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Pitt Wrestling Program ..... some thoughts ......

Could we go with Taylor as head coach, and pay a good chunk to an experienced associate HC to run the administrative side of things and Taylor be "the face" of the program?
 
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Does our urban campus cancel out our geography benefits inside a great recruiting hotbed? Just curious what everyone thinks. I spent a couple years in the youth wrestling world and the better programs seemed to be the more rural one.
 
Does our urban campus cancel out our geography benefits inside a great recruiting hotbed? Just curious what everyone thinks. I spent a couple years in the youth wrestling world and the better programs seemed to be the more rural one.

I don't think our urban campus is a big factor against recruiting wrestlers at all ...... the major factors are 1) Head coach, 2) Assistant coaches/wrestling partners, 3) Facilities ...... with #1 being the most important followed by #2 ..... an excellent wrestling coach hire could bring big dividends to the wrestling program fairly quickly.
 
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They're not going to give the job to a 25 year old. I would hope we can find someone with a great pedagree who has head coaching experience.

Maybe Terry Brands ..... he is 48 now and associate head coach at Iowa under his twin brother Tom ...... both have GREAT wrestling pedigrees and Terry was head coach at Tennessee Chattanooga for a few years prior to returning to Iowa.... he has had lots of success over a long period of time at a high level both as a wrestler and a coach (mostly assistant)..... don't know if he would consider being the head coach at Pitt .... I'd give him a call.
 
Terry B would be great. Has trained many international wrestlers as he was the National team coach for awhile and has trained several Olympic wrestlers. I doubt he would leave Iowa unless a large increase in pay. That would probably make him the 2nd highest paid coach in the country. Not likely!
 
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Yes you are correct. You would not want to give the job to someone 26 years old. Not like Iowa did when they hired Dan Gable with almost no coaching experience at all. He only won 19 NCAA championships at Iowa. There are not many good coaches out there that have head coaching experience at a major program. Taylor would have great recruiting contacts both in PA(because of PSU) and Ohio(he is from Ohio). Recruiting is the key to a major program.

Even Cael started out as an assistant. No chance that Taylor or Dake are ready to be head coaches in their first coaching job

Not that it will happen. I doubt either guy is willing to put aside their international careers to be a head coach at this point.
 
Even Cael started out as an assistant. No chance that Taylor or Dake are ready to be head coaches in their first coaching job

Not that it will happen. I doubt either guy is willing to put aside their international careers to be a head coach at this point.
That is a good point EJ! I was shocked Dake did not make Olympic Team last year!
 
That is a good point EJ! I was shocked Dake did not make Olympic Team last year!
Dake did not make Olympic team because he is in same weight class as Jordan Burroughs. Dake tried to go to another weight class, but that class is 20 lbs or so heavier. He was/is not big enough to wrestle at that weight. The olympics eliminated weight classes several years ago. This has caused problems for many wrestlers because they now have no weight class to wrestle in. Dake is one of them David Taylor is also one of them.
 
Dake did not make Olympic team because he is in same weight class as Jordan Burroughs. Dake tried to go to another weight class, but that class is 20 lbs or so heavier. He was/is not big enough to wrestle at that weight. The olympics eliminated weight classes several years ago. This has caused problems for many wrestlers because they now have no weight class to wrestle in. Dake is one of them David Taylor is also one of them.
That is a shame, Thom! I always liked both Dake and Taylor!
 
Dake did not make Olympic team because he is in same weight class as Jordan Burroughs. Dake tried to go to another weight class, but that class is 20 lbs or so heavier. He was/is not big enough to wrestle at that weight. The olympics eliminated weight classes several years ago. This has caused problems for many wrestlers because they now have no weight class to wrestle in. Dake is one of them David Taylor is also one of them.

Right, aren't there only like 5-6 weight classes in the Olympics? That definitely creates problems for some guys who are forced to move up or down from their NCAA weight.
 
Does our urban campus cancel out our geography benefits inside a great recruiting hotbed? Just curious what everyone thinks. I spent a couple years in the youth wrestling world and the better programs seemed to be the more rural one.

No
 
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Right, aren't there only like 5-6 weight classes in the Olympics? That definitely creates problems for some guys who are forced to move up or down from their NCAA weight.

In the 2016 Summer Olympics ..... both freestyle and Greco-Roman had 6 weight classes each.
 
Didn't there used to be nine?

The Olympics used to have 10 weight classes, until the 2000 Olympics when it was decreased to 8 classes ..... in the 2004/2008/2012 Olympics there were 7 weight classes and in 2016 cut to 6 classes.

There are 8 mens weight classes for the 2017 World championships.
 
The Olympics used to have 10 weight classes, until the 2000 Olympics when it was decreased to 8 classes ..... in the 2004/2008/2012 Olympics there were 7 weight classes and in 2016 cut to 6 classes.

There are 8 mens weight classes for the 2017 World championships.
Correct. In non olympics they have 2 more weight classes. For the Olympics we have 2 wrestlers without a weight class. The USA has a world champion that cannot make the Olympic team.
 
Remember, initially the eliminated wrestling completely from the Olympics. So the powers that be believe that having six weight classes is a gift to wrestling fans. The Olympic freestyle rules are so horrible I'm not sure it matters whether it is in the Olympics or not.

I wish they would eliminate Greco-Roman and have ten freestyle weight classes with reasonable rules -- not score the first point and stall for the rest of the match.
 
Remember, initially the eliminated wrestling completely from the Olympics. So the powers that be believe that having six weight classes is a gift to wrestling fans. The Olympic freestyle rules are so horrible I'm not sure it matters whether it is in the Olympics or not.

