Iowa recruiting thread.
- Thread starter MVPFAN
- Start date
id be on this one. has a younger brother too but i’m not sure how good. would be an upgrade over rathjen at 149.
I agree - drake is solid but I was shocked at his still seemingly lack of horsepower. Hoping that adjustment gets made this off-season.
Iowa recruiting history from 2007-2008 season until now.
2007/2008- Had 12 true freshman arrive. None were top national pfp guys. Montell Marion became a high end wrestler and Blake Raising was a decent heavyweight considering the level of recruit he was.
2008/2009- 6 freshman arrived. Nate Moore and Grant Gambrall were considered high end recruits Matt Mcd more of a mid tier. All 3 in state. Moore fizzled after injury issues. Gambrall was up and down, didn't live up to his highschool ranking. Mcd ended up being the star.
2009/2010- 9 freshman. Carew, Ramos, DSJ, and Ethan Lofthouse were all considered high end. Two in state, a legacy in Lofthouse and Ramos who I believe we had a connection to one of his coaches. Carew fizzled after injury, Lofthouse (classic grinder) underachieved, DSJ and Ramos had great careers.
2010/2011- 11 freshman. Dziewa, Mike Evans, Nick Moore and Telford were the guys of note. All were fairly high end guys. Dziewa was never AA, Moore had injury issues and didn't pan out well, Evans was a multiple AA but didn't live up to the hype. Telford 3x AA probably didn't live up to expectations either.
2011/2012- 6 freshman. Nobody even close to a blue chip. Nobody did anything except Grothus who won a title for longest thread.
2012/2013- 9 freshman. Clark, Gilman and Brooks were high and Burak, Carton and Meyer were mid tier. Probably one of the better classes for overall productivity.
2013/2014- 10 freshman. Sorenson exceeded expectations but was only AA in the class. Broc Berge and Jake Marlin were notable busts.
2014/2015- 5 freshman. Sam Stoll was only blue chip and only AA. Had good career but hampered by injury.
2015/2016- 13 freshman. Kem Dawg the only blue chip and only AA.
2016/2017- 10 freshman. Bull and Happel were high end. Bull under achieved. Happel mostly a backup. Kaleb Young was multiple AA as a mid tier recruit.
2017/2018- 8 freshman. Spencer and Warner were 4 time AAs on the mat as blue chip recruits. Murin a 1 time AA as a mid tier.
2018/2019- 5 freshman. Cass was high end and living up to expectations so far. Brands had an AA as a low tier recruit.
2019/2020- Assad was higher end, no AA so far by him or the class.
2020/2021- 9 freshman. PK and Ybarra were high end. Only PK starts. No AA in the class so far.
2021/2022- 6 freshman. Drake and Henson were high end. Henson gone. Rathjen mid tier.
2022/2023- 14 freshman. Zero high end recruits. Franklin and Riggins mid tier.
Looking back through the years our recruiting has been generally poor and garbage compared to PSU.
2007/2008- Had 12 true freshman arrive. None were top national pfp guys. Montell Marion became a high end wrestler and Blake Raising was a decent heavyweight considering the level of recruit he was.
2008/2009- 6 freshman arrived. Nate Moore and Grant Gambrall were considered high end recruits Matt Mcd more of a mid tier. All 3 in state. Moore fizzled after injury issues. Gambrall was up and down, didn't live up to his highschool ranking. Mcd ended up being the star.
2009/2010- 9 freshman. Carew, Ramos, DSJ, and Ethan Lofthouse were all considered high end. Two in state, a legacy in Lofthouse and Ramos who I believe we had a connection to one of his coaches. Carew fizzled after injury, Lofthouse (classic grinder) underachieved, DSJ and Ramos had great careers.
2010/2011- 11 freshman. Dziewa, Mike Evans, Nick Moore and Telford were the guys of note. All were fairly high end guys. Dziewa was never AA, Moore had injury issues and didn't pan out well, Evans was a multiple AA but didn't live up to the hype. Telford 3x AA probably didn't live up to expectations either.
2011/2012- 6 freshman. Nobody even close to a blue chip. Nobody did anything except Grothus who won a title for longest thread.
2012/2013- 9 freshman. Clark, Gilman and Brooks were high and Burak, Carton and Meyer were mid tier. Probably one of the better classes for overall productivity.
2013/2014- 10 freshman. Sorenson exceeded expectations but was only AA in the class. Broc Berge and Jake Marlin were notable busts.
2014/2015- 5 freshman. Sam Stoll was only blue chip and only AA. Had good career but hampered by injury.
2015/2016- 13 freshman. Kem Dawg the only blue chip and only AA.
2016/2017- 10 freshman. Bull and Happel were high end. Bull under achieved. Happel mostly a backup. Kaleb Young was multiple AA as a mid tier recruit.
2017/2018- 8 freshman. Spencer and Warner were 4 time AAs on the mat as blue chip recruits. Murin a 1 time AA as a mid tier.
2018/2019- 5 freshman. Cass was high end and living up to expectations so far. Brands had an AA as a low tier recruit.
2019/2020- Assad was higher end, no AA so far by him or the class.
2020/2021- 9 freshman. PK and Ybarra were high end. Only PK starts. No AA in the class so far.
2021/2022- 6 freshman. Drake and Henson were high end. Henson gone. Rathjen mid tier.
2022/2023- 14 freshman. Zero high end recruits. Franklin and Riggins mid tier.
Looking back through the years our recruiting has been generally poor and garbage compared to PSU.
