Anthony Cassar was often asked why he didn’t transfer from PSU when he didn’t beat Shak out for the spot. He said if he can’t win a spot in the room, how could he win a national title? He believed staying was his best path towards a title. Beau Bartlett may redshirt, may start or may transfer if Woods transfers in. If his goal is to start right away, he would probably transfer. If his goal is to be an eventual national champ, stats support staying at PSU, putting in the work and earning it there.
Real Woods in the portal? Mineo inkling Penn State
- Thread starter fleming24
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The hvy playing college football who's brother lives in state college?
The 197 who hasn't entered the portal yet?
I get what your saying, I do, but there is more to it than wrestling.
Would Carl have done that? I think not! Tom and Terry's overriding concern is to develop the recruit into not only a great wrestler, but just as important, a great person.
Interesting way of putting it, though I think there is a distinction to be made.
You laughing:
PSU fan base laughing:
Your not-so-novel “Recruits will take notice of Carl’s disloyalty and stop going to PSU” idea has been a talking point here for a while. It is aging about as well as “PSU will fall back to the pack once Taylor and Ruth graduate.”
So yeah, you should probably be laughing. It is funny stuff. 🤣
Anthony Cassar, !?!?!? LOL, you mean the under weight 197 who got some extra years, went on the Sh*t and moved to heavy? That is hilarious!!!
lets break this down. From a F*** st bandwagon fan. "well you see Anthony Cassar said " if I can't win the spot......" UH what!?!?!?, I'll just move up, yea yea thats the ticket! I mean you stay to win the spot, but that doesn't mean Win the spot at my weight that means I miraculously gain 50 pounds in half a year after coming off of shoulder surgery no less.
this is great stuff. TY
Yeah, Cassar the tiny 197 weakling that was on the Junior US team at 96kg (211lbs) in 2015, four years before his title run where he weighed 228.
Low AA's score low points. The goal of the team is winning it all and not putting a smiley face on a few people. The "loyalty matters" line has not hindered PSU's recruiting. The wrestlers know it is a meat grinder and still know that they will have the chance to win the spot. That is all any wrestler could ask for. The coaches still need to pour their hearts out trying to peak develop every team member. Loyalty is with the training and equal opportunity. Iowa needs to wake up.
For the record, I am not sure where I stand on the whole transfer / over recruiting thing. To me it partially sounds like 'you get what you earn', and as long as nobody is pulling schollys for not performing, i doubt anyone was guaranteed a starting spot.
At the same time, Cassar should have realized that if he was the second best guy at that weight not only in the room, but maybe in the nation, he wouldn't even get the chance to prove it. If upsets didn't happen, we'd never watch sports.
I also don't mean to fault him for his loyalty.
Hypothetical to Iowa - if Steveson decided he wanted a change of scenery for his last year and fulfill his destiny to wrestle for the Hawks, would we (fans) say no? Would TnT? I have yet to hear of a single person who doesn't love Cass, and I don't think we'd want to lose him. And taking GS would feel dirty, and would be about the same upgrade points wise PSU got with Dean (though Cass should be a contender next year, assuming GS moves on)
Someone forgot to tell KemDawg that older guys with shoulder injuries can’t move up a weight class (or two).
I need more BWI-HR feuds. All summer long. This is the pure gold i never knew i needed.
proceed.
proceed.
Nope. It was when Kemerer came aboard that we found out PA had high school wrestling.
This story isn't unique to Penn State I assure you.
Might wanna check those numbers and take a look at some pictures and get back to us!
No it’s not. Most athletes choose to stay at a school and try to earn a spot. Most DI athletes also expect to have to earn a spot every season.
That's because there haven't been any BWI-HR "fueds" in the summertime for a couple years. Mostly crickets from the BWI crew. Weird.
This is Anthony Cassar in 2015. He added 9% to his weight as an NCAA champ.
This is Spencer Lee in 2015. He added 14% to his weight as an NCAA Champ. What is he on?
Your argument is laughable.
That was all true three years back. But with transfer portal open, there is less risk of sitting behind a stud brought in to trade up.
And I’m pretty sure that can be addressed while recruiting kids.
“Our goal is to win national championship. We will continually strive to be the best team on the mat.” Period.
Give ten to twelve scholarships and convince the rest to walk on a championship caliber team.