I wish they would eliminate Greco-Roman and have ten freestyle weight classes with reasonable rules -- not score the first point and stall for the rest of the match.

Mostly politics. When they added woman's wrestling, the Olympic committee(international) decided there were too many metals given out for wrestling so they cut the number of weight classes. This makes no sense since they give out two bronze metals for each weight class rather than having a bronze metal match. If they only gave out 1 bronze instead of two, they would save 18 metals which could be used for 2-3 more weight classes. Interestingly, the USA and Russia actually agree on something, but somehow these two countries did not have enough influence to keep the other weight classes.
 
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Mostly politics. When they added woman's wrestling, the Olympic committee(international) decided there were too many metals given out for wrestling so they cut the number of weight classes. This makes no sense since they give out two bronze metals for each weight class rather than having a bronze metal match. If they only gave out 1 bronze instead of two, they would save 18 metals which could be used for 2-3 more weight classes. Interestingly, the USA and Russia actually agree on something, but somehow these two countries did not have enough influence to keep the other weight classes.
and remember, wrestling is one of thev oldest sports known to mankind! Of all the sports, you think it would be given more respect.
 
In the link below is a question/answer article in InterMat a few days ago done by T.R.Foley Senior Writer ..... look at the 2nd question down where someone asked him to name 5 candidates he thought may be good choices for the Pitt head wrestling coach position ..... what do you think about his answer ???

http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/17545
 
In the link below is a question/answer article in InterMat a few days ago done by T.R.Foley Senior Writer ..... look at the 2nd question down where someone asked him to name 5 candidates he thought may be good choices for the Pitt head wrestling coach position ..... what do you think about his answer ???

http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/17545
Well I said Strittmatter when Pete got the heave ho. Some said there's no way he'd give up Young Guns. Maybe he just needs to bring his bro and YG top Pitt. BTW, what happened to JRob at Minnesota??
 
I believe the last Cornell coach has turned tOSU into a powerhouse. Maybe the current one could do the same for Pitt. And he might be able to bring Dake with him. The only downside might be Kotcher leaving.

I was surprised all of his selections basically were from the northeast and 4 were in PA. Not exactly a national list.
 
Does our urban campus cancel out our geography benefits inside a great recruiting hotbed? Just curious what everyone thinks. I spent a couple years in the youth wrestling world and the better programs seemed to be the more rural one.


100 percent correct. As big as pitt family as we are. I hate to admit the campus does interest a lot of wrestlers who are more interested in rural settings. I think Pittsburgh is a great place but that's me. But I will also agree getting a great coach and assistants at different weights is a great start. Then building a room with great workouts partners is next. Then you'll start getting results and graduate coming back into the room to work with and look up to. Imagine the young guys at PSUwhen Taylor comes in to roll around. And at Ohio St when Steibler works out with a freshman 3 times a week. It's all a process one which Pitt is capable but a long one it is.
 
Watched the match on espn3 and I am by no means a wrestling expert, but two things struck me:
1. The referee seemed awful, especially in the Rahmani match.
2. Really disappointed in the effort of Zanetta and McAfee. Both ran scared their whole matches.
 
Ya the ACC has to do better than that. Guys like that can't be working conference duals. That was the worst officiated match I've seen in a long time with really bad calls for both sides. Rahmani got screwed a couple times in his match and should have won.

As far as Zanetta, Jack is in the top 3 in the country. He's just better.
 
Well I said Strittmatter when Pete got the heave ho. Some said there's no way he'd give up Young Guns. Maybe he just needs to bring his bro and YG top Pitt. BTW, what happened to JRob at Minnesota??
Minnesota had a large problem on the wrestling team. They had a drug ring (dealing etc) and it included part of the wrestling team. JRob was let go similar to Peters.
 
I think they were selling pain pills at Minnesota and that led to JRob being let go.
 
Here is an article about the firing of JRob ..... see link below .....

http://www.startribune.com/j-robins...-after-30-years-as-wrestling-coach/392637101/
When I wrestled in high school, our coach (he was about 30) heard us talking about getting some Yago Sangria and getting drunk for the weekend! He told us in no uncertain terms that we would all be off of the team if wev followed through and that he would report us to the principal. He said his own integrity as our coach and of molding young men would cause him to turn us in. Needless to say, none of us got drunk that weekend. I guess Coach Robinson did not get the message What a goofball!!l
 
When I wrestled in high school, our coach (he was about 30) heard us talking about getting some Yago Sangria and getting drunk for the weekend! He told us in no uncertain terms that we would all be off of the team if wev followed through and that he would report us to the principal. He said his own integrity as our coach and of molding young men would cause him to turn us in. Needless to say, none of us got drunk that weekend. I guess Coach Robinson did not get the message What a goofball!!l
He was a great coach, but obviously lost track of where he stood in the hierarchy of the university. I'm sure he'll tell you he was looking out for the best interest of the boys, but in that situation he has no authority to grant anyone anything and should have immediately advised his superiors of everything he knew and allow the school to investigate with his complete cooperation. Sounds a little like he went to the Bobby Knight "F" you it's MY team I'll handle this the way I want school of coaching. Shame, because he did do a lot of good for the school and the wrestlers.
 
He was a great coach, but obviously lost track of where he stood in the hierarchy of the university. I'm sure he'll tell you he was looking out for the best interest of the boys, but in that situation he has no authority to grant anyone anything and should have immediately advised his superiors of everything he knew and allow the school to investigate with his complete cooperation. Sounds a little like he went to the Bobby Knight "F" you it's MY team I'll handle this the way I want school of coaching. Shame, because he did do a lot of good for the school and the wrestlers.
Agreed!
 
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