I think you are missing the point. Given his HS resume in OH one of the top wrestling states it’s safe to say he didn’t develop or pan out. Shawver didn’t win a single OH state championship compared to Hermes 3X. But there are plenty of Hermes types that have come and gone through RU past 5 years.
2026-27 Roster/Lineup Discussion (Portal opens 4/1)
- Thread starter Leonard23
- Start date
I am sure a lot of these kids will forgo NIL money for the opportunity to wrestle for Goodale and Pollard.
Shawver was ranked in the 70s big board recruit coming out of hs. I’m pretty positive that Hermes was not a top 100 recruit possibly not even top 200 coming out of hs. His 3 state titles doesn’t mean much if he didn’t beat many nationally ranked kids at the time for it and I’m assuming he didn’t bc he was not a blue chipper coming out of hs— not even close.. so there were no expectations.. RU had plenty of misses of recruits that were blue chippers/high recruit/massive hype but Hermes didn’t qualify as one of those types… there are plenty of guys that are multiple times state champs that never even even sniff some programs lineup.
Current state of HWT in the portal. Surely more to follow but pretty thin right now
Connor Barket (Duke) - 285 lbs
Andrew Blackburn-Forst (North Dakota State) - 285 lbs
Bennett Tabor (Minnesota) - 285 lbs
Max Vanadia (Michigan State) - 285 lbs
Melvin Whitehead (Arizona State) - 285 lbs
Connor Barket (Duke) - 285 lbs
Andrew Blackburn-Forst (North Dakota State) - 285 lbs
Bennett Tabor (Minnesota) - 285 lbs
Max Vanadia (Michigan State) - 285 lbs
Melvin Whitehead (Arizona State) - 285 lbs
125 Knox@Dakpawknight post from NCAA thread:
Wrestling - 2026 Rutgers NCAA Tournament Thread - Page 22 - Forums
We have 8 qualifiers. Shawver and White will know Tues if they get at large bids. Brackets will be released Wed. https://www.ncaa.com/news/wrestling-men/article/2026-03-04/2026-ncaa-di-mens-wrestling-championships-selection-show-info-bracket-andwww.on3.com
2026/27 way too early line up
125: Knox
133: T.Parkins/Gibson/Transfer
141:B. HarerNini/Parkins/Transfer
149:B.Harer Nini/Magro/Transfer
157:C.Harer
165:Barbosa/Ford
174:Ford/Chapman
184:SCW
197: Cotton
285: Has to be a transfer
IMHO: We need 2 transfers. 285is priority #1, 133 likely #2 and a luxury would be 141 or 149.
Some possible transfers:
133: Van Dee (labs, 1 year left), Mougalian (NJ, 1 year left),TK Davis ( GW, small school, small room, I like him, perhaps he could thrive in a better room.)
141: B. Davis (PSU kind of done with him), Zeth Romney (injured this season, 1 season left), Anthony Santaniello (NJ, we recruited him in HS, lost starting spot this year)
149: SVN (no duh), Connor Pierce (psu depth who will never crack lineup)
285: Cochran PSU (could possibly have 1 more year depending on NCAA), Amos wisco (final year, wisco is in rough shape), Mullen VT (NJ), Ziola Neb (We recruited him hard, ferrari may be back for 1 or 2 more years), Nate Schon Drexel (moved around a bunch, 1 year left, came to drexel this year)
133 portal
141 Ninni/ Parkins maybe portal
149 Harer gonna need depth
157 Harer Magro back up
165 Barbosa gonna need need depth
174 ford
184 Walsh/ Chapman
197 cotton
Hwt portal
133 , 141, 174 and 285 are all massive holes and little Harer got hurt recently so who knows if he wrestles next season. That’s half the line up a giant question mark, 1 surefire AA, 2 R12/R16 guys, and 2 NQ level guys. Could be a rough a dual year next season
Hard to believe how many holes we have and lack of depth. On the bright side, Harer and Knox are legit and I also like the Malvern guys coming in especially Zalota. However, looking at the line up makes you realize all the whiffs. Nini was supposed to be a blue-chip stud. Ford didn’t have a storybook HS career but seemed solid. Chapman is still a project with big potential. Parkins too. But this is the B10 and either you grab kids that are basically ready to start day 1 or you better have the best development program in the conference.
We got the depth..
