Class of 2020

[Air_Thurman]

Think you might have to be a member to see this but this class seems to have a load of potential for OSU. Plott is No. 2 overall and Ferrari is No. 3. I have no idea where we stand with these kids but there are two more Oklahoma kids in the top 35 and one more just outside of the top 50.

Hold onto to Kerkvliet and then do work in this class and we are really starting to build up an impressive talent base.

https://www.flowrestling.org/rankings/6031474-class-of-2020-big-board/28333-class-of-2020-big-board

 

[CowboyUp61]

Also Val Park in the top 100. Our recruiting needs at that time will also include a couple light weights if we don't get them this year. Kaid, Picc and Boo will all be on the way out.

 

[osu2082]

Think you might have to be a member to see this but this class seems to have a load of potential for OSU. Plott is No. 2 overall and Ferrari is No. 3. I have no idea where we stand with these kids but there are two more Oklahoma kids in the top 35 and one more just outside of the top 50.

Hold onto to Kerkvliet and then do work in this class and we are really starting to build up an impressive talent base.

https://www.flowrestling.org/rankings/6031474-class-of-2020-big-board/28333-class-of-2020-big-board

We are in a very good position for AJ and you have to like where we should stand with top tier Oklahoma recruits.

A run of Fix, G, Whitlake, Kirkvliet and 3-4 top 2020 kids would put us right back in he annual NC hunt for awhile.

 

[Air_Thurman]

We are in a very good position for AJ and you have to like where we should stand with top tier Oklahoma recruits.

A run of Fix, G, Whitlake, Kirkvliet and 3-4 top 2020 kids would put us right back in he annual NC hunt for awhile.

It would be a pretty amazing recruiting turnaround in a years time and still without a major investment into a RTC.

 

[643Bsbl]

We are in a very good position for AJ and you have to like where we should stand with top tier Oklahoma recruits.
Osudog
We are in great shape with Dustin also maybe even better than AJ. They are strong OSU leans

 

[Wrassler17]

osudog, I appreciate your updates. But I'm a little concerned about OU. I noticed that the OKRTC retweets a lot of stuff from Dustin's dad (and from Luke Surber's dad). Plus I think Tuttle went to an OTC camp a few months back that was sponsored by OU. Is that correct?

I'm worried they are going to swoop in like they did with Jacob Butler. I think maybe we missed out on him because we didn't expect OU to be so aggressive. They've already shown they can outmanuever us (Dean/Anthony/Austin). And I still don't understand why our staff didn't ask Jacob to hold off on making a commitment for a couple of months. They had to know the GWH and Ethan Andersen transfers were in progress to free up some $.

Hope I'm wrong about them.

 

[Air_Thurman]

osudog, I appreciate your updates. But I'm a little concerned about OU. I noticed that the OKRTC retweets a lot of stuff from Dustin's dad (and from Luke Surber's dad). Plus I think Tuttle went to an OTC camp a few months back that was sponsored by OU. Is that correct?

I'm worried they are going to swoop in like they did with Jacob Butler. I think maybe we missed out on him because we didn't expect OU to be so aggressive. They've already shown they can outmanuever us (Dean/Anthony/Austin). And I still don't understand why our staff didn't ask Jacob to hold off on making a commitment for a couple of months. They had to know the GWH and Ethan Andersen transfers were in progress to free up some $.

Hope I'm wrong about them.

I will preface this by saying I have zero inside info on any of this. I think OU's RTC getting Dean and Collica to be there is a whole different ballgame then getting stud Oklahoma HS kids to chose OU over OSU for their college experience.

Who was the last Oklahoma kid that OU got that we really, really, really wanted? Has there be anyone since Ware? I have to imagine there has been.

 

[643Bsbl]

Butler going with Ou was solely on money and Ou trashing OSU RTC compared to Theirs didn’t help us. Smith wanted him to hold off

 

[643Bsbl]

Ou was take it or leave it

 

[Wrassler17]

That's some strong-arm recruiting tactics by OU there.

