Roco Welsh
- Thread starter Redm18
- Start date
Not what college sports was originally designed to be.....
Penn State Wrestling Picks Up National Runner-Up Rocco Welsh In Transfer Portal
The best just got better.
onwardstate.com
So Barr is staying at 97.
Too bad for Mirasola, Ryder, Cunningham, and Cochran and Henckel. And now Levi will have to stop growing because he's stuck at 74.
With Ono, too bad for B. Davis, Nagao, Desmond (125 recruit), Dalton Perry (141 recruit), Jayden James (150 recruit) and Sam Herring (138 recruit). Ono/Blaze will hold down 133/141 (or 141/149) for a few years and Lilledahl will likely grow to 133.
And then Kasak, Sealey, Duke, Cunningham, Haines and Messenbrink can all fight over 157/165/174
When you have 10 AAs and then buy a national runner-up and Japanese world champ, the sport no longer becomes enjoyable for fans.
Coaching is somewhat irrelevant now, and so is nationals. When Ono or Welsh win it, can you say it wasn't expected or that PSU coaching gets credit. Not me.
Too bad for Mirasola, Ryder, Cunningham, and Cochran and Henckel. And now Levi will have to stop growing because he's stuck at 74.
With Ono, too bad for B. Davis, Nagao, Desmond (125 recruit), Dalton Perry (141 recruit), Jayden James (150 recruit) and Sam Herring (138 recruit). Ono/Blaze will hold down 133/141 (or 141/149) for a few years and Lilledahl will likely grow to 133.
And then Kasak, Sealey, Duke, Cunningham, Haines and Messenbrink can all fight over 157/165/174
When you have 10 AAs and then buy a national runner-up and Japanese world champ, the sport no longer becomes enjoyable for fans.
Coaching is somewhat irrelevant now, and so is nationals. When Ono or Welsh win it, can you say it wasn't expected or that PSU coaching gets credit. Not me.
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Let me guess, you’re a penn state fan???? A whole lot going on there and that’s what stuck out to you?? Weak
Nope, just "Carl doesn't really need to coach".
I’m guessing there was no contact (tampering) until he hit the portal this week.
Im probably wrong but with Carls track record of over recruiting and getting about any high schooler he wants I don’t think Rocco lasts long in that lineup. I realize he was a national finalist but he was a 6 seed in a bracket that had Cade Devos as the 2 seed. Rocco had 3 sudden victory wins to make the finals and his best win was probably against Ruth. I’m not convinced he can replicate another finals appearance and I think his decision backfires on him.
That cow has left the barn long , long ago and maybe it was never what we thought .Not what college sports was originally designed to be.....
Penn State Wrestling Picks Up National Runner-Up Rocco Welsh In Transfer Portal
The best just got better.onwardstate.com
This is a new world with the transfer portal and I don’t think it’s going to work as some think.
By all accounts, PSU did not recruit Rocco. He is going there on his own and has recent links to Bo Nickal and his MMA training center.
I’d like to say it’s like the Wild West but I think it’s a lot about training. The AA, national champion and team titles are extremely important, but I believe these guys have many more opportunities and they used to have. The better training they get the more options they have for down the road after collegiate career.
MMA , podcasts, running a training center, acting etc. it’s wide open.
If by going on his own you mean psu is offering to pay to keep him from going to ok state than you'd be correct.
I will be honest. The portal is making me sour to college athletics. I am losing interest by the day.
I agree...It is like watching the New York Yankees spend hundred of millions on a team of superstar free agents and then watch the rest of the teams try to beat them and the fans have to sit back and hope they stumble ... sadly these small schools that are having their best wrestlers snatched up by the Big schools will eventually drop the sport .
sounds like the bidding is still going on despite Willie’s “done deal”. As a PSU fan, I’d rather not add another guy at those weights given the studs we have.
Wild, Wild West.
In the end, though, this is a killer for Tom Ryan. He royally effed this up
Got to point fingers where they belong. Portal has less to do with the athletes are more to do with the willingness of coaches to pay athletes.
