on this day Penn State hired Cael Sanderson
8 Years Ago...
- Thread starter Former112
- Start date
Its the comment structure Gunz used that provocted the now classic FRL moment
...Lion fans popped out of nowhere and acted like wrestling never existed before. 
Brilliant in its subtlety. But that's only six words. I thought a minimum of 8 words were required to score a like.
I remember running around my downstairs shouting "YES! YES!" over and over. When my kids asked me why I was so happy, I told them wrestling championships would be coming to State College very soon! Many of them.
And Cael said, "Let the Dynasty begin". So let it be written, so let it be done.
I was going to practice at the same club that I now coach and run, and made my initial bet that PSU would wing at least a single title within the first five years.
I have to text my old buddy and remind him of how right I was... Thank you.
I have to text my old buddy and remind him of how right I was... Thank you.
That probably does bug the snot out of Hawk fans. Every Hawk I know swears it was invented the day God led Gable into Iowa City....Lion fans popped out of nowhere and acted like wrestling never existed before.
I was on the phone with a buddy and we were both saying No! No! It sucked on so many levels. We were absolutely going to overtake Iowa in the near future and we had David Taylor on board and more help coming. We had a veteran group led by Jake Varner, David Z. and Cyler Sanderson coming back. It was like a dark cloud. I'm really happy for you guys and all, but man did that suck for us. Some people were and still are mad at Cael, while others blamed Pollard. I don't really blame anyone- Cael saw a better opportunity in richer recruiting grounds with a better funded athletic department and that was that. He was right to leave. I will always be thankful he was a Cyclone. Garth Brooks song "The Dance" was playing on 100.3 in his honor that next night.
I would bet money that Penn State had better average attendance pre-Cael than Iowa had pre-Gable
@ChristianPyles
@smalls103
On FRL today, you stated that NCAAs should never go back to Philly because of lack of eating and entertainment choices within walking distance. Welcome to 2017.
http://www.xfinitylive.com/?fullsite=true
Don't know for certain, but I am pretty sure Iowa St and Iowa wrestling matches were broadcast state wide back in the 60s and 70s. I would be willing to bet Iowa matches were very well attended prior to Gable.
From what I've read on boards, that wasn't the case. Would like to see some numbers.
And 8 years ago on this date... College wrestling was reinvented. Tell the rest of the pack who still haven't adjusted. Penn State spotted them two wrestlers in 2017 at Nationals... and the pack still got taken to the wood shed. It's a place they're going to have to enjoy in the coming years. Get cozy.
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Eight years ago we discovered FUN Turk....Lion fans popped out of nowhere and acted like wrestling never existed before.
No, they didn't. One poster, who I don't believe is an Iowa fan, intimated it. Let's leave this thread to its intended purpose please.
Someone who saw the approaching storm:
http://s200.trackwrestling.com/tw/P...&twSessionId=lffjmlhqndrosxu&postId=370589076
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I'm from Iowa, but 8 years ago I was wrestling at a Div 1 school outside of the state. My teammates looked to me for news in Iowa. I know that I'm a true wrestling junkie because I can remember the exact moment when this news broke.
I was sitting in the wrestlers lounge playing around on wrestling media sites (Flo, Intermat, etc.). It was just before practice one afternoon. Probably around 4pm. At first I didn't believe the reports. My thoughts were that there was no way Cael would ever leave ISU. He was the golden child in Ames. A celebrity. Everyone loved him and he was doing great things with the program.
It took several days for me to accept the news. To this day I think the main motivating factor was that Cael was tired of being second best in the state. He was always going to play second fiddle to Brands and the Hawkeyes within the state of Iowa.
Turns out to have been an amazing move for Cael, for PSU, and imo for wrestling. Cael and PSU have revolutionized the game from recruiting, training, and most importantly imo mentality about the sport. Lots of fans are not willing to admit this, but you can bet coaches around the country are. They need to adjust to survive.
