Recruits

[jackrabbit1979]

It would be nice to get a pipeline developed from Stillwater, MN High School. They have a ton of hammers, and some young ones at that. I think their coach is former U of MN great, Tim Hartung, who was at MN just before Hahn as an athlete and then was there on staff, and I'm guessing a workout partner for Hahn while he was competing, so I assume there is some connection. Hartung obviously has close ties to the Gophers as well, but they can't recruit all of these Stillwater kids...

[TheWombat]

I always liked these rankings the theguillotine.com puts out every year: https://theguillotine.com/2020/04/th...gs-april-2020/

I've already talked about how I like Krell, Eisfield, and Pickel as late additions to this season's recruiting class.

For this coming year's recruiting class, Tyson Myer (170) and Quayin Short (182) stand out as being at areas where we could use some higher level talent though the Gophers have the inside track and everybody with the name Short. Ballentine, Berg and West are all on Flo's junior big board and they would find their way into the line-up for sure (Short is a big-boarder as well).

The Jacks did a good job of working ahead, so I don't anticipate a lot of recruiting announcements coming up here but it's always good to know who the prospects are, you never know who will transfer, drop out, get injured etc. . .

[TheWombat]

Everyone is going to have their opinion on this recruit or that recruit but the only question I have is how is NIck a high cost recruit? What is he getting for a scholly?

When it comes to scholarship, everyone is guessing. Coaches won't touch the topic in interviews and wrestlers can get in pretty big trouble for talking about it. I don't think the biggest booster for the team could give you numbers and I don't even live in the same state. That said, when I do sit down and guess at these things I have to imagine that a big board guy like Casperson demands a fair amount of money. When he was recruited to Fresno, he was recruited to be their 197 of the future and whenever you get a guy who ends up that far from home, it's easy to guess that scholarship was a factor. It's my guess that SDSU would have offered something comparable to get him in as a transfer. But, I don't know, maybe his shoulder is toast and they offered him something contingent on his being able to wrestle or something.

[JackJD]

Please: no politics. Let this board continue to be free from politics. Even attempts to be funny about politics during the weird times we're now in...probably best to just skip politics entirely.

We needed March Madness!

[goon]

Personally, I loved this debate from KSJack and Wombat! I found after reading each post from those two that I agreed with each post. It was like a tennis match with great volleys from both sides. It beats the depressing debate over which politician failed her/his constituents by they actions the took with the coronavirus.

It was Obama and Bush W faults.

[GopherHole]

Personally, I loved this debate from KSJack and Wombat! I found after reading each post from those two that I agreed with each post. It was like a tennis match with great volleys from both sides. It beats the depressing debate over which politician failed her/his constituents by they actions the took with the coronavirus.

[stchrist]

Everyone is going to have their opinion on this recruit or that recruit but the only question I have is how is NIck a high cost recruit? What is he getting for a scholly?

[TheWombat]

I know Caspersons senior year he bumped up a weight or might of been two to take on Nash and just about beat him plus he’s a state champ so that is no evidence of good at folk style? Plus having big wins in Greco and freestyle usually translate to that your good at wrestling! And literally I’m pretty sure an injured Marty or casperson still leaves us in a better spot than schoon. He’s got way to many deficiencies that you listed to be a freshman starter. I feel like he would have a worse season than king had this year. Prefer he just continues to develop by going to tournaments and if the results start coming up then try the lineup. Until then I’m sticking with Marty if he gets the 6th year and if not him then all casperson.


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If Mueller applies for a medical redshirt, is awarded it, takes it, and is healthy enough to wrestler, he's the guy and nobody can make a strong argument against that. Casperson I'm not sure about. He wrestled for two years in a brace and than two years not at all so I'm uncertain of his health. I know that there are people on this forum who know him personally and it would be really cool if they could weigh in and let us know how he's doing. I don't think that anybody has ever said that he was going to be good to wrestle soon. I suspect that's something that they would share if it were the case.

