Starocci, Brooks & PSU Drama, Gabe Arnold dismissed from Iowa | Ep. 7 - The Quad Pod

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Oh my. Goodness.
Big move Monday. Lookout, a way to end the
tournament. What's happening, people?
Welcome back to the Quad Pod sponsored by Poseidon Strength
and Adidas Wrestling. Make sure you use QP 25 on
Adidas Wrestling and Quad Pod onPoseidon Strength.
We've got a great show today. We're going to get into the

(00:20):
let's just call it dumpster firethat has been burning hot at
Penn State with all of the headlines for the last what is
it like month. It feels like it's been pretty
wild. It's.
Probably a minute. Couple weeks, but it's been
pretty hot and heavy to be completely honest.
But before we do any of that, we're going to do a quick weigh
in. So First things first is good

(00:43):
news for Ben Askren. Ben gets his double lung
transplant. His wife gave another update
just the other day. So great to see that Ben is
getting the help he needed. It was pretty awesome that even
though him and Jake Paul have had their whatever, that Jake
Paul was like, you know, why aren't more people doing things?
I'm going to step up and I'm going to do something.
And you know, I think maybe he donated money or something right

(01:04):
in that regard. But awesome news.
Glad to see that Ben is getting the medical care that he needs
and hopefully he'll be back on his feet pretty soon.
Austin, over to you. Yeah, it was just pretty much
confirmed the last few weeks here.
American University will host the 2026 GWAS then.
That'll be really fun. Yeah.

(01:29):
I thought you were setting up for a question clutch.
No, no. So I'm just I'm a big Borelli
fan in America, yeah. I mean, yeah, they're, they're
doing awesome down there. So they they're.
All the Borellis. Going to be a going to be a fun
time down there. It was between American and
Drexel and Drexel would have been nice just because Ivy's are
at Penn and you could really walk from the other one the next
day, which would have been fun weekend of wrestling.

(01:50):
But American, they are hosting EIWAS and their new facility is
going to be finished up in in a month or two here.
Got to get down there and take some cool video.
It's got a brand new wrestling room, 3 mats, some bikes, new
new locker room. I think there's volleyball and
you know, I think basketball is some other sports in there too.
Whole new facility. And I was geeking out a little

(02:12):
bit. Read about the article.
It's actually the first net zerobuilding athletic center in the
nation, and it's 1 of 500 commercial buildings in the
world. That's net zero.
So really sustainable. Yeah.
Sustainable makes its own energy.
Doesn't give a lot off. Robbie.
There you go. So, yeah, really good for
environment, too. So you know.
Does it have windows? I think it has a few, unlike

(02:33):
like some other facilities that were just built right.
But yeah, it looks like a nice place.
And again, that they're going tomove in in December here.
So it's a nice little Christmas gift to American.
Yeah. The dungeon look doesn't work
for American you. Have to hit me up when you come
down here. Maybe we can do a swing through
Fairfax too and hit hit Mason up.
Yeah, yeah, they they got a nicespot too get.

(02:54):
A little content, get a little content on site.
Kevin, over to you. I just wanted to shout out
Jacoby Smith, who got a submission this past weekend.
He's been kicking ass in the UFC.
It's funny, Like I, I think I saw, I think it was Willie's
tweet that was like, oh, Jacoby's fighting coming up
soon. And I was, I was just sitting
there eating dinner with my inlaws and my wife.

(03:15):
And I was like, Jacoby Smith looks like he's made of marble,
just solid marble. And he, I can imagine, like now,
he's just fighting people in cages and like nobody stands a
chance. And he's undefeated still.
I think he's got 11 or 12 and O now.
I think yeah, 11 or 12 and O andjust walking through people.
And I think Kyle Crutchmer was helping to train him or getting

(03:37):
ready or was there at least as part of that.
So shout out to. Him, him and Pitch.
Him. Pitch and Jacoby Smith have been
training together, I think sincethey left Oklahoma State.
Yep, it's quite the trio there, yeah.
Yeah, I actually had a chance tosee those guys train when they
were with DC in California. I had a California trip years

(03:58):
ago and they were, they were training out there in California
at AKA and it was really cool tokind of pop in and see them
train and do some interviews with those guys.
It was pretty awesome. And they go, they go hard, man.
They go super hard. Like I said, this was years ago
and they're still doing really, really well.
So hopefully they continue to todo really well too.
So great shout out there. Robbie, on to you.