The portal in and of itself is an amazing thing for athletes. and necessary. No way, with only 4 years of NCAA competition should a kid be held hostage by a coach that doesn't even want them.
i do think there should only be 1 free transfer (other than graduate). And i HATE that contact can be made prior to kids portaling. I don't understand it and that's bad for the sport.
He did. Then acted like a whiny baby (again) about how Welsh was never going anywhere. GTFOH. What an idiot.
oh. and there was real smoke on the McEnelly entering the portal.
le sigh.
le sigh.
Welsh vs Ryder is a tossup if they wrestled today. One of them will end up at Okie St.
Two grown men throwing other people’s money around to try and one up each other at all costs.
The general feeling on the PSU board right now is: "Why?".
If Welsh feels like it's in his best interest, I guess it makes sense, but the barn is already full. I really do feel that Tom Ryan is, for better or worse, going to come out of this looking very bad. Making Welsh take a RS in favor of Kharchla will go down as the worst coaching decision of 2025, IMO.
I very much doubt that Cael reached out. PSU has, at or around that weight next year: Levi Haines (SR, 174), Zack Ryder (RSFR, 174/184), Asher Cunningham (TFR, 174/184), Will Henckel (TFR, 174/184) and maybe Josh Barr if he decides to go down to 184.
If Welsh feels like it's in his best interest, I guess it makes sense, but the barn is already full. I really do feel that Tom Ryan is, for better or worse, going to come out of this looking very bad. Making Welsh take a RS in favor of Kharchla will go down as the worst coaching decision of 2025, IMO.
I very much doubt that Cael reached out. PSU has, at or around that weight next year: Levi Haines (SR, 174), Zack Ryder (RSFR, 174/184), Asher Cunningham (TFR, 174/184), Will Henckel (TFR, 174/184) and maybe Josh Barr if he decides to go down to 184.
The problem is the portal rules were NOT designed or implemented with the intent for MONEY to have ANY involvement whatsoever. I have no issue at all with guys having the ability to transfer without penalty. There are so many factors that would make that necessary. However, AGAIN, money should NOT be one of those factors...
So this is what, (at least) the second time Cael has paid guys to stay away from their preferred destination? In an era where slimy practices are common, Cael is still able to set the bar. Simply unreal.
NIL is totally related to the portal. If someone has the ability to make more at one location vs another, then obviously it leads right into the portal. The real money is in football. Not a lot of money changing hands in these wrestling portal decisions with a few exceptions of course.
Again, when the rules were changed surrounding the portal, money was ABSOLUTELY not allowed to have any part of it. The court case that came after obviously changed that, but the transfer portal was never intended to be used this way. Not even remotely close...
Bro, these kids are all high school level world champs. What is he coaching? Put them all in a room together and they will undeniably get better. You just heard Lilledahl explain how he learned to get out of Ono’s undertook…..from wrestling him every day. I could coach a team full of high school world champs to a national title. Nobody said he can’t coach but he is not the reason they are winning
Which is why we need an assistant coach from a non Iowa guy, so we can be in the running for these guys that leave Penn St. and it is not an automatic that they go to Ok. St.
He was a true freshman at 174. That's a damn impressive run and no reason to think he won't improve.
Over time, I am pretty sure that will lessen considerably. Right now, DT still has that connection to PSU guys. Give him a few years completely removed from the program, and that part will go away. Now, he may be doing so well by then that he will still be that big of a draw, but the reasons will definitely be different...
Neither of these guys are an upgrade over Angelo. You don’t win titles by taking cast offs of the team you are trying to catch. We need to recruit better, and selectively fill from the portal. This situation doesn’t really involve Iowa.
Carl absolutely reached out. He was a okiest transfer until this.
Same thing with James. Okiest/DT did the work to dislodge him from VT. Carl is deathly afraid of DT.
100% it’s impressive as a true freshman, he mostly definitely should improve as I would think he wasn’t maxed out; I’m mostly thinking he just falls into the whirlwind of top wrestlers there and there’s a good chance they end up with someone better.
Addition by subtraction. You're keeping a returning finalist from going to OSU for at least a year.
Why? He had one to give and Kharchla was in his final season. It made sense and is done all the time (especially by Cael).
I think he'd be better off at Okie than PSU. He's just another world teamer in Cael's stable, they're a dime a dozen in happy valley.