In terms of his talent, I'm just not sold. His accomplishments are as follows: 1X SD state champ (it probably would have been 2 if he hadn't bumped up his senior year and it might have been three if he hadn't gotten headlocked as a sophomore), 2016 Cadet Freestyle and Greco 3rd place, and 2016 pre-season national champion. Being a two time or even a three time South Dakota state champion is fairly unimpressive as it pertains to a DI recruiting profile. During his career he didn't really bump into a lot of the good SD wrestlers around his weight class; Nelson, Schoon, Colcheski, Orris, etc. . . and there were no good out of state matches (through no fault of his own of course). The only significant high school match that a recruiter might look at is his match again Nash and he looked good, but he did lose that match. He looked good at Fargo, I went back and watched a handful of his matches and we was truly dominant but he did score most of his points in par-terre, on step-out or off of exposure and he had the advantage of being much better developed as a cadet 182 than pretty much everyone that he wrestled. It might be something or it might not be. He did get some takedowns against some good wrestlers, but it's hard to look at that and say that he'll be a good collegiate wrestler. I'm probably most impressed with his run at preseason nationals. It was a fairly weak bracket for a national tournament but he really did dominate there and he beat some wrestlers who would go on the be multiple time state placers and one future Missouri state champ. All said, he was a very good highschool wrestler but if you want to be a good division one wrestler you have to either be a transcendent talent who is ready to slide into the line-up right out of high school or be someone who can be developed into that guy. I don't Casperson isn't an incredible, blue-ship talent, he's just not that guy as far as I can tell, and he's less susceptible to development because 1.) he hasn't been able to wrestle for two years and 2.) he was as polished a wrestler as you are ever going to find in the state of South Dakota, right out of high school. I look at Schoon and I see a low cost recruit who the staff can make something out of. I look at Casperson and I see a high cost recruit near his ceiling as a wrestler, who may never step on the mat again.

[KSjack]

To be clear, if the line-up that I predicted materializes, I think he will most likely be the worst wrestler in the line-up. I see problems with both Marty and Casperson as viable options.

Mueller: He didn't wrestle a match this year, he was plagued by injuries his junior year, he would need to be granted a medical redshirt to be eligible at all, and he is most likely already graduated so it remains to be seen if he woiuld take a sixth year if he got one.

Casperson: He hasn't wrestled a competitive match since high school. He hasn't weighted 184 pounds since his junior year of high school. All of his notable wins in highschool were in freestyle and greco. I know that he had a serious shoulder injury that kept him off of the mat and I'm unsure just how healed up he is at this point and if he could reinjure it.

These guys are both huge questions marks. We know that Muller is good when he's at his best, but we have no idea if he'll be at his best or if he'll be wrestling at all. Casperson we know nothing about. We don't know if he's healthy. We don't know if he can make the weight. We don't even know if he's good at folkstyle wrestling. He could be, but I've seen nothing that convinces me of that.

I do like Schoon a lot, I have since before he was recruited. I don't think he sees a lot of success if he's the starter next year but I do think that he will continue to improve to the point where he can contribute and maybe be a good starter in the future. We know what we're getting in Schoon; a good athlete with a good mentality who's technically deficient. He takes shots that he shouldn't, he has poor mat tactics, he's undersized, and he's a liability on bottom. All of these problems are very fixable and he's in the ideal place to have them fixed. I would be shocked if he didn't improve dramatically as time goes on.

I know Caspersons senior year he bumped up a weight or might of been two to take on Nash and just about beat him plus he’s a state champ so that is no evidence of good at folk style? Plus having big wins in Greco and freestyle usually translate to that your good at wrestling! And literally I’m pretty sure an injured Marty or casperson still leaves us in a better spot than schoon. He’s got way to many deficiencies that you listed to be a freshman starter. I feel like he would have a worse season than king had this year. Prefer he just continues to develop by going to tournaments and if the results start coming up then try the lineup. Until then I’m sticking with Marty if he gets the 6th year and if not him then all casperson.


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[TheWombat]

Can I ask what is your fixation with Schoon? He was a way under the radar recruit who had an 11-9 record with no real big wins like Sloan had. As of now I see no reason for him to be in the conversation for starting. IMO, the way I view it is if Marty is healthy it’s 110% him. If he’s not then I’m 110% rolling with Casperson who was a legit top 100 recruit and a high school all American. Even if Marty is healthy I think he still will be pushed hard by Casperson.


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To be clear, if the line-up that I predicted materializes, I think he will most likely be the worst wrestler in the line-up. I see problems with both Marty and Casperson as viable options.

