ISU hires an asst.

[MitchL]

I was going to title this thread "Big News", but that would be a bit deceiving. After a short(sarcasm alert) two and a half month coaching search, ISU has named Escobedo as the new lightweight asst wrestling coach replacing Nickerson.
This guy is a very talented wrestler who apparently is still going to compete while still trying to coach. This is a bit of a head scratcher in terms of being able to successfully recruit, which obviously requires a good bit of traveling over the entire country.

He doesn't bring a background that would lead ANYONE to think he has big connections to the hotbeds of high school wrestling around the U.S.

This begs the question that there likely there wasn't much to chose from given that he had joined the CWC in June. Why not announce his selection at that time? The EOE issue would have been cleared up by the end of June.

We'll need to give him at least two years to see the results, but this hire is quite underwhelming, imo.

But I hope to hear some ISU fans rave and marvel about this hire. He'll be a big plus for the 125-141 guys if he can budget the time between competing/recruiting/ coaching.

 

[MitchL]

Update:

Just read the official ISU press release regarding the wrestling situation and now it really makes you wonder.

AE will only be a VOLUNTEER asst. coach. How many top notch programs in the country do you know that don't have paid assts for the various lower/middle/upper classes? Not sure if here are some restrictions regarding what an unpaid coach can or can't do in terms of off-campus recruiting, but why on earth would ISU have this kind of situation?

This smells of Pollard not wanting to give a contract where he's forced to pay someone who likely is gone when KJ gets the axe next spring. That would explain the dilemma in taking so long to get this done.

So in summary... those fans and parents closest to the program had/have no idea what is going on! Remember this gem from RRF... On August 2nd he claimed that on the following day an asst would be named and that coach was an "East coast guy". So unless Indiana is now on the 'East coast".. WRONG and WRONG!

My source in Ames knows just as much or more than those characters.

 

[supercyzd]

Originally posted by MitchL:

Update:

Just read the official ISU press release regarding the wrestling situation and now it really makes you wonder.

AE will only be a VOLUNTEER asst. coach. How many top notch programs in the country do you know that don't have paid assts for the various lower/middle/upper classes? Not sure if here are some restrictions regarding what an unpaid coach can or can't do in terms of off-campus recruiting, but why on earth would ISU have this kind of situation?

This smells of Pollard not wanting to give a contract where he's forced to pay someone who likely is gone when KJ gets the axe next spring. That would explain the dilemma in taking so long to get this done.

So in summary... those fans and parents closest to the program had/have no idea what is going on! Remember this gem from RRF... On August 2nd he claimed that on the following day an asst would be named and that coach was an "East coast guy". So unless Indiana is now on the 'East coast".. WRONG and WRONG!

My source in Ames knows just as much or more than those characters.

MitchL - To your question.... I don't know exactly how many programs do not have a paid coach at lower/middle/uppers. However, I do know of one other top program in the country with a similar coaching setup. One answer is the Iowa Hawkeyes...They only guy they have to work with the upper guys is Volunteer Assistant, Ben Berhow. I'm sure this news will upset you and you will soon be asking your Hawkeye brothers "why on earth would Iowa have this kind of situation?".

 

[MitchL]

Good observation there. The biggest difference in the two situations is that Iowa has multiple returning AAs in those upper weights, so the perception would be that the Hawks are not suffering in those weight ranges with BB as the volunteer.

Conversely, ISU has had only ONE AA since Nationals in Omaha(Hall) so the Nickerson departure is more glaring. If ISU somehow manages to have Larsen/Hall/Meeks all AA this season... I will admit that it's not a big deal. At this point, I think even you would admit that scenario is pretty remote.

BTW: Berhow no longer competes internationally, so the comparison to AE isn't really apples to apples. A good effort on your part to try and justify AE's position, tho.

 

[MitchL]

I also realize that given all the chaos in the ISU wrestling program, KJ might have felt the need to reward Paulsen for his contributions over the years. If he needed to do that, he should have reversed the two promotions and made AE the paid asst.

Him going to CWC doesn't make much sense. There is absolutely no one in the Clone room to push him in his personal goals of wrestling internationally. There is a huge void in talent on the wrestling team in the bottom six weights. I think the only one capable of being a AA this season is Hall, and I'm not sure he's strong enough to be top 8 at 133.

The meltdown of the football program may keep some pressure off of KJ until CPR gets fired next winter.

And given Pollard's poor results in hiring head coaches... I think finding a new head football coach will be someone other than Pollard's task.

While Pollard has done a good job in facilities updates and tix sales... he's failed miserably at hiring coaches. Chizek, Greg McD, Rhoads, KJ, and Hoiberg. That's one homerun(Hoiberg) and four whiffs. If he was in the business world with that record... he'd have been fired two years ago. But we're talking ISU Athletics, where the expectations are so low that he has survived.

When season tix sales decline, people stop buying ISU merchandise, and donor giving starts to decline, and they will given all the losing in the football program, he'll be shown the door.

His audition for the Wisconsin AD job when Alvarez retires will have been in vain.

But hey.. it's Iowa State. BAU!