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Pitt Preseason National Rankings

CrazyPaco

CrazyPaco

Athletic Director
Jul 5, 2001
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Although not a fall sport, wrestling I assume would have a
top 25 pre season ranking.
IMO it's all about the coaches. Get the right coach and you'll
see the results. For those that thinlk Pittsburgh is a difficult
place to recruit, please explain how the volleyball coach (Fischer)
is able to land All American recruits from California, and places
like Texas. As for transfers, transfers from the Big 10 etc.
This year he has a transfer from Florida (SEC) who is already a
pre season all ACC player before she plays one set here.

These types of coaches not only know the game and know how
to coach, they also are top recruitors and are able to develop
a team culture that attracts other top recruits. I feel all the
coaches mentioned above succeed at this. As for football, I
feel Duzz is now doing it also, however not yet to a top 10 level.
Basketball?....no comment.
Just my two cents.
 
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Chescat said:
IMO it's all about the coaches. Get the right coach and you'll
see the results.
Click to expand...
You have to make a commitment to the sport in order to bring in that coach. That means a budget that lets a coach travel around the country to find recruits and then backing it up with the things a top recruit would expect (facilities, staffing, culture).

Chescat said:
Although not a fall sport, wrestling I assume would have a
top 25 pre season ranking.
Click to expand...
Pitt should be closer to the top of the wrestling world. PA is to wrestling talent what FL is to football. Program is moving the right direction.
 
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Chescat said:
Although not a fall sport, wrestling I assume would have a
top 25 pre season ranking.
IMO it's all about the coaches. Get the right coach and you'll
see the results. For those that thinlk Pittsburgh is a difficult
place to recruit, please explain how the volleyball coach (Fischer)
is able to land All American recruits from California, and places
like Texas. As for transfers, transfers from the Big 10 etc.
This year he has a transfer from Florida (SEC) who is already a
pre season all ACC player before she plays one set here.

These types of coaches not only know the game and know how
to coach, they also are top recruitors and are able to develop
a team culture that attracts other top recruits. I feel all the
coaches mentioned above succeed at this. As for football, I
feel Duzz is now doing it also, however not yet to a top 10 level.
Basketball?....no comment.
Just my two cents.
Click to expand...
I like wrestling more than most, but not as much as diehards…

But how many D1 schools are there now? 80? They shouldn’t have a top 25. They should have a top 10 or 15.
 
Chescat said:
Although not a fall sport, wrestling I assume would have a
top 25 pre season ranking.

Exactly. Pitt should be a perennial top 10 program with the fertile recruiting area around here. I don’t buy the urban school excuse.
 
Last edited:
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Fk_Pitt said:
Exactly. Pitt should be a perennial top 10 program with the fertile recruiting area around here. I don’t buy the urban school excuse.
Click to expand...

There's only 80 wrestling schools? Wow. And we celebrate Top 25? I agree that Pitt should be challenging for team national titles with the talent around here.
 
TIGER-PAUL said:
The soccer is crazy considering not that long ago they played in Cheswick
Click to expand...

Vid reloaded again. I posted about it on the Olympics board. For any of you who casually watch the USMNT, you may know Jesus Ferreira, who started a few games at the World Cup. His brother is coming in. They also have a Norwegian #9 coming in who is on the FIFA 23 video game for his club team.
 
Sean Miller Fan said:
Vid reloaded again. I posted about it on the Olympics board. For any of you who casually watch the USMNT, you may know Jesus Ferreira, who started a few games at the World Cup. His brother is coming in. They also have a Norwegian #9 coming in who is on the FIFA 23 video game for his club team.
Click to expand...
A player who is on FIFA? What’s his player card look like?

You’re something else with the stuff you uncover about things 99% of people could care less about.
 
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Fk_Pitt said:
A player who is on FIFA? What’s his player card look like?

You’re something else with the stuff you uncover about things 99% of people could care less about.
Click to expand...

www.fifaindex.com

Albert Palmberg Thorsen - FIFA 23 - Player Stats

Albert Palmberg Thorsen plays as a Striker for Strømsgodset IF. In FIFA 23, Thorsen got a rating of 54 and a potential of 70. View all his stats at FIFA Index.
www.fifaindex.com www.fifaindex.com

Joe Vad Der Saar was also on FIFA when he was 18 or 19 and on loan from Ajax to another Eredivisie team.
 