Mueller: He didn't wrestle a match this year, he was plagued by injuries his junior year, he would need to be granted a medical redshirt to be eligible at all, and he is most likely already graduated so it remains to be seen if he woiuld take a sixth year if he got one.

Casperson: He hasn't wrestled a competitive match since high school. He hasn't weighted 184 pounds since his junior year of high school. All of his notable wins in highschool were in freestyle and greco. I know that he had a serious shoulder injury that kept him off of the mat and I'm unsure just how healed up he is at this point and if he could reinjure it.

These guys are both huge questions marks. We know that Muller is good when he's at his best, but we have no idea if he'll be at his best or if he'll be wrestling at all. Casperson we know nothing about. We don't know if he's healthy. We don't know if he can make the weight. We don't even know if he's good at folkstyle wrestling. He could be, but I've seen nothing that convinces me of that.

I do like Schoon a lot, I have since before he was recruited. I don't think he sees a lot of success if he's the starter next year but I do think that he will continue to improve to the point where he can contribute and maybe be a good starter in the future. We know what we're getting in Schoon; a good athlete with a good mentality who's technically deficient. He takes shots that he shouldn't, he has poor mat tactics, he's undersized, and he's a liability on bottom. All of these problems are very fixable and he's in the ideal place to have them fixed. I would be shocked if he didn't improve dramatically as time goes on.

[KSjack]

They had a lot of good 184 recruits that we could go after; Sage Sebenta, Ashton Heble, and Aiden Kramer. They could fork out some money for one of them, it all depends on how they feel about Martin Mueller, Nick Casperson, and Jacob Schoon. The coaching staff might feel really good about 184 if Mueller is healthy or Casperson has been good in the room or they might feel like they need to bolster the weight-class if they think that Schoon is the guy and he's not up to it. I can't see them going for any of the other ODU recruits, either they're aren't at weight-classes of need or they are from far away.

Can I ask what is your fixation with Schoon? He was a way under the radar recruit who had an 11-9 record with no real big wins like Sloan had. As of now I see no reason for him to be in the conversation for starting. IMO, the way I view it is if Marty is healthy it’s 110% him. If he’s not then I’m 110% rolling with Casperson who was a legit top 100 recruit and a high school all American. Even if Marty is healthy I think he still will be pushed hard by Casperson.


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[TheWombat]

Is the staff looking at any former Old Dominion recruits or wrestlers since they closed the program? I believe they had 2 Top 100 recruits too

They had a lot of good 184 recruits that we could go after; Sage Sebenta, Ashton Heble, and Aiden Kramer. They could fork out some money for one of them, it all depends on how they feel about Martin Mueller, Nick Casperson, and Jacob Schoon. The coaching staff might feel really good about 184 if Mueller is healthy or Casperson has been good in the room or they might feel like they need to bolster the weight-class if they think that Schoon is the guy and he's not up to it. I can't see them going for any of the other ODU recruits, either they're aren't at weight-classes of need or they are from far away.

[witness]

Is the staff looking at any former Old Dominion recruits or wrestlers since they closed the program? I believe they had 2 Top 100 recruits too

[opinionsaremyown]

Article on Derrick Cardinal: https://www.mnwrestlinghub.com/news_...e/show/1098932

Looking forward to Derrick coming to Brookings. He is really good but will jump levels with the leadership we have. Will be an absolute hammer in the BLUE.

[TheWombat]

Sadly Old Dominion dropped it's program the other day. This is a big loss for wrestling but a lot of programs are going to be sifting through the rubble to see what pieces they can snag. I'm feeling particularly heartless today so I outlined which pieces might be worth pursuing for the coaching staff.

Killian Cardinale, RSo, 125: in and out of the rankings this year, 25-9, national qualifier
Kevin Budock, RJr, 149: two year starter for ODU, had a rough year finishing 7-5, but was 28-16 and 21-15 the years that he started
Sage Serbenta, 2020 recruit, 184: State champion from Michigan, #109 on flo's big board
Adrien Cramer 2019 recruit, 184: State champion from Illinois, #91 on flo's big board
Steve Bleise Volunteer Assistant Coach: Obviously, our coaching staff is great and I wouldn't want to make any changes. But, as we've seen, coaches come and go all the time in every sport for every reason, and, if we were to lose someone, he would be a good contributor as he was highly regarded as a leader in the gopher room and as a coach at ODU.