(04:19):
What is? What is your your weigh in?
Can I have a somber 1? It's a tough day for the
Virginia wrestling Community, University of Virginia and the
state. Hudson Stewart, former UVA
wrestlers, finished up his last year at Bellarmine is no longer
with us. Known Hudson for a long time.
His dad's a great coach, four brothers.

(04:41):
We're all college wrestlers. It's a great family.
It's a tough loss, you know, great guy, gone too soon.
And, you know, just thoughts andprayers with them, with the the
UVA program, with Brookville Community in Lynchburg and with,
with Bellarmine with his new team.
Yeah, yeah, it's always really tough to get news like that.

(05:01):
I mean, the only thing that I'llever say is talk to people,
right? Ask people how they're doing.
That is like the number one thing.
Check in with your friends. So yeah, that there's really no
follow up to that. So let's.
Let's jump into the Penn State news.
And I want to start with kind oflike the umbrella of it, right?

(05:24):
There's so much going on in the wrestling world, and I think I
said this before, I don't know if I said it on the show or not.
I didn't. I honestly had forgotten how
many nameless and faceless wrestling accounts there were.
And I feel like this offseason with everything that has gone

(05:46):
on, they've just like spawned. And if there's bad news to
report, which there has been a ton of it and it's been a ton of
it about Penn State, they are like hound dogs with a bone
right now. And it's it's pretty, it's
pretty insane because everybody wants to jump to pointing

(06:09):
fingers and saying, you know, weknew there was something.
We knew this, we knew that. And everybody wants to feel
vindicated and like their their hatred is now in some way
correct. And it's just crazy to me that
anyone would want to jump onto somebody's back when they're

(06:33):
down in any stretch of the imagination, right?
I don't care if it's, you know, Aaron Brooks or Bo or or or
Sorachi or or Kyle's like you, you just you can't talk out of
one side of your mouth and say you want wrestling to grow and
you want everything good to happen in wrestling.
But then as soon as there is badnews for a certain team, you

(06:57):
want to go ape shit and you wantto amplify it more than you
amplify a guy winning a gold medal.
Like that's the crazy part for me is the amount of people that
have wanted to just like jump all over these terrible things
and and feel like and pound their chest and say I told you.
So that's the crazy thing for me.

(07:18):
And overall, looking at Penn State it, it has not been good,
right? It there was the Kyle Snyder
stuff and we spoke about that. Robbie, you spoke about it
really well and saying it is just not a good look for him to
be escorted out of Final X the opposite way not to interviews.

(07:40):
I think we all agreed as well that it has not been a good look
for him to not really put out a statement in any sort of way or
for USA Wrestling to not put outa statement in any sort of way
or for Nittany Lion to not put out a statement in any sort of
way. And then you move on from that
to the things that happened withBraden Davis.
And then you've got the StirachiBo stuff and now you got the the

(08:04):
Aaron Brooke stuff, right? So before we like get into each
one of these subtopics, what areyour guys thoughts on Penn
State, how they've handled all of these things and how it looks
for them to continue their we don't engage in the media scrum

(08:26):
type outlook on things. And Robbie, I'm going to go to
you first. It's kind of biting him in the
ass right now. It would be nice for them to
have some good publicity. And I think from a public
relations standpoint, they have done an awful job handling all
of this. The only statement that's been
put out on the Penn State side is about Brayden Davis, just

(08:49):
that they acknowledged his arrest and that he was entering
a rehab program or, or somethingof that sort.
That was, that's the only thing that's been said over the last
two months. We've had multiple arrests of
people within the program were affiliated with the the RTC
positive doping test and all these allegations against

(09:10):
Stirachi. You would think that at some
point they'd want to get ahead of something or make any sort of
a statement acknowledging anything.
But it's just radio silence. And you know, that's, that's
their their go to. But it seems it doesn't seem
like the right approach in this in this situation.

(09:32):
Yeah, Austin, your thoughts? Yeah, I think I think there's a
lot of fans of the sport that just kind of want to see Penn
State go down and you know, whatbetter excuse for things like
this. You know, they just been at the
top forever and you know, we're always talking like, how are
they so good? What are they doing different

(09:53):
than anyone else that they just keep winning?
They keep doing this and then it's like, oh, steroid
allegation. Oh, OK, maybe that's why.
And then there's all those otherstuff going on.
You mentioned it's like, oh, maybe they're not as as good as
goody 2 shoes or, you know, they're not as positive as they
lead on to be. Maybe, you know, maybe there's a
bit of hypocrisy in there, whichis what people may be thinking.