So I gather you don't see them as much of a threat for Plott?

 

[643Bsbl]

I see Dustin at OSU but Ou RTC might make that a battle if OSU doesn’t step up THE RTC PROGRAM it’s no secret He has Olympic dreams

 

[lincolnhs]

I think Plott ends up at OSU. With Daton fix being the face of the program, I think the in-state wrestlers will gravitate towards him especially if we make a serious run at the national title in 2019. Maybe if OU's wrestling program isn't in a dumpster fire I would of think of them as a threat but the way their program is heading I just don't see them landing top tier talent like plott even if their RTC is better than our at the moment. If RTC's are that important, he's better going off to Penn state, tOSU, Arizona State.

In terms of Butler, if we had the money at the time, he's ours, but we didn't so he stayed home and chose OU. I don't think thats a devastating loss IMO

 

[OSUMatFan]

Not only is this a class where we have influence, this is a great class with lots of high quality wrestlers.

 

[MiccoMacey]

I think Plott ends up at OSU. With Daton fix being the face of the program, I think the in-state wrestlers will gravitate towards him especially if we make a serious run at the national title in 2019. Maybe if OU's wrestling program isn't in a dumpster fire I would of think of them as a threat but the way their program is heading I just don't see them landing top tier talent like plott even if their RTC is better than our at the moment. If RTC's are that important, he's better going off to Penn state, tOSU, Arizona State.

In terms of Butler, if we had the money at the time, he's ours, but we didn't so he stayed home and chose OU. I don't think thats a devastating loss IMO

In terms of production on the mat the last two years, I totally agree. In terms of who he's recruited to OU, I disagree. Rosselli basically redshirted an entire class, most are top 5-10 kids in their weight class as a junior or senior. I'm betting no more than two guys from last year start this year.


2017 Signees

Dom Demas -149: Two-time Ohio State Champion ... Three-time finalist at Ohio State Championships ... Four-time placer at state championships ... Cadet Greco Roman World-Team Member. Gold and Silver medalist in several WTT this past year. I believe he beat Gfeller, the kid almost all you OSU fans believeh as a very high potential to AA next year.

Tanner Litterell - 149: Four-time Oklahoma State Champion ... Three-time NHSCA Champion. Hearing he has some very bad back issues, so I hope he can stay at OU.

Kyle Lawson - 157: Three-time Ohio State Champion ... Two-time Ironman placer.

Anthony Mantanano - 174: 2017 California State Champion ... Placed two other times in California State Championships, including a runner-up finish to current OU teammate Jeremy Thomas in 2016 ... Junior Nationals Greco Roman Champion ... 2016 FloNationals Champion. 2018 Junior World Team member

Jake Boyd - -197: Two-time Missouri State Champion (2016, 2017) ... Placed third in the 2015 Missouri State Championship ... Fargo Cadet National Champion. Placed at several tournaments this past off season.

Jake Woodley - 197: Three-time Fargo All-American ... Two-time Pennsylvania State Champion ... Ranked No. 11 at 195 pounds by Flo ... No. 70 overall recruit in the class of 2017. Placed at 2018 Junior Worlds Team Trials.

2018 Signees

Tommy Hoskins - 125: 3X Ohio state champion, 4x Ohio State Place winner (3rd 2018)...Ranked No. 3 at 120 pounds by InterMat 2017, No. 14 at 126 pounds by Intermat 2018, ...Ranked No. 88 overall.

Anthony Madrigal - 141: 2X Illinois State Runner-up...2015 Fargo All-American...Third-place finisher at the 2016 Walsh Ironman...Ranked No. 2 at 138 pounds by InterMat...Ranked No. 33 overall in the class of 2018 by InterMat

Jaryn Curry - 165: 3X Oklahoma state champion...Ranked No. 12 at 170 pounds by InterMat...Ranked No. 93 overall.

Josiah Jones - 220: 2X PA State Runner-up...Ranked No. 5 at 220 pounds by InterMat...Ranked No. 52 overall in the class of 2018.