I still hold out a flicker of hope that one day Cael will pull a Lebron and come back to Ames. Would love to see if all he's learned and the coaching techniques he's developed could win him titles there, or is it a necessity to have that proximity to the best high school wrestlers in the country. We may never know.
I was sitting in the wrestlers lounge playing around on wrestling media sites (Flo, Intermat, etc.). It was just before practice one afternoon. Probably around 4pm. At first I didn't believe the reports. My thoughts were that there was no way Cael would ever leave ISU. He was the golden child in Ames. A celebrity. Everyone loved him and he was doing great things with the program.
It took several days for me to accept the news. To this day I think the main motivating factor was that Cael was tired of being second best in the state. He was always going to play second fiddle to Brands and the Hawkeyes within the state of Iowa.
Turns out to have been an amazing move for Cael, for PSU, and imo for wrestling. Cael and PSU have revolutionized the game from recruiting, training, and most importantly imo mentality about the sport. Lots of fans are not willing to admit this, but you can bet coaches around the country are. They need to adjust to survive.
I still hold out a flicker of hope that one day Cael will pull a Lebron and come back to Ames. Would love to see if all he's learned and the coaching techniques he's developed could win him titles there, or is it a necessity to have that proximity to the best high school wrestlers in the country. We may never know.
I'm a bit of a Civil War buff. A lot of what comes out of Iowa is like the Myth of the Lost Cause.
I believe its foolish arrogance that causes people to believe that Cael was "always going to play second fiddle to Brands ...". Brands was coming to the end of his double recruiting class (only one year left of it) when Cael left Iowa State and Cael had already recruited David Taylor. In addition, the Penn State program was in free fall, whereas ISU was coming off three top five finishes, including second. In the short term, ISU may have been the easier place to succeed.
I have to think it was a matter of time (and probably short at that) before Cael surpassed Brands even if he had stayed at ISU.
But I also believe Cael recognized a unique long-term opportunity at Penn State that he couldn't pass up. I'd be shocked if *he* thought staying at ISU would have meant always being second in Iowa. I'm sure he was shooting to be the top wrestling school there also and I think he would have achieved that goal. But the base of power in high school wrestling is in Ohio, PA, NY and NJ and he knew that was the advantage of being in State College. I'm certainly glad he did.
I was not saying that Cael couldn't have won a couple of national championships and beaten Iowa a few times at ISU. He certainly could have and I think would have, but that would not have gotten him out of second fiddle status in the state among fans and the media. It would have taken the level of success he's having now, and that seems extremely unlikely without all of the PA talent. I stand by the idea that if at ISU, their program would still be considered second best and they'd be getting the second tier of recruits from in state.
Dresser may be able to show us in the coming years what it takes to get ISU out of second fiddle status in the state of Iowa.
That's only because Iowa fans are, as a whole, delusional.
And it should be patently obvious to any rational person that you can't have a top-notch college program based on Iowa recruits.
"Didn't want to play second fiddle to Iowa" is what the psychologists call projection.
Cael had bigger goals than Iowa, just like he had bigger goals than Lehigh:
Cael had bigger goals than Iowa, just like he had bigger goals than Lehigh:
From that Rob Sherrill 2009 article in WINMag:
Undoubtedly, it was a gut-wrenching decision for an athletic department that doesn’t often step outside the Penn State family — and probably just as gut-wrenching for Sanderson, who’s bailing on the university that’s inextricably wrapped around his DNA and that of his entire family.
'Gutwrenching' doesn't really fit with the narrative we've long heard that:
- Cael called PSU, not the other way around, inquiring about the possibility
- Tim Curley was ecstatic and locked it up dang quick.
Compare and contrast with Pitt:
PSU has Koll all but signed. Cael calls. Curley puts him on mute just long enough to scream HOLY SH** !!, then asks Cael if Tuesday would be OK for the press conference.
Pitt has Santoro all but signed. Lyke throws it away for a fling with Rosselli, who doesn't even want the job, then gets rejected by mutliple coaches before finally landing Gavin ... and still no commitment to upgrade the program.