(10:14):
You know, obviously that's probably not our thoughts here,
but just talking for what some of the fans are saying, it's
like it's you want to see them go down and this.
Fans in in quotes, yeah. Fans in quotes, yeah.
And it's, it's, it's an ugly situation.
It's weird. And you got to wonder, you know,
is this part of the end that we're starting to see?

(10:34):
You know, they were at the top forever.
And things start crumbling here and there.
And then, you know, I, I, I don't know.
Well, only time's going to tell,but we'll see.
Yeah, Kevin. It's like the GIF of like the
room's on fire and the the little like bird or whatever
sitting there like this is fine.You know, it's OK.
I don't know, man. It's just.

(10:56):
Is that Kayla or Cody or in thisanalogy?
Dude, I don't. The only other thing I can think
of is like maybe they were getting ready to make a
statement and then the next bad thing happened and they were
like, oh shit, well, now we got to rewrite it.
And then that happened a couple more times.
I don't know, man. There's there's a lot of weird

(11:17):
stuff going on, you know, and it's tough because at some
level, you know, if we're going to break it down granularly,
like it would almost take up toomuch time to do it.
But it's like the the let's say the Brooks thing, for example,
like those coaches probably weren't with him at the store,
right? Whatever the circumstances are

(11:37):
around that, like there's only so much you can do to avoid that
from happening. I also doubt they were with
Snyder that night. So there's only so much you.
Can they weren't on the video to.
Avoid that happening. You know, so like certainly
there's stuff that it sounds like when and you know, even
with Brayden Davis, like maybe you try to help him as a coach
coach, but like this is not the first kid that we've seen in

(11:58):
college wrestling do something drunkenly and stupid, right?
I mean, shit, Jordan Williams, right?
Didn't that just happen too at? The second time.
Yeah. So like these are, yeah, I, I
don't think it's fair to be likethis is a Penn State issue at at
all levels of college wrestling or college sports in general.
Like this is a, you're, you're dealing with 18 to 2223 year old

(12:19):
kids making stupid choices, you know, and sometimes when they're
older and you know, RTCS too, but ultimately it's a really bad
sequence of events. It's not great.
I mean, they're, they've been pretty consistent with, you
know, whether they're winning orlosing, they're not gonna get in
front of a microphone. You know, it'd be one thing if

(12:41):
they were winning a bunch and they were like throwing it in
your face. They've been winning a bunch and
they still don't get in front ofa microphone.
Fairness, Diraci does but and. The the thing about that, which
is funny and Kevin, you were with we were together at NCA as
in Kansas City when Kale had told one of the other Intermac

(13:02):
girls and and I think Earl, like, hey, you can, you can grab
any one of my guys and do an interview with them at any
point, right. So like it, it's it's weird in
that regard where we're always told to approach them kind of
like you would approach like a baby deer, right?

(13:22):
Like, yeah, you know what I mean?
Like you, you don't want to don't frighten it, you know what
I mean? Because don't make any sudden
movements, right? Like that kind of a thing.
But then when Kale says grab anyone of my guys at any point,
you're like, OK, well, that that's, that's kind of the
antithesis of what I was thinking.
Because every year when I tried to get an interview, a preseason

(13:45):
interview of one of your guys, I'm told that the window has
closed. But I never knew that there even
was a window, right. And and then when we try to see
what your schedule is, you guys have some rule and and maybe
it's just an administrative rulethat your schedules and your
roster don't come out until a week or two before your

(14:06):
competition. So there's no real set concrete
fact of what your schedule lookslike or what your roster looks
like. So getting a hang on doing pre
season stuff, yeah, I'm sure like we we know, you know, to a
certain extent we've got a good handle on it.
But like it's another thing to fully see who's on your roster

(14:32):
for that year. It's another thing to fully see
what your schedule looks like. So I don't understand why the
secrecy in that regard. But Robbie, as you said, like
the hands off approach or the the we're not making any
statements approach. It just doesn't compute for me.
And I try to consume other wrestling media, you know, I try

(14:57):
to, you know, I, I watch Willie because him and I are close,
obviously, and we talk about some of the same things.
And if I can give him some of the things that I'm getting from
people I'm talking to, I try to give him that.
And vice versa. I do not talk to the guys at
Flow anymore. If I get a text message at some
point, then I would it's not like it's like a I want to fight