Kayne MacCallum – 184: a transfer from Eastern Michigan which is shutting down their wrestling program. Kayne was the MAC Conference Champion at 184 this past year.

Jacob Butler – 141: 3x Oklahoma State Champion…Colorado State Runner-up as a freshman. Only five total losses in high school. Has two wins over Surber from Tuttle, projected to be one of the next big thing from Oklahoma. Over here on this OSU board, several of you guys have said this was a kid they'd like to have. Regardless how we got him, we got him.

Brett Campbell – 220: 2x Missouri State Champion, undefeated the last two years, Missouri Wrestler of the Year (Class 1), Academic All-State.

“A two-time undefeated state champion in Class 1, Brett Campbell spent much of the regular season at 195, moved up to 220 on the way to his second state title and then dropped to 182 for the Metro Classic. He collected a pair of takedowns and earned a stalling penalty point in a 6-3 decision over Olathe South’s Nick Jouret — a two-time state champion in Kansas’ largest class and a four-time state medalist."

We're getting better. We're probably not top 10 next year, but we're not far off. Add Logan Steiber to the OU RTC, which I'm hearing is a great possibility, and we just became more than relevant.

BTW, some of these stats and rankings are old. I probably need to update a little, as I jotted most of that stuff down awhile ago. But you get the gyst...OU is going way up in terms of talent on hand.

 

[Wrassler17]

I was going to skip commenting on OU any further. But what the hell.

Air_Thurman is one of our best posters, no question about it. He asked when was the last time that we lost a top recruit to OU. A fair question and it has been a long time. But I would ask another question. When was the last time we finished 13th at nationals? That's been a long time too.

My point is that things don't always stay as they are. I don't sleep on anyone. Certainly not OU. It's clear to me that Leonard, Roselli, & Eric have a lot of support ($) and have been doing a lot of planning over the past year and a half. And Roselli is thought to be an aggressive recruiter. Very different than Spates and Cody. You can bet that every high level recruit is hearing about how he built the tOSU RTC, about how he coached gold medalists Snyder & Stieber, about OU having plenty of admin and booster support. OU may not become a serious power again, but I am not taking them lightly.

 

[proud2bpokes]

Butler going with Ou was solely on money and Ou trashing OSU RTC compared to Theirs didn’t help us. Smith wanted him to hold off

I am glad to hear ou is bashing OSU for their RTC. Poking the sleeping bear or maybe it’s they should let sleeping dogs lie. Either way I hope they get rabies. Not you Micco.

 

[MiccoMacey]

I am glad to hear ou is bashing OSU for their RTC. Poking the sleeping bear or maybe it’s they should let sleeping dogs lie. Either way I hope they get rabies. Not you Micco.

I can’t remember laughing this hard in a long time! Thanks for wishing me free of mouth foam.

 

[driad]

@MiccoMacey thats a long list of sucky wrestlers you made there. Congrats.

 

[Mrgrapple]

I hope and think OU will be a much better team next season. Bedlam didn’t have any Bedlam last year. Talked with 3 former Sooner AAs at nationals in Vegas and they were all very upset about the Sooner program especially the one dual thing last year.

 

[osu2082]

As much it pains me to say it... we need OU (and ISU) to get back to the high levels they once exhibited. Our conference has hurt us in recruiting and perception. OU and ISU getting back to pushing us and pushing for multiple AA honors only helps OSU wrestling.

 

[Sebastian]

Disagree on OU. We need Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas on lockdown, as well as the entire western US having us as the clear best team. Them being good only means they’d get a decent number of guys we want.

 

[proud2bpokes]

Disagree on OU. We need Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas on lockdown, as well as the entire western US having us as the clear best team. Them being good only means they’d get a decent number of guys we want.

While I agree that it would be nice to lockdown the region, OSU’s last run of championships was done when ou was really salty. They signed many guys we wanted like Sam Hazewinkel, Teyon Ware, Matt Grice, Wes Roberts and Jack Swagger. After they signed with ou, Coach Smith found other and in most cases better options.

