Staying or moving on, across college wrestling, 2023
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
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Just like we all expected, right? Right? Lol. Had two stories written, and felt pretty confident about which one I would be publishing. It wasn't this one:
Penn State wrestling makes another MAJOR transfer portal addition before 2023 season
Penn State wrestling made a major splash in the NCAA transfer portal on Tuesday when it landed All-American Aaron Nagao.
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Penn State wrestling makes another MAJOR transfer portal addition before 2023 season
Penn State wrestling made a major splash in the NCAA transfer portal on Tuesday when it landed All-American Aaron Nagao.
Highlights from Baschmania interview. Promise I'll get around to transcribing it and Mesenbrink if we ever get a breaking from wrestling and football commits WHILE prepping for the NFL Draft.Just like we all expected, right? Right? Lol. Had two stories written, and felt pretty confident about which one I would be publishing. It wasn't this one:
Penn State wrestling makes another MAJOR transfer portal addition before 2023 season
Penn State wrestling made a major splash in the NCAA transfer portal on Tuesday when it landed All-American Aaron Nagao.
--Felt PSU was best place for him to serve God and be as a person and wrestler.
--NIL was seemingly not as much of a factor as we were led to believe.
--Will compete at 133 as expected.
--One week left at Minny then will be working on getting to State College. Offseason focus from there will be on folkstyle not freestyle.
Not always about the money. Pretty sure every wrestler on the team could get more money elsewhere but yet they stay, even the back ups and room guys. As long as Cael remains the coach, it will always be about the culture and not the money.
I'll strand by my statement that Iowa has a good lower weight story to tell. We can agree to disagree if you don't feel that way.
But the real key is that PSU ended up being the choice, so we we are both quite happy!
I don't normally go on the Iowa wrestling board, but I just had to. Man, there is a reason they call it the cesspool.
Actually, I thought the Nagao thread was pretty tame for their standards. They seem very disheartened and resigned to the fact that the gap is widening and currently they can’t do much about it. On the other hand, I felt like taking a shower after reading the Truax thread over there.
I agree. Iowa DOES have a very good lower weight story to tell. It's just no longer better than ours. Cael/team has/have made up the difference. And we have AA's at 133 & 141 for next season.
If Robbie Howard's should is finally OK, there will be serious competition at 125 next season. Steen had better develop some man strength this off season. At the very least, the last 125 standing among Howard, Steen & Betancourt (assuming he's here) should be very, very solid next season...no pushovers anywhere in the line-up.
Like Steen. But don't see him challenging Howard or Betancourt
Betancourt is back in the portal, per Mineo. Trying to confirm that.
Mineo tweeted about it roughly an hour ago. Waiting to hear back from someone to confirm.
Don’t overlook the possibility of true freshman Braedan Davis winning the spot at 125 next year
Would have to be the case. I don’t see Betancourt beating out a fully healthy Howard, so understand not wanting to stay. Also adding the transfers I’m once again less concerned at being empty at 125 if Howard does get hurt again.
This was my point. Iowa does have a good lower weight story to tell. It's just not as compelling as it once was.
Agreed on Howard.
Disagree on Betancourt. Nothing against him, but there's zero evidence at any point in their careers of him being a better prospect.
A lot of people seem to think Betancourt is a slam dunk over Steen, and Backup QB Syndrome is the only plausible explanation.
Not happening if Howard is healthy.
The only shock is that it took OU wrestlers this long to portal.
In addition to Duckworth's tweet, they've retracted multiple offers to Nickerson. They're making Heather Lyke's search at Pitt look competent by comparison. (Though it appears Koll may have played OU to leverage Stanford for more scholarships.)
So, what’s the issue? On the surface, it would seem like a job Maple would want, no?
Mineo tweeted this out earlier this evening. I've never seen what the portal looks like, so I'm not sure if this is a picture of it, or something else:
I feel bad for the OU wrestlers. They probably felt that their administration would quickly get a good coach, and as long as there wasn't a real conflict with that coach, it was probably easiest to stay at OU. If you look at Flo's list of wrestlers in the portal, the overwhelming majority of them have not yet found a new home.
Koll did use the courtship to his advantage at Stanford.
I have no connections to OU wrestling, so can only pass along what I've read or seen tweeted. There's been some wonder as to why OU hasn't offered Mark Perry. And there's also been some indications that after all of the interviews, OU might just elevate Nick Heflin to head coach.
Mark Perry has become the midwest version of John Hughes -- by law, his name must be mentioned with every job opening.
At this point it's hard to imagine any experienced head coach taking that job. The boosters want Barry Switzer blowing out Kansas 68-7 every year, or else fire everybody. Win the conference? Not good enough.
Would not conclude that at all.
First, Betancourt has already "portalled" twice; this is now his third time. So he seems to be something of a nomad.
Second, it's unclear whether Betancourt would be much of an upgrade over Steen. Recall that Betancourt spent the 2021-22 season at Ohio State at 133 pounds and apparently couldn't beat out Dylan Koontz.
Third, serious shoulder injuries such as Howard has suffered appear prone to re-injury when subjected to the rigors of wrestling. That's just my non-professional observation.
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