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kind of funny that people are making the perry commitment a big deal. not to say he's not a hammer. he is. but there was zero chance he was going anywhere else. he's from right outside town, trains at M2, and i think his mom works for PSU. no brainer.
The roaches were always here (you'd see them liking anything blowing Carl). Once they win they come crawling back out commenting on everything.
My 2 cents. I wouldn't support/respect either extreme - always recruit over (only thing that matters in college is winning) vs never recruit over (only thing that matters is having my guys like me). In the middle, there are 2 interacting things that would influence me the most: 1) the ranking difference between current and transfer option, 2) how much time either guy had left. At the end of the day, I'd want to win and be respected by my wrestlers and their families. But always hard choices to make, for sure.
So to the Cass-Steveson hypothetical, no I would not bring Steveson in just for next year (if he were coming back). A year ago, maybe. 2 years ago, for sure (or if he wanted to come to the HWC now!).
Correct. He is eligible for a 75% tuition discount plus any need based aid. And his verbal commitment is no big deal except to him and his family which they are entitled to.
no, not really. a kid is welcome to verbal whenever they want. we've actually seen this scenario play out multiple times with psu. a kid verbals early and then when recruiting actually starts, cael doesn't want them very badly in the end and they go elsewhere (haines, wittlake, busiello). don't think that happens this time with perry basically already a part of the program, but we'll see.
I don't think not matters if they knock an AA out or not. The portal is what it is and the coaches all over have shown that they will take a better quality guy from the portal if they can. You had a 5th year senior (Happel) at 141 pounds who beat a top 16 guy in a dual meet. It was his year to finally start and along came Eireman. I think that is the same as guy who is an AA and gets replaced. The kid spent 4 years training to get a chance to be the "man" and along comes a transfer.
I am not a fan of the portal - in case you couldn't tell.
You could say someone like Happel trained four years for a chance or you could look at it like he had a chance for four years to prove he could man that weight.
I don’t know if he actually turns these guys away, but when the schollie offers come out ~ July 1 or whenever guys get to see what their options truly are.
Iowa fans that are taking the moral high ground on transfers and recruiting over guys are full of $hit. Not one of us cared that we brought in Lugo/Eierman over Happel.
The fact is, we wish we were getting all of the recruits and transfer, and frankly, there Iowa has done pretty well in recent years.
If your #1 goal is to win at all costs, you welcome the best guy into the room regardless of who you are recruiting over.
If being loyal to your guys, creating great young men etc. are the #1 goal, you need to start being happy with top 5 finishes in March. You aren't winning titles with guys that develop into mid AA's as upper classmen.
The fact is, we wish we were getting all of the recruits and transfer, and frankly, there Iowa has done pretty well in recent years.
If your #1 goal is to win at all costs, you welcome the best guy into the room regardless of who you are recruiting over.
If being loyal to your guys, creating great young men etc. are the #1 goal, you need to start being happy with top 5 finishes in March. You aren't winning titles with guys that develop into mid AA's as upper classmen.
Maybe Real Woods can go to PSU and BB or SVN transfer to Iowa and we'll use our superior coaching to develop them to beat Real Woods! Similar to Teske knocking out Hildebrandt, what a sweet feeling that was.
Actually this is a good hypothetical, if Gable Steveson was Coming back for another year and said he is going to either Penn State or Iowa, what would happen.
Would Carl say yes and bring him in to the Penn State team over the top of Kirk? Would TNT say yes and bring him in over the top of Tony?
We all know the answers.
Would Carl say yes and bring him in to the Penn State team over the top of Kirk? Would TNT say yes and bring him in over the top of Tony?
We all know the answers.
What's Lee on? He's on the best lightweight room team in the world. Except for that ADS thing. Oh, and that Eierman thing.
I post this from time to time as a reminder of particular POV, and that is that the top programs are essentially the sellers of coaching services while those below them tend to be buyers of wrestlers’ services. Where that line gets drawn - well there’s probably evidence in the stockpiling of talent. There is no shortage of kids whose families put out a lot of $$ over the years to get the best training for them. College is just an extension of that so they are willing to take less (pay more) to get in the room at the top places. They have also been known to take less for (1) the prestige of being part of a top team (champs) and (2) to facilitate the presence of higher-end training partners for their own kids by freeing up some $$ for others. NIL in theory means $$ in your pocket may not need to come at the expense of others. Everybody’s different on what drives them.
