I know many online and around are blaming Brands for recruiting, but what are they supposed to do with a full drop off with the in-state recruiting. Outside of Ayala and Keuter, this state's well is dry. PSU starts 5 guys from Pennsylvania, with a 6th from about 2 hours away in Blair. They pulled in 3 more top 7 recruits from Pennsylvania in this years class as well. Not trying to take anything away from Carl, but their state is feeding that program, and it's not going anywhere.
In State Recruiting
- Thread starter relishingwinning18
- Start date
I was just thinking about that myself. Other than Ross are there any big time recruits in state that are must haves? And unfortunately Ross may not even wrestle. Let’s go get the Mocco’s in a package deal!!!!🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Just a few years ago people were talking about how Iowa HS wrestling was in a renaissance. However, aside from a couple guys, they just weren't elite prospects.
Those individual and team titles for Team Iowa were a nice accomplishment but they just weren't great college prospects.
I know it's a tough battle to get elite national guys but we cannot compete with Carl, and probably DT, with a bunch of above average Iowa prospects.
However, since we can't get enough of the national recruits, we have to rely on the transfer route... until NIL changes.
Luckily there are a lot of other states to recruit in. Iowa hasn't had the talent to carry a top program for a very long time.
Exactly, I think we all just have to accept the fact that our best recruiting is gonna have to be the transfer portal going forward. Grab one or two highschool top recruits and transfers.
The transfer portal is an unsustainable and lazy plan for becoming the best. Top end recruiting has to happen. The portal should be for fixing unforseen problems or icing on the cake, not your main plan.
Iowa does not have to rely on in-state talent. never has.
Top level recruits want a fully funded and stocked RTC when looking at the best opportunity to reach long term goals (post college). TNT up until this point have not seen the value of bringing in outside staff to the HWC and make it attractive.
Look around the college landscape, it’s not lazy. It’s the new norm. It doesn’t have to be your main plan, you get two big time recruits every year that are gonna be top five, and like you said, you finish up every year with a couple seniors that want to transfer in to go to battle as a top 2 to 3 team. I think Iowas currently doing that with Deluca and Luddington, and has with Ferrari, Keuter, Arnold, etc, but it has to get even better.
You don’t have to, but it makes things a hell of a lot easier.
Of course it’s a major factor. It’s not disqualifying, but come on, it’s definitely a significant advantage to have proximity to talent.
It's lazy the way Iowa has used it because they were stuck with it due to bad recruiting. You are rolling the dice hoping a guy will be available to plug a hole and you actually land them plus it's often a short term solution if you get it. Look at the gaping holes that will be opening up the next two years with no legit contenders in the fold to fill them. The Brands have gotten slightly more active in up front recruiting the past year. Hopefully they continue and increase in that area.
I will acknowledge that a benefit of bringing in occasional portal guys is it can bring some fresh techniques to the room. Also it can more quickly stock the HWC if Brands can take advantage of that.
Smalls is talking out of his ass on this one. Gable teams were heavy Iowa kids.
Just generally speaking here - I get that Penn State lands a lot of the #1 ranked kids out of High School and I also get that there are other good programs out there besides Iowa but what frustrates me is when you see the #2 - #10 ranked kids going to schools like Brown, Virginia, Drexel, Lehigh or Cal-State Bakersfield while Iowa pulls in the #15 ranked kid in a particular weight class... With that being said Iowa has done a lot better the past couple of years landing some #1 - #10 ranked kids.. I just hope they keep that up...
And with college wrestling currently mirroring the 80’s and 90’s, you have a solid point.
Look at what Smalls wrote. "Never has". You almost have a solid point.
In Iowa's run of national championships starting in 1974, Iowa had 73 Individual champions, 37 of those came from our state. You are an idiot.
But to be fair, that means that 36 (roughly 50%) came from other states. Winning requires getting the best regardless or where they were born and raised.
Think about that. 50% percent were instate. That is actually an insane number.
I know who he is, but I have no idea how old he is.
There is nothing people like to do on these boards more than speak in absolutes.
