every weight. We had four guys win last year, but we had one that was expected to win going into the tournament, so that was a Cinderella type of event from an individual competitor's standpoint. Always grateful but never satisfied. We need to score bonus points and score points in 10 weight classes would be helpful. I believe in our guys, our system, and if our kids buy in, there will be some magic there, because there always has been.

--Cael on the outlook after last year for this year.

 

[GregPickel]

Cael on going to Florida and if PSU and Iowa can meet up in that event: I don't think so. The criteria was, the point isn't to wrestle your conference meet prior to your conference meet. It was to setup some marquee dual meets with non-traditional opponents and to have a great event and see how it goes. I don't think we're wresting anyone in our conference. I think the first criteria was they're going to separate teams in the same conference, and if you're wrestling a team at any other time, they're going to separate them. So, you have pods or pools, and then the winners are going to wrestle. I think we're looking at three matches. We're going to have good matches. It's going to be fun. We're excited about it.

 

[GregPickel]

That's it from Cael.

Moving on to Brooks and Starocci next.

 

[GregPickel]

Aaron Brooks going first. Question is tied to David Taylor's training partner at Olympics

"This summer was a blessing being able to travel with David and being at the Olympic games. That's somewhere I envision myself, so to see how the training works and going to Toyko was a great blessing for me, and I got a lot better at wrestling. It was a good summer."