Here's the breakdown of Penn State's Lineup last night:
125: Utah would be NJ with Suriano
133: Pennsylvania - sucks
141: Indiana
149: Pennsylvania
157: Colorado, but Pennsylvania with Nolf
165: Pennsylvania
174: Minnesota/Michigan/whatever
184: Texas
197: New York Rasheed/ New Jersery Cassar
HWT: California
Ohio State
125: Ohio
133: Pennsylvania
141: New Jersey
149: Missouri
157: Ohio
165: Pennsylvania
174: Ohio
184: New Jersey
197: Ohio
Hwt: Maryland
Iowa:
125: Pennsylvania
133: Iowa
141: Iowa/Illinois
149: Iowa
157: Pennsylvania
165: Ohio
174: Illinois/Pennsylvania
184: Iowa
197: Iowa
Hwt: Minnesota
Both Penn State and Ohio State only have 40% of their "big population" state represented in their lineup. The fact of the matter is that both Cael and Ryan are kicking Brands' butt in the recruiting game and it only isn't about what state they reside in. When half your lineup is made up of Iowa men, and only one of them is going to be an AA, that is the problem. Maybe the coaches of Iowa/ISU/UNI should have identified this earlier and spent time coming up with a plan to bring Iowa based wrestling back up to par. I think we're starting to see that with SWIFT, SEBOLT, DC ELITE, etc, but those kids are still a few years away.
I'm still troubled by the "fit" comment used by Brooks' dad? He mentioned east coast blah blah blah. Penn State is not an east coast school even though it might be on the eastern side of the country. I don't see anything culturally different between the 3 schools where any top kid would feel more comfortably at one school over the other other than the vibe in the room. Personally I think Brooks' dad was being diplomatic with his answer. This is why I always thought it was important for Ramos to be around the program.
Fact of the matter is that Iowa HS wrestling needs to get better. Brands appears to be doing a much better job getting elite out of state recruits (Lee, Warner, Cassiopi, Marinelli, etc) but that has to backed by AA type talent from the home state. I think they know this which is why Eastern Iowa Wrestling Club was born and ran by McDonough and originally by Terry. Let's hope this turns around soon.
I get what you are saying. But if we are going to hang our hats on Iowa HS school wrestling being the "cog" in the machine that is keeping us from winning again, it may be a long wait. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it will take time for the in state wrestling clubs to turn over studs to the D1 ranks. And that is assuming that when they do, they all go to Iowa city rather than cedar falls and Ames
Look back on Gables hey day years. Sure there were Iowa wrestlers in the lineup, but they were a supplement(or at best equal) in many years to the out of state talent. Mcilravey, banachs, heffernans, Deanna, r Lewis, chipparelli, kistlers, the lost goes on.....
I've said this before, but we are just out populated. On any given year the talent in Iowa vs Ohio/penn is similar, just a lot less of it(I know that is a generalizing statement and it goes up and down) Ohio is almost 4x Iowa and Penn is 4x our population. So if Iowa will produce one kid a year that will end up a NCAA champ, Ohio and penn will produce four?? We can't win with those odds.
Now to your point about only 40% of their lineups are from in state kids---but more than 40% of there points are from in state kids, I think?
It's just too damn easy for PSU and fOSU to win, keeping those "in state points" in state.
Keep in mind, those out of state talents didn't just start coming to Iowa the day gable showed up. It took a few years.
Making in rows to Penn(via young guns) and hopefully more in Ohio(st Paris) is a great start, but we need more.
The fact is, it's not going to be easy, or cheap to both recruit and subsequently get these out of state studs to IC.