https://www.gofundme.com/help-support-the-kocher-family?rcid=f90553ff63d9402f81177a27eeb92f31
By Stephen Patrick
As everyone now knows, Jason Peters was fired on Thursday. There is no point in dwelling on why, so let's look forward. Matt Kocher and Drew Headlee will co-coach the remainder of the season while the athletic director-less athletic department searches for a new Head Coach. Here are some pros and cons of potential candidates discussed online and that I have come up with.
Jody Strittmatter, co-founder of Young Guns wrestling club
Pros: Spencer Lee, Gavin Teasdale, Jason Nolf, Michael Kemerer, Luke Pletcher, Sam Krivus, Zach Zavatsky, Vincenzo Joseph, Josh Shields, Cam Coy, Jimmy Gulibon (just to name a few)
Cons: Has already publicly stated he has "zero" interest in the job
Cary Kolat, Head Coach at Campbell
Pros: Olympian, World medalist, WPIAL native, widely considered the best high school wrestler of all time
Cons: For whatever reason, has not had a ton of success coaching at the collegiate level
Sanshiro Abe, Head Coach at North Allegheny
Pros: Olympian, 2x NCAA champion, 4x All-American, decorated high school coach, former Pitt assistant coach
Cons: You could say he's mostly been a high school coach, but Kevin Dresser was mostly a high school coach before taking over Virginia Tech. Look what he's done
Keith Gavin, Assistant Coach at Oklahoma
Pros: Pitt's most recent National Champ, 2x All-American, extensive freestyle experience, collegiate coaching experience at Virginia and now Oklahoma
Cons: Young and less experienced than most candidates
Coleman Scott, Head Coach at North Carolina
Pros: Olympic medalist, NCAA champ, WPIAL native, coaching experience under John Smith
Cons: With the Tarheel Wrestling Club growing rapidly under Kenny Monday and locking up great recruit after great recruit, why on earth would he leave UNC?
Casey Cunningham, Head Assistant Coach at Penn State
Pros: NCAA champ, 2x All-American, 17 years DI coaching experience, Cael Sanderson's top assistant for years, widely recognized as one of the top assistant's in the nation
Cons: No head coaching experience. But then again Cael Sanderson, Tom Ryan, and John Smith didn't have any head coaching experience before their first head coaching job either
Pat Santoro, Head Coach at Lehigh
Pros: 2x NCAA champ and Pitt's only 4x All-American, consistently gets top recruits, annually leads Lehigh to top 15 and often top 10 finishes, regularly produces All-Americans, just read his bio
Cons: Hasn't already accepted the job
Every candidate listed here could make an incredible Head Coach at the DI level. The last two options are my personal favorites. I have no idea if either are interested in the job, but based on their resumes, Pitt would be in fantastic hands should either take up the mantle.
Midlands
I didn't write a blog after Midlands for various reasons. Nonetheless here are some of my thoughts.
Pitt finished 26th at Midlands which is terrible, but did not have the luxury of Dom Forys, TeShan Campbell and Ryan Solomon, their three highest ranked wrestlers, contributing team points. Nonetheless, performances from LJ Bentley, Robert Lee, Mikey Racciato, Austin Bell, Zach Bruce, and John Rizzo left something to be desired. Instead of focusing on the negatives, as anyone can look at the brackets and realize those athletes should have won matches they didn't, let us look at the positives.
Nick Zanetta placed 8th, higher than Luke Pletcher. One things sport fans love to do is look at results and extrapolate. For instance if A beat B and B beats C, then A definitely beats C right? While that's a precarious way to predict sporting events, especially wrestling (see, generally, the NCAA tournament every single year), let's assume it holds true for now.
Nick lost to Kanen Storr from Iowa State 3-1 in OT and Storr lost to Anthony Ashnault 2-1. However in the championship side of the bracket Nick lost to Ashnault 15-5. See how well our logic holds up? Anyway, Storr beat Pletcher (3x PIAA champ) 5-4 but only beat Nick 3-1. So, it is conceivable, Nick could beat Pletcher, who is currently ranked 13th. Long story short, Nick had a good tournament.
Let's apply this logic to Jake Wentzel.
Jake got teched by Hayden Hidlay of North Carolina State (future conference foe) 20-3 then had a decent run on the consolation side.
He was beating JuCo national champ DaWaylon Barnes of Oklahoma and lost with seconds to spare. Barnes then beat 27th ranked Jake Danishek of Indiana in OT who then lost to 14th ranked John VanBrill of Rutgers in a close match. Conceivably, Wentzel could have beat all of them. I expect big things out of him over the next few years.
Opinions (Everyone has them)
I still have no idea who Pitt's starter at 184 is
K.J. Fenstermacher is becoming quite the recruit as he beat Brian Courtney in the Escape the Rock finals. You'll remember Courtney as the kid who beat a returning state champion in the quater-finals, semi-finals and finals at states last year. He was named The Open Mat's High School Wrestler of the week
Not much to write about the Pitt Duals
Peculiar amount of starters did not wrestle against Virginia Tech
Jason Peters is a good man
Here it is again:
https://www.gofundme.com/help-support-the-kocher-family?rcid=f90553ff63d9402f81177a27eeb92f31
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