Sam Cook from FD recently got offered a preferred walk on spot for Iowa football, strangely after Ohio State did the same. Cook has full rides to wrestle at Oklahoma and Stanford but has stated he wants to play D1 football. Hope he goes to Iowa and then if football doesn't work out, he can make his way over to the wrestling room and give us competition for the 197 spot.
Sam Cook
- Thread starter CP84
- Start date
If he has a full ride offer from Stanford he should take it.
I didn't miss it I said IF HE GETS A FULL RIDE FROM STANFORD HE SHOULD TAKE IT.
But if he doesn't want to wrestle he doesn't have a full ride. How difficult is that to comprehend?
Cook certainly isn't getting a full ride to play football at Stanford, hence he's walking on at Iowa. If he were my son and he was being offered a ride at Stanford for wrestling, I'd strongly encourage him to take it.
I have a degree from Iowa. My wife has one from Stanford. Even if you are getting no money and have a chance to go to Stanford where they only admit 1500 students a year you go and find a way to make it work financially.
Isn't the Stanford wrestling team only partially funded with 4-5 scholarships? That would be an interesting choice of scholarship distribution on their part if true
The Ohio State football preferred walk on comment raises an eyebrow as well. My guess is there's a little embellishment here. That said, sounds like he's a pretty talented kid with some nice options for his future.
It was in an article in the DM Register and I didn't believe it either. But he talked about being contacted on Twitter by them, and then getting a phone call from their RB coach, Tony Alford, who used to be an assistant at Iowa State. So it seems plausible, or else he flat made it up and lied about it to the Register.
Supposedly the OU wrestling scholly also comes with an opportunity to walk-on to the football team there as well. I don't think schools like Oklahoma and OSU treat football walk-ons as seriously as a school like Iowa might. You often see several players in the depth chart here who were once or are currently walk-ons. I seriously doubt that happens at the major football factories very often.
Still, it begs the question how a kid can get recruited walk-on spots from 3 of the Top 6 teams in the final Playoff rankings (before the bowls) and not manage to gather a single FBS scholarship offer in that sport. Strange.
Last edited:
FWIW, before Nebraska wrestling was viable, they once had 4 wrestling scholarship holders in their offensive line depths chart.
I thought it was a little strange too. The only thing I can think of is he doesn't appear to have the measurables (speed and agility) to be a D1 RB but it's hard to ignore his high school production. He had 1,838 yards on 9 yards per carry and 25 TDs. Those are some eye popping numbers but the fact he doesn't have elite speed might be enough to prevent D1 teams from investing in a scholarship.
I do not wish to call the kid a liar since I have no real reason to doubt him. I found the article you mention. Interesting stuff. Nothing in there about Stanford, though.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...picks-still-sorting-through-options/78835342/
Cook is a great wrestler and all, but I don't see him being able to beat Holloway even if he did decide to wrestle at Iowa.
"Full ride"
Where as most of us immediately think athletic scholly a lot of times that term is tied to more than athletic money. Whether its 100% athletic scholly or 20 different grants and academic schollies, it all nets out the same to the family. No outta pocket = "full ride"
Most of the kids on the Ivy teams are on full or close to full rides.
Where as most of us immediately think athletic scholly a lot of times that term is tied to more than athletic money. Whether its 100% athletic scholly or 20 different grants and academic schollies, it all nets out the same to the family. No outta pocket = "full ride"
Most of the kids on the Ivy teams are on full or close to full rides.
Their endowments are huge, so unless you're from a very well off family you get need based aid. Princeton for example gives need based aid to every student that is from a family earning less than $500,000 a year.
Maybe not but Cook is a top 20 wrestler at his weight, currently 14th per Flo. It doesn't hurt to have that kind of depth in the weight room and you never know how performance will be determined 2-3 years from now. Most would have never guessed Sorensen would be getting the better of Tshirt now if we based it on high school rankings.
Odds are against him being ever being in the wrestling room at Iowa. If he decides to go directly to the wrestling route and gives up on football, he'd likely take the Oklahoma offer or possibly the Stanford one if that's true, (I read in another article he was offered by them). If he takes the walk-on opportunity at least that doorway remains open.
Absolutely not legal under current NCAA rules, and I doubt it's been possible for the last few decades, at least.
Lots of myths and outright lies out there about Nebraska and football walk-ons over the years.
That explains why some of the top schools want him as a walk-on, but why wouldn't some MAC school take a chance on him?
It was completely legal for a good part of the 80s if not into the 90s. Still not all that long ago for many of us!
There is no full ride wrestling offer from Stanford - not sure where that came from. Stanford sent Sam recruiting information following his soph season but he wasn't interested.
Sam received a wrestling offer from Cal Poly and made an official visit. He likes Mike Evans and the school but the head coach pressured Sam for an answer before he was ready to make a decision - so he declined. Sam still stays in contact with Mike who's been very supportive....he's since been trying to convince Sam to attend Iowa.