Sean Miller Fan said:
There's only 80 wrestling schools? Wow. And we celebrate Top 25? I agree that Pitt should be challenging for team national titles with the talent around here.
Click to expand...
Pitt will be a top 15 dual team this year and anywhere from 15 to 25 at the NCAA tournament.

As someone else has said they are headed in the right direction and should be at the top of the ACC and compete for a trophy on a semiregular basis but they will probably never compete for a team title. The sport is extremely top heavy and if you set the over/under at 1.5 different teams winning a national championship in the next decade I may take the under. I am not sure if there are 8 programs in the country capable of winning a title if they get everything right.
 
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pafootballguy said:
Pitt will be a top 15 dual team this year and anywhere from 15 to 25 at the NCAA tournament.

As someone else has said they are headed in the right direction and should be at the top of the ACC and compete for a trophy on a semiregular basis but they will probably never compete for a team title. The sport is extremely top heavy and if you set the over/under at 1.5 different teams winning a national championship in the next decade I may take the under. I am not sure if there are 8 programs in the country capable of winning a title if they get everything right.
Click to expand...

Yea, I dont follow it much but its Iowa and PSU, right? If you had Iowa, PSU, and a 3rd team comprised of the best of the other 78 teams, it still might not beat Iowa and PSU, right? Still seems like Pitt underachieves in this sport. I do agree it seems to be going in the right direction
 
Sean Miller Fan said:
Yea, I dont follow it much but its Iowa and PSU, right? If you had Iowa, PSU, and a 3rd team comprised of the best of the other 78 teams, it still might not beat Iowa and PSU, right? Still seems like Pitt underachieves in this sport. I do agree it seems to be going in the right direction
Click to expand...
Iowa fans would disagree but Penn State is on tier by itself right now, they have won 10 of the last 12 and I would be surprised if they didn't win the next 10. Iowa is clearly the second best program right now but Ohio State and Michigan have invested heavily and could be right there next year. Okie State has been bad the last few years but is still a premier program and will rebound when John Smith retires. Other teams that I think could win in the future if everything goes perfectly for them would be Nebraska, Minnesota, Cornell, and ASU.

I would say Pitt has underachieved but has a couple of things holding it back, the school has not always been fully committed and the ACC is a good conference but lacks depth.

An issue that has just not hurt Pitt but a lot of programs is the rise of the Olympic Regional Training Centers (RTC). The elite of high school wrestling all have aspirations to not only compete at the world level but to medal at that level and those kids are not just making a 4-5 year decision but a 10-15 year decision about training.
 
pittdan77 said:
You have to make a commitment to the sport in order to bring in that coach. That means a budget that lets a coach travel around the country to find recruits and then backing it up with the things a top recruit would expect (facilities, staffing, culture).


Pitt should be closer to the top of the wrestling world. PA is to wrestling talent what FL is to football. Program is moving the right direction.
Click to expand...
Pitt could literally recruit just the wpial and if they got who they wanted be a top 10 wrestling school every year
 
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Sean Miller Fan said:
Yea, I dont follow it much but its Iowa and PSU, right? If you had Iowa, PSU, and a 3rd team comprised of the best of the other 78 teams, it still might not beat Iowa and PSU, right? Still seems like Pitt underachieves in this sport. I do agree it seems to be going in the right direction
Click to expand...
Yeah PSU is offering kids half scholarships and getting them over full rides from most schools. They are at a whole different level than everyone else.
 
revampedpanthers said:
Pitt could literally recruit just the wpial and if they got who they wanted be a top 10 wrestling school every year
Click to expand...
There was a time this was true but in recent years the WPIAL has not produced at that level. For Pitt to take the next step they really need to take a more regional approach to recruiting and have to be able to go east and pull kids from Districts 1, 3, and 11 along with pulling an occasional kid from NJ, NY, and Ohio.
 