We don't do a good job of stacking talent. It took the talent from 2015-2018 together to win a title, and no surprise that's our best "cluster" of stacking talent in the entire timeframe. The 2012 class was great, but we failed to stack the talent in subsequent or prior classes to make a difference. It might have made a difference if the 2010 class didn't greatly underperform, probably would have won in 2015 if that was the case. 2023 is a good start, we need Angelo in 2024, then we HAVE to ball out in 2025 to have the necessary talent cluster to compete.
We are frankly fortunate to have done as well as we have because there are a lot of poor recruiting classes there.
Transfers filled a lot of gaps for you guys over the past few years. Certainly nothing wrong with that but it is less predicable and leaves the team more vulnerable to down years.
This year shows exactly why depending on the transfer market to make up for piss poor recruiting is a bad strategy. If the guys you need are not available or you don't get them you are screwed. Lugo was a solid pick up. Had not been AA yet but had potential. Jumped levels after getting here but was then out of eligibility which minimized the benefit. ADS was all Spencer saving their bacon. Eierman was a gift of luck that landed in their lap. Woods had his degree and always wanted to wrestle at Iowa plus I'm sure made some money.
I think I read Eireman was an Iowa fan as a kid, when the opportunity arose he recruited himself..
when put out like that for the average person to see and understand it makes it much easier to see the situation. We need to improve on our recruiting and start some serious inroads to younger kids through more camps in area we usually dont have camps...California and deep south . Just an opinion and of course now we open this thread up for some serious P@#$ sTa63 ASSWIPE CHATTER
Can you do a similar one that documents HWC resident athletes over the same years, including non-Iowa recruits into the HWC and whether they were considered 'freestyle blue chip' after finishing their NCAA careers, in further consideration of any freestyle success to date?
I think that's another chapter in the story that shouldn't be forgotten when trying to recruit elite HS wrestlers.
I said awhile back how piss poor of a recruiter M* was and got jumped by a handful of posters about how great he is at his job cause he’s so personable and connects with all the recruits we’ve gotten. I’m not sure if they realize it but that’s the main job and trait of a recruiter. Hell the local ice cream truck driver has those same qualities, my kids love him; doesn’t mean he would make a good wrestling recruiter. We’re failing hard in this category and a change has got to be made. It’s sad listening to stories of whiffing on guys like O’Conner because we simply didn’t recruit them.
We recruited Aaron Brooks. The lie that we didn’t was started by his father to rile up Iowa fans.
Here is a class of 25 kid we need to be looking at. Tyler Eise from Ponderosa CO, currently ranked 7 at 170 as a sophomore, #18 on 2025 big board at Flo. Breezed to state title, strong and athletic. Here is a non paywall video of him losing a competitive match to a top senior blue chip Rocco Welch.
Spencer Lee having injury issues since highschool has nothing to do with recruiting. Of course as a non Iowa fan you didn't want to pass on an opportunity to get a shot in.
I find it funny that the fan base that still cries about Iowa fans booing their football team's "injuries" is relentless at kicking Spencer when he's down. Not just Scrud's comment but they're laughing it up in other places. I'm starting to think PSU fans might be hypocrites. Hard to believe, I know
Oh idk you could check twitter or the penn state board and find them I'm sure. Ah the sensitive comment, aaaand ignored.
You want to really see how bad it is? Now do the same with F*** st! Like you said, it is amazing we were able to do much of anything let alone win a few years and take second many others.
Maybe our coaches aren’t as bad as many think? We should switch rosters with PSU, keeps same coaches and see what happens to see if Cael and staff are the miracle workers PSU fans say they are? Not saying they are bad coaches, just saying talent is the number one factor in winning.
Not sure anyone on the internet would dispute this point. It’s simply true.
Ok . . . now define “many”.
I’ll give you a hint — it is a whole number between 1 and 3.
Unless, by “we”, you meant Ohio State, in which case the number is 5.
I try my best, man, but sometimes I’m weak and feeble. We’re just trying to play a game here.
But for you, anything. 😉
I’ll try better*
*I may slip up from time to time.
First off do you realize without Ryan all the recruits we would have never gotten. Let’s try to remember how Carl did at isu before he got to p$u. It started with money for him over there and now it’s culture. Not saying he can’t coach all these guys know how to coach(maybe not Manning) and recruit. Problem is now psu has the culture of winning and it’s going to be extremely difficult to out recruit that no matter who you are.
There he is, I was waiting for one of the usual suspects to come along as always and promote M*'. Iowa recruits itself. Not 1 of those wrestlers came here to wrestle for M*, not 1. Put Matt McD, Metcalf, Tony Ramos, the list goes on, in his place with better results. And the fact of the matter is that they ALL would be far better for our guys to roll with because they are FAR more talented than M*. They all wrestled Iowa style while M* wrestled, well, just like the guys he coaches.
I have no idea what recruits we may not have gotten without M* just like you can’t tell me the ones we may have got with a different person in that role. Do you truly believe he is the best person we can hire for that role?
It doesn't seem like TNT enjoy putting a lot of effort into recruiting so saying Ryan is the reason for many of the recruits might very well be factual. But that would also make him responsible for all the mediocre to poor recruiting classes we have had and the low number of blue chips we have gotten. David Taylor was coming to ISU because of Carl, Matt Brown was recruited to ISU. Carl was going to get stud recruits at ISU as well. He didn't have the resources to put things together as quickly as at PSU but ISU would be in the mix to win every year right now if he stayed there. Carl is gonna dominate Ryan in recruiting money or no money just because of who he is.