Sam did in fact receive a preferred walk on offer from coach Alford and The Ohio State University football program which he is seriously considering - what HS football player wouldn't. Coach Meyer was a walk on at Cincinnati and hence makes sure the walk on players at OSU are treated well. Sam plans to visit the Buckeye campus again once wrestling season is over - he was on campus this past summer for the Nike invite-only combine in which he rated very well.
Sam also received preferred walk on offers from both Iowa and ISU football programs following the offer from the Buckeyes. The fact Iowa waited until after the offer from OSU didn't help their cause nor did the fact that they only matched the OSU offer. The Dallas Clark call was a good idea and the holiday card from the Rose Bowl was a nice touch but a scholarship offer would have been better. I doubt there's been another Iowa HS football player that received their first offer from The Ohio State University.
Sam has been in contact with coach Morningstar recently and was invited to the Indiana dual but unfortunately had a prior obligation. I think he plans to attend the BIG 10 tournament. Coach Paulson at ISU has also been in contact with Sam.
Coach Cody and the Sooners were the first to offer (something Sam hasn't forgotten) and came up big with a rare full ride wrestling offer. Coach Cody said he would support Sam IF he decided to try walking on the football team as well but Sam has NOT talked to coach Stoops - yet. Coach Cody made the trip to Fort Dodge for the SEP dual earlier this season.
Yes, Sam has many options which is both good and bad. Do I know which way he's leaning? It changes almost daily and it's very stressful on him. I do know it will be HIS decision and I know he'll give his all regardless of which path he takes and will make some program somewhere very happy.
Sam received a wrestling offer from Cal Poly and made an official visit. He likes Mike Evans and the school but the head coach pressured Sam for an answer before he was ready to make a decision - so he declined. Sam still stays in contact with Mike who's been very supportive....he's since been trying to convince Sam to attend Iowa.
Sam did in fact receive a preferred walk on offer from coach Alford and The Ohio State University football program which he is seriously considering - what HS football player wouldn't. Coach Meyer was a walk on at Cincinnati and hence makes sure the walk on players at OSU are treated well. Sam plans to visit the Buckeye campus again once wrestling season is over - he was on campus this past summer for the Nike invite-only combine in which he rated very well.
Sam also received preferred walk on offers from both Iowa and ISU football programs following the offer from the Buckeyes. The fact Iowa waited until after the offer from OSU didn't help their cause nor did the fact that they only matched the OSU offer. The Dallas Clark call was a good idea and the holiday card from the Rose Bowl was a nice touch but a scholarship offer would have been better. I doubt there's been another Iowa HS football player that received their first offer from The Ohio State University.
Sam has been in contact with coach Morningstar recently and was invited to the Indiana dual but unfortunately had a prior obligation. I think he plans to attend the BIG 10 tournament. Coach Paulson at ISU has also been in contact with Sam.
Coach Cody and the Sooners were the first to offer (something Sam hasn't forgotten) and came up big with a rare full ride wrestling offer. Coach Cody said he would support Sam IF he decided to try walking on the football team as well but Sam has NOT talked to coach Stoops - yet. Coach Cody made the trip to Fort Dodge for the SEP dual earlier this season.
Yes, Sam has many options which is both good and bad. Do I know which way he's leaning? It changes almost daily and it's very stressful on him. I do know it will be HIS decision and I know he'll give his all regardless of which path he takes and will make some program somewhere very happy.
Thanks for clearing things up.
But Iowa football shouldn't have to offer more than Ohio State football. Maybe it's how you wrote it but that sounded butt hurt at best. "...a scholarship offer would have been better..." LOL.
Butt hurt? LOL....not at all. Plenty of great options! He is very grateful for them all.
My intent wasn't to offend. It may have been the way it was written: "only" matched the offer and that "didn't help their cause."
I would encourage my kid to get the best education possible.
First reply to the OP:
"If he has a full ride offer from Stanford he should take it."
I agree with this, even though there is no way he had a full wrestling scholarship offer from Stanford.
If football players (walkons) could be scholarship wrestlers, then wrestling teams would have 50 scholarships.
Every football team in the country would be stacking the wrestling team with 40 heavyweights.
If wrestler is on scholarship, football has to take on his as a full scholarship to prevent the abuse that would definitely occur.
I am pretty darn sure Sinlinger had to be on a football scholarship.
But maybe I am wrong and just found a loophole that the SEC will now use to create wrestling programs yet field only one or two weight classes...
Every football team in the country would be stacking the wrestling team with 40 heavyweights.
If wrestler is on scholarship, football has to take on his as a full scholarship to prevent the abuse that would definitely occur.
I am pretty darn sure Sinlinger had to be on a football scholarship.
But maybe I am wrong and just found a loophole that the SEC will now use to create wrestling programs yet field only one or two weight classes...
I do recall that when I went to SCC, which was a JuCo basketball powerhouse, they definitely had basketball players on baseball scholarships. But that was in the 70's, before the NCAA really started going nuts with all of the scholarship rules. It does seem plausible that at one time schools were able to fudge the system, but it also seems likely that if there was a hole it's since been plugged.
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
COMMIT: Iowa Lands 2026 Iowa City West, Three-Star OL Colin Whitters
- Latest: clayborn_94