Looks like Mullen committed to V Tech to wrestle and play football
- Thread starter kingslayer_85
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Hidlay in the hole on mat B.
Oops wrong thread.🤣
Oops wrong thread.🤣
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I wonder if trying to do both also limits his ceiling at both as well.
Maybe that’s an unanswerable question, but it’ll be interesting nonetheless.
It absolutely affects Mullen's ceiling -- in both sports. For at least as long as he pursues both sports, plus any lag in development.
I don't see how this is sustainable for 4-5 years:
My prediction is he will not be playing in 2 sports 3 years from now. There is a natural selection process at the NCAA level that comes into play and will make the choice of one over the other pretty clear.
As for wrestling, I don't see him as higher than a low AA at best if he were 100% committed to wrestling alone. Football will consume a good portion of the Sping, Summer and Fall. Wrestling at this level on a 1/2 season of dedicated practice is not for the faint of heart. He has a mountain to climb ahead of him. I tip my hat to his dedication and enthusiasm, and he still might prove their best available heavy throughout, but he ain't threatening the top of any podiums splitting time, of that much I am sure.
As for wrestling, I don't see him as higher than a low AA at best if he were 100% committed to wrestling alone. Football will consume a good portion of the Sping, Summer and Fall. Wrestling at this level on a 1/2 season of dedicated practice is not for the faint of heart. He has a mountain to climb ahead of him. I tip my hat to his dedication and enthusiasm, and he still might prove their best available heavy throughout, but he ain't threatening the top of any podiums splitting time, of that much I am sure.
Going back to the early 80’s I think Steve Sefter had decent amount of success in both
Just at Penn State Dave Joyner was an NCAA runner-up in wrestling and an AA football player and Steve Sefter was a 2x AA in wrestling and a starter on the football team including 1982 when we were National Champs so YES it has been done.
Any examples since the Civil War?
I'm kidding a little, but in all seriousness, those examples are irrelevant to today's sports where single-sport athletes are year-round athletes.
That said, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if some wrestlers participated in a spring sport for multiple years -- baseball, or possibly a HWT discus or javelin tosser. Without diminishing spring sports, they're not nearly as demanding as football. Notable is another question.
I'm kidding a little, but in all seriousness, those examples are irrelevant to today's sports where single-sport athletes are year-round athletes.
That said, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if some wrestlers participated in a spring sport for multiple years -- baseball, or possibly a HWT discus or javelin tosser. Without diminishing spring sports, they're not nearly as demanding as football. Notable is another question.
On the other hand, who really cares. If he plays both and achieves what he wants, it would be great. I know it’s D1 and all that, but if he’s good enough to do both and get mat and field time, it’s pretty cool. When he’s sitting at home wondering if he could have been something more but wasn’t because he didn’t focus on one, only he gets to sit and regret. But I’m guessing he just wants to play. When he’s 30 he’s likely not doing either sport and happy he did both as long as he could.
Then again, he might suddenly pick one.
Pretty cool in any event. To me anyway.
It might create some distinction for NIL too. Bo Knows.
Mike Ditka played baseball and basketball at Pitt in addition to football.
Jim Brown was a football and lacrosse player at Syracuse. Not sure if that was before or after the Civil War.
Late 80's, but Deion Sanders did three - football, baseball, and track - All American in both football and track I think - not sure about baseball.
This might be why he didn't receive a college degree until 2020. He did okay without it, but most athletes, multisport or not, are not Deion Sanders or Bo Jackson.
Similar to Kueter, I believe Mullen will ultimately pick one to go with 1-2 years in and Football probably wins.
Might be considered pre-Civil War by some but Art Baker comes to mind. Syracuse football team won the national title and he was an All-American football player. Baker won the 1959 NCAA wrestling title too. I didn't realize it until I looked it up but he is supposedly the only college athlete to win National Championships in two D1 sports in the same year. He played pro football in the NFL and CFL.
A better example from Syracuse would be Jim Nance.Jim Brown was a football and lacrosse player at Syracuse. Not sure if that was before or after the Civil War.
I disagree on that. Nance was a 2x NCAA Champ in wrestling, but his overall career in multiple sports doesn't come close to what Jim Brown did.
Not a D1 sport, but Cenzo supposedly did some competitive eating and wrestled.
He did performed in both sports for 3 years. His freshman year he did not wrestle but sophmore year started both.
He was also a letterman on the cigar chomping team too, granted I think that was a club sport at the time.
I think Hokit is the only one that has relevance with this situation. All the others were years ago when sports were very different. The amount of time each sport demands now is crazy. To do both especially at a high level is almost impossible. Obviously not impossible since Hokit did it and did it at a high level but most won’t make it. Kueter I think might be able to because he is such an incredible athlete but if he is as good of a football player as I hear than I think he goes full time there after a year or maybe 2. Playing in the NFL with the $ involved would win out I assume. Mullen is a very good wrestler but I don’t think he is as good of a football player as Kueter. Will be interesting to watch it play out. My opinion is that his results suffer in both sports because he has to split development time. The off-season in wrestling is where I really jumped levels in college and he won’t have that because football takes up so much time
Im sure Parris was every bit a highly recruited football guy and he chose the “right“ route.
I know Virginia Tech football recruiting isn't at the best but no offense, they're really reaching if Mullen is one of their top DE targets at this point.
Kueter is legitimately a very good football prospect (and IMO even better wrestling)
Kueter is legitimately a very good football prospect (and IMO even better wrestling)
I guess it is good that Va Tech have 2 others recruits committed that are ranked higher than Mullen at DE.
The question about Hokit that I have is would he have been better at either sport had he chosen just one? That may not have been a concern for him, but I would think the answer is almost certainly yes.
In my opinion Hokit is someone who wouldnt have benefited by playing and focusing on one sport. In wrestling he started at 197 prior to jumping to Heavyweight. His best finish was 5th at NCAAs at 197. Entered the NCAA tourney before COVID ended the season as the 12 seed.
Meanwhile in football, he was a 6'-1" fullback/tightend. As we know in todays NFL, the fullback position is almost entirely dead and he is too short to be a Tight end compared to the ideal tight end in todays nfl. And he isnt nearly fast/quick enough to be a running back.
If you get a football scholarship it is a full ride. No partials in football
I agree he choose the right route but I don’t think he was a good enough football player to go to the nfl like Kueter supposedly is
Kueter is a very good football prospect. Low 4 star on most sites off of basically just his high school film in Iowa (where he's scarily productive) A lot of Iowa fans I talk to think he is in the mold of a Jack Campbell for them.
Lol ok and? Is there more to that? Penn state hands out scholarships too to guys like Mullen if they have them. They are referred to as depth guys. Nothing wrong with being the 3rd best DE in your schools class, i was just making the observation to the OP that edge wasn’t a particular dire need for tech football
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