Nini/Parkins/Magro/Chapman/Gibson.. all these guys were top 100 recruits coming out of hs…it just feels like holes bc we dunno who will emerge out of these guys as quality starter/NQ+ guys.. it was huge we were able to land Knox…
I noticed RU really hasn’t been hitting with the mid tier recruits(35-70ish big boarders). The guys we were able to develop(Perrotti/Gravina/Theobold/SCW) weren’t stellar recruits coming into college.. perhaps its Better value to invest in the high end guys(Knox/Ash) and walk-ons.. RU really shouldn’t have “massive holes” In the lineup, theoretically, with all the decent recruiting class rankings we’ve gotten lately— which mainly consisted of mid-tier recruits.
What happened to Harer that You're saying he may not even wrestle next season?
I saw a post on X and in an article I read about the Pittsburgh classic that both said he suffered a significant lower body injury and couldn’t compete so sounds like he tore something
I haven't seen anything mention significant. Where'd you see that as these 2 sources didn't mention that?
U.S. wins Pittsburgh Classic again, but WPIAL, Pennsylvania girls dominate
community.triblive.com
I haven't seen anything mention significant. Where'd you see that as these 2 sources didn't mention that?
U.S. wins Pittsburgh Classic again, but WPIAL, Pennsylvania girls dominate
article literally says severe ankle injury
I don’t have any inside knowledge but I don’t think there’s anything in the ankle short of tearing an Achilles that would put someone out of commission for 7+ months
A broken ankle with fractured bones and torn ligaments, depending on severity, can take that long easily. Is there surgery needed? Is hardware installed? Depends on severity.
Yea if screws and plate are required that’s at least 2 separate surgeries and a long recovery plus could led to reduced mobility for awhile
First domino falls for Rutgers . Smith enters the portal. We can end all that Smith to 133 nonsense.
That sucks though (Ayden). I know Knox is a huge pickup, but it just stinks that we had to lose one of our better younger guys because of it. I just hope it doesn't tarnish any relationships with whatever we have in the Lehigh Valley. I understand why he left, but I just hope it doesn't come to bite us. Hopefully, he lands at a good spot.
Even before the Knox pickup, it never made sense to me that we recruited 3-4 more 113 pounders when Ayden was already a career 125… unless the investment cost was really low for everything it didn’t make sense from a timeline perspective.. whoever else that decides to portal, hopefully it clears up some $$ and ends up being mutually beneficial for both parties.. best of luck to Ayden.
Get whatever top recruits you can, if you end up with a logjam somewhere it’s a good problem to have.
Yeah, if you have unlimited resources that’s a good strategy... when u spend on a top recruit it means you might not be able to get another recruit? There should be some form of roster management and management of timelines and how every stud fits in.
Knox has really screwed Ayden LOL…Ayden was committed to Cornell…then flipped to RU when Knox committed to Cornell…went to RU and now gets pushed out by Knox.
I was also confused by that strategy for 125. On the flip side, it's tough to stay 125 for 4-6 years so maybe they were trying to manage that
I don’t think any of the incoming recruits other than Knox are commanding much
Will miss Ayden. He had some nice victories and it was fun to watch an undersize wrestler excel. Totally understand his decision and hope he succeeds in his career
Maybe, the point was it sounds all good n dandy..” to get as many top recruits you can” and figure out the logistics afterwords… but it’s not a all you can eat buffet.. you recruit one guy you might lose out on another.. for example, get Esposito but then might lose out on Colluccio.. another example.. McFadden wanted to go to RU but we didn’t wanna match VT’s offer bc we wanted to use those resources on other guys…. We also missed out on some guys we wanted to get when we had money tied up with Aragona and Glasgow… gotta be more deliberate with who we choose to recruit rather then throw a bunch of mud against the wall and see what sticks.
His win over Volk was electric… really helped propel us to beat MINN for the first time ever…
Aj Ferrari in the portal the opinion of the wrestling community seems to be he’s going to land at Rutgers. I could see David Taylor seeking his soul trying to beat Penn state and bringing him back to ok state
His next school will be his 5th, he’ll be a 4x AA with at least one nationals title on his resume but impossible to say it hasn’t been an absolute mess of a career.
Not sure if he plans on going the MMA route after college but I feel like he’s someone who’s going to always be in the news negatively.
Not sure if he plans on going the MMA route after college but I feel like he’s someone who’s going to always be in the news negatively.
He might be another one of those guys that peaked as a freshman being a champ as a freshman… he’s been fine the last two team he was on… those comments he made on Yonger that had some people freaking out… like chill out is it a coincidence that him and Yonger might face on the next RAF card? Guy is a showman..
Did AJ really hit the portal… really? RU is his top landing spot rn? I’ll believe it when I c it lol… ngl.. can really see Jersey Mike Arena rocking after AJ flexes and does the splits.. lol . He might come with baggage but it sure as hell would inject some excitement into the program.. he oozing the jersay aura lol