(15:18):
you kind of a thing, but I don'tI don't talk to any of those
guys. And mind you, most, most of
those guys weren't even there when I was there for that for
the most part, or at least weren't part of the wrestling
team when I was I was on to other websites by the time a lot
of those guys got in. So I didn't really have meetings
or anything else with them. But one of the things and I, I

(15:39):
watched the beginning of their, their show today and they said
with their hands off approach, they feel like they almost don't
know how to do the, the crisis management portion of it.
And I don't necessarily agree because full transparency, I've,

(16:03):
I've applied for communications jobs at universities in the past
and you have crisis communications at all
universities. So the coaches might not know
how to respond to this and they shouldn't because it's not their
job to know how to respond to this.

(16:24):
But the communications departments do.
And especially 1 at Penn State, who, let's face it, you have.
They've they've got experience for yeah.
It like, yes, like there's been some things that have gone down
at Penn State where you've needed some crisis management
and communications. So even though as a wrestling
team, you, you focus on the things you can control, right?

(16:47):
You you guys, you know, Penn State does Bible study together.
They practice together, you know, they train together, all
those things, right? But you should be able to lean
on your communications department and put together
something that says something ofthe sort.
Because and and I think we can jump to Aaron Brooks because

(17:08):
when, when the Brook stuff happened, it came out and like
an hour later, Brooks had already had a statement written
himself, right. And Bosch said that on on their
show this morning that he wrote the statement.
He did the he did the graphic. At least I actually know that
John Brooks, Aaron's dad, you know, was part of doing the the

(17:32):
statement. I talked to, I talked to John.
He sent me their statement before Aaron put it out.
So I had asked him, you know, isthis something Aaron is going to
put out? Is this something that you would
like for us as journalists to put out and say this is Aaron's
response and he's like, Aaron's going to be putting this out,
but we wanted to, you know, get ahead of it and, and let you let
everybody know this is what a statement was.

(17:57):
I'll, I'll say the ugly part of this for Aaron is the fact that
it's his second time where people are left to speculate and
say you did something on accident again, or there's,
there's a, there's another explanation for a banned
substance being in your body or whatever else.

(18:18):
Now it did come out that it was DHEA.
And I will say there is DHEA in other supplements.
There are supplements that do add that in.
So I don't know. I know people said that's what
was the failed test. I don't know if it was just like
taking the capsules or whatever else, or if it was mixed into

(18:40):
some sort of supplement because that's where I can see it being
an accident is if it was in another supplement.
I can't see it being an accidentif it was just DHEA capsules
because DHEA is is a banned substance for not just athletes
in WADA testing, but also NCAA athletes.

(19:04):
So I can't, I can't give you thebenefit of the doubt in that
regard because you've been in both testing pools for a very
long time, right? So we, we can't really give the
benefit of the doubt for that and say that it was an accident
in that regard. If you were just taking pure
DHEA, Obviously there are a number of different reasons for

(19:28):
taking that. I'm not a scientist.
I don't need to give you the things that I read on what it is
and I've literally never taken it.
So I have no idea how it feels to take it or what it does for
you or I mean, just reading it says it gives you energy and and
you know, there's, there's some different things that it does,

(19:49):
but that's what he popped for. However, like I said, if it was
an honest mistake, he went and bought something at Wegmans.
It had it in it and that was theissue then OK.
I still think that he deserves some sort of punishment because.
With talking to as many athletesas I've talked to in my

(20:10):
lifetime, and also with being a college athlete, you know the
things you can and can't take. You know that there is drug
testing. You know the things you don't
just go to that you can't just you're, you're a high level
athlete. You can't just go to the store
and take whatever. It just doesn't work that way.
You're you're not, I'm sorry, asmuch as we try to pretend like

(20:31):
these athletes are normal people, you're not a normal
person. You cannot just have whatever
you want to have. So in that regard, yeah, I I do
think that there has to be some sort of punishment.
Do I think that it should be like a two year suspension?
That really depends on what theyfind with the investigation.
And when I spoke to, you know, the the Brooks Camp, it was

(20:52):
intent has to play into this. And I think it does.
If they come out and you know, they're like, this was an
accident and the investigation finds that it truly was an
accident. I think it's like a six month,
you know, I think Nomad put out a tweet of like, here's
everybody that popped for DHA, here's the varying degrees of
punishments. And it's been from 2 years to

