When Gable left, one of the best college wrestling coaches ever was at ISU. He coached for 10 years after Gable left. It wouldn't have been fair to either coach for Dan to stay.
How Penn State hired Cael Sanderson (Athletic Article $)
- Thread starter Cytasticlone
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When Gable left, one of the best college wrestling coaches ever was at ISU. He coached for 10 years after Gable left. It wouldn't have been fair to either coach for Dan to stay.
Pollard probably knew what the article was going to be like. He probably also doesn't like the athletic since they don't have a beat writer for ISU and don't do give ISU much coverage.
I don't know how you force Harold Nichols out. People don't give him any respect in this whole saga. He is the first head carved on ISU's Mount Rushmore of wrestling. The guy is a ******* legend!
It would have been forcing Les Anderson out. I think at that time you could only have 2 paid coaches, so either Nick or Les would have had to go.
Had he waited 2 years, the assistant spot would have come open when Les took the head job at Washington in '74.
I really can't understand why anyone is bitter about Cael leaving. Other than school loyalty, there wasn't a single advantage to staying at ISU. PSU offered not just a higher salary, but significantly more resources, including the ability to dominate, for recruiting purposes, not just a top wrestling state, but an entire region of the country. Alternatively, he could have stayed at ISU and fought an uphill battle against a better-funded in-state program as well as Okie State. Who among us wouldn't take that career-advancing opportunity?
I don't think the majority is bitter - I think we all have to do the best for ourselves and our family. I certainly wasn't and am not bitter. Even the situation with Gene Chizik - Chizik felt he had a better chance to be successful in Auburn, so be it. Same with Hoiberg going to Bulls.
JP had only been on the job for 6 months at that point, and no doubt had a bunch of people in his ear about what happened with Gable. And, both Iowa and Ohio State were coming open at the same time.
NCAAs ended on March 18.
Russ Hellickson retired on the 21st.
Jim Zalesky got fired on the 29th.
ISU pulled the trigger on Cael later that same day.
Iowa hired Brands on April 5.
The plan was always for Cael to succeed Bobby, but it very likely got pushed up earlier than anticipated due to the Iowa and Ohio State vacancies.
This is all that needs to be said. Iowa State fans can get over our butt hurt because Cael made an easy decision whether we wanted it or not
The fact he almost stayed, says a lot about Cael and his character and loyalty. He didn't want to leave, but he desired to be the best, which he was as a wrestler. The world was about to change with the Olympic training centers. And I am sure Cael and Pollard talked about how ISU couldn't afford to do it. I imagine Pollard was hoping his loyalty to ISU would win out, but what Cael needed to dominate was something ISU couldn't provide then, and probably still can't. And now PSU is far beyond what was going on then. Thats what Cael did over there. No doubt he would have been successful here, but the heights reached at PSU are beyond what he could achieve here.
Lets be happy he achieved what he did here. And recognize that he left and achieved something greater than he could achieve at ISU, and that is okay.
All I want to know is are we doing everything we can currently as a an Athletic Dept to give wrestling all it needs to succeed and compete at the National level…whether that be staff salaries, facilities etc. If we are great, if not why?
We have a storied history, we’ve been a top program, make it happen again! Just don’t settle for 2nd best
We have a storied history, we’ve been a top program, make it happen again! Just don’t settle for 2nd best
The article also omitted the fact (via Cael not disclosing) that Cael had secured donations for the wrestling program exclusively. JP would not agree to the funds being only for wrestling and that really irritated Cael.
See that is the one thing that I had always heard and it rubbed me the wrong way
Well that reiterates my concern that wrestling doesn’t get back financially…
I wonder what has changed. They raise money for wrestling and only wrestling now.
Dresser required it otherwise he wasn’t coming. Cael may still been here if Pollard would have done the same for Cael. The penn pipeline was intriguing to Cael but what he couldn’t get over was the limitations Pollard had for raising $$ including not contacting top ISU donors even if their main sport was wrestling. ISU needed updated facilities which administration main clear would not happen.
Good for Dresser, don’t understand JP in his stance towards wrestling, have been behind him everywhere else but scratching my head on wrestling…
I didn't realize that Cael had been the one to initiate contact and not Penn state. If I was JP, it would have irked me to have pushed a guy out and then see the guy I had promoted go hunting for another job. But the fundraising thing would have annoyed me if I was Cael.
They seemed to have been ok with that status for the past 50-plus years prior to Carl’s arrival…