 

[Wrassler17]

My gut reaction is for OU to lose as much as possible. But in terms of what's best for OSU and youth wrestling in Oklahoma, I'd settle for them being a consistent top 15 team that only cracks the top 10 occasionally. I'd rather see Iowa State become a perennial top 10 team, along with continued improvement by SDSU, WVU, and UNI in the Big12.

 

[oberebo]

My gut reaction is for OU to lose as much as possible. But in terms of what's best for OSU and youth wrestling in Oklahoma, I'd settle for them being a consistent top 15 team that only cracks the top 10 occasionally. I'd rather see Iowa State become a perennial top 10 team, along with continued improvement by SDSU, WVU, and UNI in the Big12.

I want OU to be great and us greater. We need to get the Bedlam rivalry back which in turn stirs interest in wrestling in this state and across the country. I agree that SDSU, WVU and UNI need to continue to improve but frankly, at least for SDSU and WVU this is not probable. UNI should continue to get better. Back to OU, it is less fun going to a Bedlam match when the outcome is not in doubt and there are 80-90% of the fans in orange. I want a feeling of accomplishment when we beat them.
LETS GO POKES!!

 

[lincolnhs]

I think we agree that OU needs to be the wrestling team it once was. The question is how big of a priority is wrestling to the athletic department? As good as an AD joe castiglione is, I wonder if that's near the top of his list. I'm not saying he doesn't care cause I know he wants all his sports to compete at a high level.

I mean we know they have football rolling, basketball is a priority, baseball is a priority and they're getting 10 million for field improvements and such, golf has emerged into a national power, gymnastics is racking up national titles, but I feel like their wrestling program is simply neglected to an extent. Just like Holder has admitted that our wrestling program has been neglected and that we need some upgrades. Just my opinion, if OU wrestling wants to be great, the AD and the athletic department need to make it put it on there along with the other top sports, and at the same time improvements need to show on the mat to grab interest from their fans cause from what people tell me on their campus, they could care less about wrestling.

 

[MiccoMacey]

I hope and think OU will be a much better team next season. Bedlam didn’t have any Bedlam last year. Talked with 3 former Sooner AAs at nationals in Vegas and they were all very upset about the Sooner program especially the one dual thing last year.

Agreed, and I didn’t like the way Rosselli explained it in the media.

But you do realize who initially came up with the idea of only meeting once a year, don’t you? It was OSU. That’s fact.

Either or, OU needs to be competitive again. I have to think if Joe C didn’t care about wrestling he wouldn’t have fired Cody, or hired Rosselli, and wouldn’t have allowed the OKRTC on his campus. I think those are clear signs he’s vested in getting OU back to national prominence.

Like oberebo, I’m tired of going to watch a match that’s pre-determined. I’m hopeful it’ll be more competitive from here on.

 

[Sebastian]

It’s a different world we’re living in now. Every recruit we’d lose to a good OU team is one less bullet against the Penn State monster.

 

[Wrassler17]

It’s a different world we’re living in now. Every recruit we’d lose to a good OU team is one less bullet against the Penn State monster.

That's a fair point. The tradeoff is that a weak OU would likely hurt Oklahoma youth wrestling in the long term.

That raises another question though. A strong OK high school wrestling pipeline is obviously good for recruiting. But just how important is it? I've heard coach Smith say that the lineup needs at least 5 OK starters in order to win a team title (presumably because of in-state scholly $ savings). But is that still true in today's environment? The other 3 contenders to win the title this year are PSU, Iowa, and Ohio St. Looking at the projected lineups, PSU will have 7 out of state starters, Iowa will have 9, and Ohio State will have 7.

 

[Air_Thurman]

I was going to skip commenting on OU any further. But what the hell.

Air_Thurman is one of our best posters, no question about it. He asked when was the last time that we lost a top recruit to OU. A fair question and it has been a long time. But I would ask another question. When was the last time we finished 13th at nationals? That's been a long time too.