(21:13):
like, I think like four months was in the list of different
people that had popped for it. So I do think that there should
be some sort of punishment because this, like I said, this
is the second time, but it really, you know, intent does
have go a long way on top of that, not just intent, but you

(21:36):
have to have some sort of, I guess, awareness of what you're
doing and what you're putting inyour body.
I obviously spoke to him. June 11th is when that interview
came out with me and Aaron and he spoke about being away from
the mat. And I also asked, you know,

(21:58):
before it came out that it was the HEAI asked, did Aaron know
what he took at least? Did he, did he know?
Does I asked, does he know what he popped for?
What? I asked.
And he said he figured it out afterwards, right?
Like after he had taken it, he figured it out, but it was

(22:21):
already too late. He'd already taken the test and
everything else. So like he figured it out that
he had made a mistake and that that had happened.
So that was the case. That's what I asked.
And those are the, those are thethings that I was given.
So again, I have, you know, all my bias cards on the table.

(22:42):
Love the kid. I've known him since he was like
14 or 15. And intent has to go into it,
right? And, and, but I also feel like
you have to be accountable for the things that you do and
whether you meant to take it or you didn't mean to take it or
whatever else. I don't, you know, I think that
plays into it, certainly, but I do also think that just taking

(23:06):
something and not having any regard for what the consequences
could be if you, you know, pop for it, I think you, you know,
no matter who it is, you should pay the quants the consequences
for that. Kevin, what are your thoughts on
the Aaron Brooks testing? It's funny because you guys
remember Josh Cribs? Yeah.

(23:27):
And he was like, awesome wide receiver for the Browns, and he
just kept getting popped for weed.
Yep. And eventually they were just
like, stop coming back. Like you're just gonna fail it
again, you know? And then they made it legal to
to smoke weed in the NFL. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So just. Just like the man before that,
just like gambling that they're now doing, yeah.
Yeah, and by the way, if if anyone here hasn't seen Josh

(23:50):
Cribbs highlights, go watch him 'cause that dude was.
Awesome. He was awesome.
I went on. My fantasy team, which was great
until he was suspended. Yeah, exactly.
You just went week after week cuz he would have like 7 catches
for 190 yards and three touchdowns.
But like, my point is, you know what Josh Cribbs suffered the

(24:12):
the ultimate punishment, which is he basically lost his career
and by the time he was like backin the league, it was kind of
washed and it was over with. You know, it sucks for Brooks
and I'm I'm bummed because like I think he's an awesome wrestler
and fun to watch, but like he's going to be punished and however
long that that time is, it's going to suck.
And what's going to suck for himmore is not being able to train

(24:33):
and be on the mats and compete and do all the things that like,
you want to do to begin with, you know, DHEA, whatever.
Like I, I'm not a person who's done any of that stuff either,
right? I think like whey protein is
about as as wild and aggressive as I've ever gotten with trying
to add some muscle. But yeah, right.

(24:58):
But ultimately I think that, youknow, hey, everybody's trying to
get an edge. I, I think that it would be
ridiculous. Like I think when any of these
guys have popped, I've never been like, they totally tried to
like beat the system because nobody's beating the system.
How many times do you get see tweets from people who are like,
they showed up at like my niece's birthday party and we're

(25:21):
like pissing this cop, you know,like drug testing.
People don't give a shit. They will find you and they will
make you pee in a cup. So it's, it's hard for me to
believe that anyone out there islike, I'm, I'm, I've got it
figured out because it seems like it's, it's their career
seems like too much to risk justto get that little edge.

(25:41):
Now having the obviously people I'm sure are trying to take some
sort of supplements to give themselves whatever edge you can
take within the OK or agreed upon like list of stuff.
And I think that, you know, people make that mistake more
often accidentally taking something.
I think that's probably what happened here too.
And he, like I said when I spoketo him in the interview, he said

(26:03):
he had double pneumonia, right? So he was in the hospital.
I don't think he made that up. And also after that like.
I said look up the records, hospital records.
Yeah, right. I had people read to me about
why I didn't ask him about steroids and stuff like that.
And I had said, you know, I had thought that he had spoke to
that in his interview with Boschbecause things like this I was

(26:25):
not Privy to. And most people weren't.
I think it was just pure speculation that people were
like, where's he been? He's really big right now.
Could this be the thing? So like going off of that, I'm
never going to speak to speculation in that way.
So for anyone that looks at likea past show and they're like,