Yes, there was a time you could have a lineup that was 50% or better Iowa kids, for example... (fill out the lists if you want, as I'm sure to miss some)
Iowa x2 champs
Davis
Zalesky
Alger
Brands
Brands
Ironside
McGinness
Juergens
McDonough
Out of state x2 champs
Lewis
Banach
Banach
Mac
Williams
Williams
Perry
Lee
Metcalf
Gable found and developed in-state guys, while also battling isu and uni, who were also loaded with in-state guys... that was 30-50 years ago.
While there are still some talented guys in-state, you'll likely never see in-state success like that again.
We need to bring in the very elite Iowa kids, and then surround them with elite regional and national guys, then develop the heck out of them. We cannot bring in top 50 talent and get low AA results while the competition is bringing in top 10 guys who get top 4 results.
Thought this was an interesting stat; Checked PSU under Cael for comparison.
I count 38 championships, by 19 wrestlers, at PSU under Cael. 19 of those championships (50%) were from 8 wrestlers that wrestled for PA high schools. Another 8 championships were won by 4 wrestlers from a state bordering PA.
What did he write that was incorrect? When have we been FORCED to rely solely on instate talent?
Crazy. It seems every year I check back on highschool kids, there are more and more top ten PA kids. If Iowa even wants to stay close, they are gonna have to find a pipeline out there.
Iowa won the title in 2021 and 9 of 10 starters (Nelson Brands) were not from Iowa.
Iowa is a national brand that can/has/should have a roster with kids from coast to coast.
A lot gets made of PSU being in talent-rich PA, but when's the last time their starting lineup was anything close to 50% PA natives? (it's currently 3 of 10)
There was a period where Iowa had 5 PA starters at the same time (Lee, ADS, Murin, Young, Kem).
I understand that the more blue chippers the state of Iowa produces, the better for the Hawkeyes. but iowa hasn't been 'reliant' on in-state talent, and shouldn't. i don't think most power programs should.
Iowa is a national brand that can/has/should have a roster with kids from coast to coast.
A lot gets made of PSU being in talent-rich PA, but when's the last time their starting lineup was anything close to 50% PA natives? (it's currently 3 of 10)
There was a period where Iowa had 5 PA starters at the same time (Lee, ADS, Murin, Young, Kem).
I understand that the more blue chippers the state of Iowa produces, the better for the Hawkeyes. but iowa hasn't been 'reliant' on in-state talent, and shouldn't. i don't think most power programs should.
That’s only true if you exclude guys that spent 3 (Lilledahl) and 4 (Bartlett) years wrestling at a PA high school.
Yes, we won the title with half our lineup filled with guys from PENNSYLVANIA, which is my whole point. It was our only title in the last 15 years, not coincidental. Borschel and Mcdonough both won titles in 2010, our previous championship, and the last champion we had from the state is Mcdonough in 2012.
While we currently can't rely on in-state champions because our state isn't producing any, it doesn't change the fact that we once DID rely to win championships because of those guys from our state.
Cory Clark, DSJ both since McD
That era is over. While they certainly had Iowa kids, many of their stars were not. That list is long.
Jesus. I’m not saying I’m always right. I’m definitely not. But this is a huge whiff.
We don’t have to recruit Iowa to win. We just have to not do stupid shit like failing to recruit Austin O’Connor and not incite a rivalry with the best club in the region. Both in connecting states.
And his quote is pretty accurate - they never have had to rely on instate talent.
So that means 11 of those 38 came from somewhere else? Why didn't we get them to come to Iowa. We need to be better about recruiting, even in PA, even if we have to send Spencer and ADS house to house. Seriously though, look at the schools who have had more individual national champions than Iowa over the past 10 or so years. Though PSU seems to average 5 each year, we still get beat handily by a few other schools.
In today’s world it’s hard to develop guys like Gable did. It’s about getting as many of the best you can and growing them from there. You might have 1-2 guys you might be able to develop but you have to have 70% of the team to be top tier recruits if you want to compete with PSU or soon to be OSU. Who was the last guy that PSU “developed”
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