Regarding the upcoming wrestling season, this link is to the preseason NCAA wrestling individual rankings.

 
pafootballguy said:
There was a time this was true but in recent years the WPIAL has not produced at that level. For Pitt to take the next step they really need to take a more regional approach to recruiting and have to be able to go east and pull kids from Districts 1, 3, and 11 along with pulling an occasional kid from NJ, NY, and Ohio.
Click to expand...
Ideally yes and they aren't getting all the top wpial guys either but the wpial is consistently producing 2 or 3 top level guys a year and wrestlers don't leave early. Only 10 spots.
 
revampedpanthers said:
Ideally yes and they aren't getting all the top wpial guys either but the wpial is consistently producing 2 or 3 top level guys a year and wrestlers don't leave early. Only 10 spots.
Click to expand...
WPIAL is just too up and down right now, it was loaded in 2023, good in 2024, but 2025 and 2026 are not looking all that impressive.

Even without Iowa, OSU, OSU, and PSU recruiting the WPIAL it has gotten a lot harder to recruit in southwest PA with WVU's uptick and most of those kids being coached by Akerly.
 
pittdan77 said:
You have to make a commitment to the sport in order to bring in that coach. That means a budget that lets a coach travel around the country to find recruits and then backing it up with the things a top recruit would expect (facilities, staffing, culture).


Pitt should be closer to the top of the wrestling world. PA is to wrestling talent what FL is to football. Program is moving the right direction.
Click to expand...
CrazyPaco said:
Pitt wrestling needs more support for its Regional Training Center:

Click to expand...
Have there been any initial discussions about adding women's wrestling to Pitt down the road? It had mostly been NAIA/D2/D3 until recently but Iowa created a program and I have to assume more will follow. We have one of the higher rates of girl's wrestling programs in the whole country. But we may also not be looking at adding more sports generally.
 
MarshallGoldberg said:
Have there been any initial discussions about adding women's wrestling to Pitt down the road? It had mostly been NAIA/D2/D3 until recently but Iowa created a program and I have to assume more will follow. We have one of the higher rates of girl's wrestling programs in the whole country. But we may also not be looking at adding more sports generally.
Click to expand...
Good question. Women's wrestling is exploding in PA. The number of school districts sponsoring teams is growing every year.
 
MarshallGoldberg said:
Have there been any initial discussions about adding women's wrestling to Pitt down the road? It had mostly been NAIA/D2/D3 until recently but Iowa created a program and I have to assume more will follow. We have one of the higher rates of girl's wrestling programs in the whole country. But we may also not be looking at adding more sports generally.
Click to expand...
I doubt there will be much talk unless there are a critical mass of women's college programs added regionally or within the ACC. Could be considered in the future. Probably not before you'd see one at PSU.
 
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Chescat said:
Although not a fall sport, wrestling I assume would have a
top 25 pre season ranking.
IMO it's all about the coaches. Get the right coach and you'll
see the results. For those that thinlk Pittsburgh is a difficult
place to recruit, please explain how the volleyball coach (Fischer)
is able to land All American recruits from California, and places
like Texas. As for transfers, transfers from the Big 10 etc.
This year he has a transfer from Florida (SEC) who is already a
pre season all ACC player before she plays one set here.

These types of coaches not only know the game and know how
to coach, they also are top recruitors and are able to develop
a team culture that attracts other top recruits. I feel all the
coaches mentioned above succeed at this. As for football, I
feel Duzz is now doing it also, however not yet to a top 10 level.
Basketball?....no comment.
Just my two cents.
Click to expand...
I think you are proposing some good things to consider however I worry you are presenting a strawman argument here. Volleyball recruiting is certainly a whole different world than football. There is something to be said for coaches making a difference though.
 
Usuallyunusual-partdeux said:
I think you are proposing some good things to consider however I worry you are presenting a strawman argument here. Volleyball recruiting is certainly a whole different world than football. There is something to be said for coaches making a difference though.
Click to expand...
Doubt it's a "strawman argument." Comparing football and volleyball would
be apples and oranges. I judge em by how they compare to like coaches in
their same respective sports. Fischer in volleyball recruits All Americans from
h.s. that are nationally ranked from places like California, and VERY high level
transfers from top programs. I measure him against other top volleyball
coaches. He also wins where it matters, on the court in real competition. The
men's soccer coach has done it at other schools, same with the women's
coach....national championships in fact. Bottom line.....get the right coach
and you can see the results. Pitt got the right coach in those sports and
the results are obvious.
 
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