My point is that things don't always stay as they are. I don't sleep on anyone. Certainly not OU. It's clear to me that Leonard, Roselli, & Eric have a lot of support ($) and have been doing a lot of planning over the past year and a half. And Roselli is thought to be an aggressive recruiter. Very different than Spates and Cody. You can bet that every high level recruit is hearing about how he built the tOSU RTC, about how he coached gold medalists Snyder & Stieber, about OU having plenty of admin and booster support. OU may not become a serious power again, but I am not taking them lightly.

We finished 13th but OU finished 56th. They scored a point.

To be clear, I have no idea what these younger HS guys are going to do. Maybe they all choose OU. My only point was it has been a long time since we've lost an Oklahoma kid we really wanted to the Sooners. There is no doubt Roselli knows how to build an RTC and that should be a big factor at some point. End of the day, they need more than a RTC though. They've got to start showing results on the mat. They've got to start having guys show improvement.

Everyone speaks real highly of Roselli. I'm sure he is a great coach and OU did redshirt some talent. OU should start moving in the right direction. Frankly there is nowhere to go but up. I just think OU needs more than an RTC before they start beating us for the top instate talent. But I'm just guessing. I have zero inside info. Training with Guerrero and Heil is probably appealing. Don't discount spending everyday with guys like Smith, Caldwell, Perry, Espo, AD and Fix either. We might be lagging in RTC development but the OSU wrestling room is still filled with a ton of elite guys to train with.

All that being said we desperately need to up our RTC game.

 

[MiccoMacey]

A full point? Man, we over achieved!

I’ve just got a good feeling about that long list of sucky wrestlers as driad pointed out. They might do absolutely nothing.

But two of them are on the Junior World Team. That’s a pretty good accomplishment for those sucky wrestlers.

I think we’ll see OU Back in the top five in the next three years. That’s a very heady prediction on my part, but remember I’m oberebo trained so I’ll stop short of calling for 11 All Americans like he did and just say top five.

 

[Wrassler17]

We finished 13th but OU finished 56th. They scored a point.

To be clear, I have no idea what these younger HS guys are going to do. Maybe they all choose OU. My only point was it has been a long time since we've lost an Oklahoma kid we really wanted to the Sooners. There is no doubt Roselli knows how to build an RTC and that should be a big factor at some point. End of the day, they need more than a RTC though. They've got to start showing results on the mat. They've got to start having guys show improvement.

Everyone speaks real highly of Roselli. I'm sure he is a great coach and OU did redshirt some talent. OU should start moving in the right direction. Frankly there is nowhere to go but up. I just think OU needs more than an RTC before they start beating us for the top instate talent. But I'm just guessing. I have zero inside info. Training with Guerrero and Heil is probably appealing. Don't discount spending everyday with guys like Smith, Caldwell, Perry, Espo, AD and Fix either. We might be lagging in RTC development but the OSU wrestling room is still filled with a ton of elite guys to train with.

All that being said we desperately need to up our RTC game.

I have no idea where these recruits will end up going either. But I also had no idea 10 years ago that PSU and tOSU would end up dominating college wrestling. Money & smarts goes a long way. Sure OU will need to show improvement, but the key to that is recruiting. And the key to recruiting is the RTC.

And just to clarify my earlier post, I think Rosselli is a very good coach, but I wouldn't say he's a great coach. I said he's an aggressive recruiter that will sell guys on his successes. That doesn't necessarily mean it's all completely accurate. Ryan was the driver for the Ohio State RTC. He's the salesman that got the booster money. And Logan Stieber and Kyle Snyder were freestyle prodigies long before Rosselli worked with them. Snyder won UWW Juniors as a HS junior, then spent his entire senior year training at the OTC. Stieber placed at the US Senior Open as a HS junior and senior. Erik Burnett was the youth coach responsible for his development. Rosselli was their coach when they won gold at the senior level, so he deserves credit for that, but the talent was already there. If he was a great coach, he would have gotten NATO on a Junior WT or gotten DiJulius to AA at least once. Just my opinion.