I know that during Sunderland's last season I was seriously considering dropping my season tickets. A 8-hour round trip drive to see Penn State fail to compete against Wisconsin was close to the final nail in the coffin. I didn't see a future for the team that would justify my continuing. I knew a change had to be made, but had no concept how amazing that change would be. I opined at the time that Penn State could win a national title in Cael's third season - I really believed that. Little did I know that the results would be better than that and that I would be there in person in Philly to see the dawn of a new college wrestling dynasty (I think the 7 of 8 currently ongoing qualifies the program as a dynasty).
Toast your Glasses tonight because....
- Thread starter dunkej01
- Start date
Love this story for the obvious reason, and also because it's the fan equivalent of the legendary Jordan Conaway recruiting story: "Get them (Nebraska) off the phone, I've got Cael Sanderson!"
One of those announcements that was beyond belief. PSU wrestling had always kept it in the family. Sometimes that worked and sometimes it didn't. Was completely stunned that we went out and pulled a bold, unconventional (for PSU anyway) move like hiring Cael. It was needed and necessary and many of us had been talking about PSU needing to do something dramatic like this for many years. NEVER, EVER expected 7 in 8 years but knew this was going to be a game changer for us as a program.
Yup. Same in-house trend would have happened with football until an H Bomb hit the program in Nov 2011. In that case there was an involuntary sudden change of direction.
Just imagine if the timing was different and Ohio State landed Cael. Ugh
It's not the Iowa board, but here's a look back at the Iowa State forums in 2009 and their thoughts on the Cael situation. The oldest threads about Cael leaving start on page 119. Enjoy.
https://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/forums/wrestling.27/page-119
From a member named Josh777 and dated 16 Aprl 2009, a day before Cael left. How prophetic was this post!!!
"The State of Penn. has an extremely fertile recruiting base (hs that is). Can't recall the exact numbers but I believe more than half of the wrestlers in the National finals were from Penn.
Not making a prediction about Cael leaving ISU for PSU but their wrestling program is a sleeping giant. Similar to what is brewing at Ohio State...Ohio is another state that produces a lot of quality hs wrestlers and OSU's current coach is beginning to shore up the boundaries. If someone with such a strong name and rep like CS were to head their program and secure the Penn. boundaries for recruits, they could turn PSU into a dominant program."
https://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/forums/wrestling.27/page-119
From a member named Josh777 and dated 16 Aprl 2009, a day before Cael left. How prophetic was this post!!!
"The State of Penn. has an extremely fertile recruiting base (hs that is). Can't recall the exact numbers but I believe more than half of the wrestlers in the National finals were from Penn.
Not making a prediction about Cael leaving ISU for PSU but their wrestling program is a sleeping giant. Similar to what is brewing at Ohio State...Ohio is another state that produces a lot of quality hs wrestlers and OSU's current coach is beginning to shore up the boundaries. If someone with such a strong name and rep like CS were to head their program and secure the Penn. boundaries for recruits, they could turn PSU into a dominant program."
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Thanks 1985, some of those Iowa State posts from April 2009 are hilarious
"Egg his house before he leaves"
"Brands kicked his ass in Iowa, now he'll kick his ass in Pennsylvania "
"He is taking all the wrestlers with him!"
Gems
"Egg his house before he leaves"
"Brands kicked his ass in Iowa, now he'll kick his ass in Pennsylvania "
"He is taking all the wrestlers with him!"
Gems
The irony of this is that he not only secured the borders, but he went out across the nation and got the best of the best from everywhere else also. Then he added probably the second best wrestling coach in the nation, as HIS #1 assistant, then just for fun added 2 more top ten coaches, then proceeded to hand pick the wrestlers from then on in, and coach them to higher levels.
We are in the middle of the storm so I think we sometimes don't even recognize just how astonishing this is, what Cael and the staff has done here.
For the average ISU fan, I felt bad. It could be us some day. I'm sure the punch to the gut was pretty severe.
If the Brands ran him out of Iowa I bet you they really wish they hadn't.
Of course I believe if Cael had stayed at Iowa State he would have surpassed Iowa.
It's even better than that.
10 years ago, losing Jordan Oliver was really bad news.
Look at the PA kids going elsewhere now. Spencer. Kemdawg. Pletcher. Hoffman. Sasso. Hidlay brothers. Wood. Labriola. Chlebove. Etc.
Today our worst reaction to any of them is: would've loved to have him but we'll be OK.
For that matter, this year we had a world. champ flip last minute away from us, and our reaction was: Cael's talking to another world champ.
It's good to be the king.
Amazing, and all true. In a vacuum, any of those are crushing losses, now pile them all up as you just did. Add in, that they aren't just going to Edinboro or Rider or Bucknell or Binghamton, and spaced out...no...they are going to our rivals. Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, now N.C. State, and still, we react with "meh", Cael has the next world champ on line 2, and every year somebody is coming out of the woodwork just in case like a James English or a Jordan Conaway or an Adam Lynch, etc...
Part of the take that cracked me was the money take. The rumored financial picture is Cael was making $110,000 @ ISU and PSU offered $500,000 a year for 5 years and people were irrational enough to babble all kind of nonsense about greed and selfishness. 30 years old, just starting a family and a competitor offers you 5X the amount you are currently making for a very similar job and you accept, it isn't greed nor selfishness. It is doing what you are suppose to do. Work hard and provide for your family.
Cael actually takes it a step further by demanding financial consideration for his staff.
But hey, the ISU bitterness is understandable. The Iowa bullshyt was ridiculous.
Cael actually takes it a step further by demanding financial consideration for his staff.
But hey, the ISU bitterness is understandable. The Iowa bullshyt was ridiculous.
Someone over there actually spun that the other way, and essentially said, "If someone is willing to plop down that kind of money on our sport, more power to them."
You still can. Check out the comments section:
https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2009/4/17/842722/sanderson-hates-ames-takes-psu
Whitehall & jtothep were spot on.
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The whole "grass roots" style in which it went down was the stuff of glory and legend....like the town gathered, passed around the hat, and finally took over from the empty suit that was unable to for so long.
I just remember his first NCAA here and some of the media was kinda patting him on his back for us finishing higher than we had in a bunch of years and his response was something like "that's the lowest Penn State is ever going to finish as long as im the coach."
Rosswb is still plugging away on message boards today. Surprised he didn’t take a long sabbatical after being so disastrously wrong in that thread.
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