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S
Shore hop OP
Mar 22, 2026 at 10:27 AM ET
Given wrestling is the flagship program for the athletic dept
What does it take to breakthrough and be able to compete with the big ten schools at highest level? Or is there a practical ceiling at top5-10 for this program?

9 Replies

C
Coach Dailey
3mo
What does it take? About $5M more. VT wrestling budget $3M. PSU $8M
And then the hard work from coaches to evaluate, pay the right guys, luck for few injuries….
Baltimore Hokie Baltimore Hokie
4mo
Note that several of our wrestlers appeared to peak at the ACC tourney
Then collapse at the NCAAs. Stanford did the opposite. That is one major thing we need to fix.
H
Hikinghokie
4mo
I really only thought that with Sasso
157-184 were always going to have an uphill battle to AA. I thought Bullock in particular had a really strong national tournament given his talent level. Desiante too.
Baltimore Hokie Baltimore Hokie
4mo
I'm looking at the big picture. We dominated Stanford in the ACCs, yet
they blew past us in the tourney. Every one of our wrestlers who got upset contributed to that. Someone here posted that it we simply wrestled to seed, we'd have ended up 6th. Also our upperclassmen tend to regress - that's a trend that's been happening since Lewis...
Palmetto Hokie Palmetto Hokie
4mo
I believe we are already seeing that breakthrough.
D
donjfs3
4mo
Ceiling is top 3, it's attainable in the near future
C
Coach Dailey
4mo
Agree. ACC lack of funds cannot compete with Big 10 cash for top spot.
H
Hikinghokie
4mo
We've got a lot of top ranked guys coming in
Seidel, Gaj, Bassett, Nininger, Burton, Miller, Carini, and Konopka are all going to be on the same team. We just saw what we have in Seidel and Gaj, and the rest of those guys were ranked 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, and 1 in high school. They can compete with anyone if we get them wrestling to their potential, not to mention all the other top 100 kids we have coming in. Okie State and Penn State have similar, arguably better, hauls, but that's a killer lineup if we can get these guys in there together. ** Edited by Hikinghokie at 3/22/2026, 5:39:02 PM ** Edited by Hikinghokie at 3/22/2026, 5:39:51 PM
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PalmHokie
4mo
Circle back next year.