(26:46):
see, you were, you know, you were kind of white knighting for
him and you were saying this that no, like you don't go off
of like what people are speculating because you can look
at anyone and point a finger, which we'll obviously get to it
with this Sorachi story. But like you can literally
accuse somebody of of anything and it doesn't make it true,

(27:06):
doesn't make it false. So for anyone, including myself,
to ask Aaron Brooks about something that I didn't know to
be true wasn't going to do that,right.
Robbie, your thoughts? My biggest issue with it is that
it's his second issue within thelast what, 2 1/2 years?

(27:29):
Yeah. I mean, the first one, not a big
deal, very easily explained, didn't file his Tue, his
therapeutic use exemption, not abig deal, easily remedied, not a
problem, right? Legitimate prescription, cool.
But the fact that after that experience, you're not hyper
aware of everything that you're putting into your body, knowing

(27:53):
that you're going to be tested significantly, that that to me
is, is concerning. It shows, it shows a lack of, I
want to say a lack of judgement because I don't know that it's a
lack of judgement, a lack of forethought because this is your
career, right? It's not like you're just doing
this for fun. It's not, oh, I'm going to run a

(28:13):
10K this week. And this, this is your career.
And you have to be hyper aware of, of, of you know, what you're
doing for yourself and what position you're putting yourself
in. Because, you know, if this is a
2 year ban, that's two years of his, you know, prime competition
years. And he's coming off an amazing
performance of the Olympics. And it should be, you know,

(28:36):
getting compensated for, for where he's at.
And he's not going to have the opportunity to do that because
he wasn't aware of what he was doing.
It just seems seems, I don't know, immature.
I'm not sure what, what, what the right phraseology is here,
right? But it just doesn't seem like
it's it's, it's being taken seriously enough.

(28:59):
I I think it's almost this happens in sports though, all
the time, you know, like baseball constantly.
I feel like there's several guysa year that it's like up failed
drug tests, you're out or whatever, right?
Like. Yeah, like baseball that it's
like you're you're out for 80 games because their season is so
long, you're out for 80, right, right.
And I think, I think that the demographic of people that

(29:20):
listen to us remember the, the cream or the clear with that was
awesome with, with Barry Bonds and, and, and those guys like
those are the kinds of things that happen in, in, in baseball
that we were just used to. So it just kind of is what it
is. It it was my point with that is
it it does happen so infrequently with with

(29:42):
wrestling. I know we can name several
names, right? But I think that again, speaks
to my point, like there's four or five guys maybe that I can
think of like, so I don't know, it sucks for him and I'm sure
he's not happy about it either, but he'll he'll figure it out.
Yeah. The the other angle of this, and
I want Austin to to kind of speak to this and we talked

(30:05):
about it before jumping on, is the people that feel vindicated
for backing Meyer Shapiro and the allegations that he put out
there. Because when he said what he
said at NC, as everyone started pointing the finger at Penn
State and saying that it was them.
Austin, what do you make of people trying to say point the I

(30:30):
told you so And I was backing Meyer when he said it before,
even though Aaron Brooks pretty sure wasn't on the team this
past year, was not on the roster.
Yeah, like, like none of that. Like, So what do you, what do
you make of those kinds of people trying to come out and
again pound their chest and say that they're like, like

(30:50):
vindicated and that see the I told you so kind of people.
Yeah, well, it's I, I think you briefly mentioned it before this
DHEA can be used as a masking agent, you know, so they're
like, oh, well, there it is. That that that's why he's taking
it. Well, it that doesn't mean
that's why he's taking that. That's just another effect that
it could do or another use it could do, right.

(31:11):
So I think a lot of people are looking at bits and pieces and
trying to connect these dots that may not really be there,
you know, just to get their own confirmation, confirmation bias
in order. So I, I don't know, it's, it's
a, it's a weird situation too, because, and maybe it's just me,
but I'm not going up. I never really did either go and

(31:31):
get new supplements of, oh, a new different kind of protein.
I'm going to take this one, you know, and I mean, again, I was
well aware of the NCA testing rules that you mentioned before
2 homes. It's like you, you have to get
this stuff cleared. You think he would know better?
You know, it just seems odd to me and maybe it maybe it's just
me talking again, but I would just go pick something up

