The evidence is mounting . . . coaching and room development is significant at PSU

[GogglesPaizano]

Rudis podcast made a mention of people thinking PSU wins only because of recruiting as being rediculous. They cite ASU having the top recruiting class in the nation 3 years ago, translating to their current Junior class. How is that working for them?

 

[nitlion6]

I'm just kidding.



Or am I?

But how does jts feel about it?

 

[Lyons212]

Rudis podcast made a mention of people thinking PSU wins only because of recruiting as being rediculous. They cite ASU having the top recruiting class in the nation 3 years ago, translating to their current Junior class. How is that working for them?

Part of Cael's magic is identifying the guys who can still significantly improve and do not have off the mat issues such as grades or legal problems. When you review PSU's recruiting under Cael, the only blue chip guys who have not become multi-time AA's are Gulibon and the Altons.

Take a look at that ASU class, a big part of it was Lance Benick from Minnesota. He is now the 8th ranked 197 pounder in the country for D3 Augsburg. Not sure what happened to Lance at ASU, homesick, did not develop, etc, but that is a big swing and miss. Also, Anthony Valencia has been solid, but has yet to obtain AA status for whatever reason (most likely cause he needs a few more cheeseburgers in his life).

 

[Cyclingmik]

There is always debate about coaches with supreme talent....ie Phil Jackson and 70’s Chuck Noll. Coaching or players? My guess is both!

 

[nitlion6]

There is always debate about coaches with supreme talent....ie Phil Jackson and 70’s Chuck Noll. Coaching or players? My guess is both!

My experience is really good coaches make a huge difference. Great athletes with mediocre coaching will succeed, but with limits. Great athletes with great coaching succeed with much higher limits. Mediocre or poor coaching pull their athletes in that direction.

To me the attempt to belittle an extremely successful coach's coaching ability by labeling their succees as simply a product of their athletes is poor reasoning. In athletic endeavors in most cases we measure the athletic quality based upon wins and losses, successes and failures. Then for some there is a need to belittle others' successes and achievements by changing the measuring stick.

Chuck Noll was a great coach as was Tom Landry, Don Shula, Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh.

Bear Bryant was a great coach, as was Tom Osborne, Dan Gable, JoePa, Gus DeAugustine, Donny Rohn or Dick Rhodes.

Bill Belichick is a great coach as is Cael. They all did it somewhat differently, but their end product has been a level of success way above average.

 

[matter7172]

As I suggested to Wild Turk in a recent thread, maybe people using that fallacious and hackneyed argument about Cael and his staff's coaching should consider the possibility that they are putting the cart before the horse. Maybe Penn State is getting the best recruits *because* they are doing the best job coaching wrestlers to their maximum potential.