(31:52):
randomly off the shelf because Idouble pneumonia, like, oh, I'm
going to try this, see if this works.
You know, like they have. He's not at some rinky dink
club. He's at the NIT need Lion
wrestling club. You know, there's, there's a ton
of science involved, there's a ton of technique and you know,
there's a ton of people there hecan rely on to say, hey, is this
something I can take? And then boom, like all it does

(32:12):
is it's a quick search someone can do.
Yeah, they these guys. Point.
I agree it's immature or just maybe a lack of a moment of
stupidity. You know, whatever you want to
call it, just making a bad mistake.
Yeah, these, you know, your support system is, is readily
available. And like, I don't want people
thinking that we're trying to disregard anything that comes to

(32:33):
Aaron Brooks in this case, right?
We're not trying to say that he did it on purpose or that he did
it on accident either way, right?
I'm trying to say that if he didit unknowingly because what he
took had something mixed, it hadDHA mixed in it, that's a that's
a possible way that it could happen.
However, you need to be hyper focused on what you are putting

(32:55):
in your body because you are in the WADA testing pool.
You've never been outside the NCAA testing pool.
You are always going to be part of the WADA testing pool as an
Olympian. As you know, we saw Thomas
Gilman find out when you don't retire and you missed test,
you're still part of the testingpool.
So you need to say either I'm retired or or you know that have

(33:16):
some way of vouching so that youdon't get suspended.
But again, like I said, I'm not trying to defend him.
I'm not trying to say that he's also guilty, right?
I'm trying to wait for even morethings to come out.
And like I said, I spoke to the Brooks camp and it was like he

(33:37):
didn't know. It wasn't something that he was
doing deliberately. He wasn't trying to gain an edge
because he wasn't even competingand competing was not even on
his radar at that point. Even when I talked to him, he
still wasn't even back to practicing full right.
So it wasn't like he was trying to it.
It couldn't have been like he was trying to gain an edge and

(33:59):
less as people like to speculatehe was taking something and he
was trying to mask it. But again, as Austin, as Austin
said, that confirmation bias is is right there.
I also don't think that people should try to point a finger and
say, see, look, everyone at PennState is doing it when this is
what the first time that this has happened.

(34:19):
And the other only other time that somebody did fail a test,
it was the same person. So like, and it was for, you
know, a, a therapeutic use of a drug.
So like, I I the people that feel vindicated, you shouldn't.
You certainly shouldn't because it was a vague statement by
Meyer Shapiro. You still don't know who he was
talking about. You can't give me concrete

(34:41):
evidence to say you know who he was talking about unless he
literally said to you, I was talking about Tyler Kasich, who
I just wrestled, right. So, like, let's call a spade a
spade in that regard. There's other layers to this
Penn State thing. Go ahead.
Though I got to say real quick, this is like the second time in
a month that I just keep thinking of Frank Reynolds
overlapping with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.

(35:03):
He's a fan of the ladies of the night.
And then also I was thinking of like if Aaron Brooks Dr. was
Mantis Toboggan, his like made-up character and he's just
got his wad of condoms. And I remember there was one
point, the hands out, I think itwas the Charlie.
He was handing Charlie something.
And he was like, here you go take this.

(35:25):
And he takes it. He's like, oh, wait, no, not
that one. And it's like, maybe that's
maybe that's how you run, you know?
Maybe that's how it went the. Flintstones Vitamins Plus
instead of just the Flintstones vitamins.
Yeah, Yeah, that's where you went wrong.
You ever go with the Plus? Everything's A+.
Let's let's move to to this, theSturachi bow Bartlett angle of

(35:46):
this. There's multiple layers in this
Tarachi thing. There's theft, there's rape,
there's other sexual assault. There's taking pic, naked
pictures of teammates. There's a lot of layers in this
entire thing. There was a police investigation
of the theft, right? So, yeah, I mean, they say that

(36:12):
there, they say that there was they have quotes from people who
say that the investigation endedon such a such a date.
Again, like I said, I did watch,you know, and see what what Flo
had said. And the only thing that I don't
necessarily agree with is is Pyle saying he couldn't believe
that the article was written. I can certainly believe that the
article was written because you had multiple first hand sources,

(36:36):
even though if they were anonymous you had multiple first
hand sources. And whenever women for the most
part come into anything and say that they were sexually
assaulted, they're they're mostly 99.9% coming out
anonymous. Yeah, because these fucking

(36:56):
assholes on the Internet come out and say just horrible.
Things about them so they're going to come out and be
anonymous so with multiple firsthand accounts from Bo and and
this other wrestler who is now renamed from Mark to Oliver in
the article and then the other females that were part of this.

(37:18):
I can understand why the articlewas written now journalistically
the article wasn't written wasn't the best written article,
but it's also a student journalist.
I believe that that did it. But when they say that they have
text messages and screenshots and spoke to the people that did

(37:39):
the investigation, that looked into video evidence and stuff
like that, you're like, OK, yes,like these could be credible
people, right? This could be a credible thing.
I don't think that Bo Nickel, excuse me, Bo Nickel, that Bo
Bartlett is going to be lying about having his picture taken

(38:01):
while he was naked and sent to him or that something was stolen
out of his locker or, or anything else like that, right?
So I don't think, I don't want to think that he was lying,
right? You want to believe people when
they say that this, that and thethird happened.
But you also have to remember that this is only one side of

(38:23):
the story. The truth is always somewhere in
the middle. So I'm not saying that anyone in
this story that gave first hand recounts of this is lying, but
it's also a what is Carter's recollection in this as he's the
one being accused, right? It is not guilty until proven

(38:46):
innocent. It's innocent until proven
guilty, right? So I'm not trying to roast
Carter at the stake as we saw a lot of people do so online.
Now reason being right is that they wanted to roast him online
is because of how much talking he has done as well as the

(39:06):
picture and accusations that he put out against Ferrari and with
the, you know, the split with him doing a split over a dildo
and saying that he was a pedo and everything else.
So it's more so backlash from. All.
I mean, all those things happen,right?
So I feel like all the people felt like, OK, well, this was

(39:27):
projection on your side, right? So all of these things happen
when all this stuff came out. Kevin, what was what was your
initial thought to the article? Everything in it.
We don't have to go kind of piece by piece, but the things
in here are not, they're not good.
What was your thought on the article?

(39:49):
I mean, I don't know, I'm, I'm not, I can't speak to like the
quality of it. I don't even know what, what you
know, you know what that is necessarily referring to.
It seems like whoever wrote it did a decent job trying to
collect sources and information and puts that is correct.
Yeah. Put it together in a way that's
like, hey, I am reporting on a thing that seems like it's it's

(40:10):
scary to have around my campus and there's enough separate.
Collaboration pieces that, that,you know, make it seem pretty
consistent. And I'm sure there's some sort
of editor that goes in there tooand make sure that, you know,
what they're going to put out there is not, you know,
slanderous or whatever. Maybe it's libel if it's
written. So it's it was a it's a piece

(40:33):
that I'm glad exists, that I'm glad Beau put his name in it and
was like, Hey, this is this is my experience from it.
Now. They're certainly going to be
due process and there's certainly going to be some form
of fashion overseeing where where Carter is going to have an
option to reply or respond and and hopefully does so in in some
way. The the major thing that was a

(40:54):
little scary for me. And like, you know, I joked
earlier about like, oh, the coach isn't, but didn't have a
response ready and then all thisstuff happened.
But like, this seems like something that you probably, and
maybe they're not going to respond because neither of these
guys are on the team anymore, you know what I mean?
But they're going to have to reply to somebody about it
because there's, I imagine it's not going to go away.
And even in the article, the article said that Carter's not

(41:15):
signed to Nittany Lion and was not going to be signed to
Nittany Lion. And neither is both, yeah.
Yeah, and neither and neither isBo.
I mean Bo Bo Bo left the the onething I will say is like cops
not being able to get a hold of of Carter.
Kind of crazy. Kind of crazy for me.

(41:35):
You, you knew where he was goingto be every day.
I don't think Carter was missingpractices.
I don't think he was like hidingin that regard, right?
But. Back at the scene of the crime.
Right, like I don't I don't think he was he was trying to
like hide from like in that regard.
Like I feel like it was if you couldn't get a hold of Carter

(41:58):
Sorachi, I feel like it was probably because of lazy.
Cop work. Yeah, like lazy cop work of just
like get in the car, drive over there, like go, go do the job if
you really need to get in contact with somebody.
Or maybe it was the fact of likenot wanting to do it right.
Like again, going to to revert to things that other people are

(42:22):
saying, Carter was probably given too much leeway as as
Pyles mentioned, right? I I do agree in that regard of
maybe winning. Winning cures all, and winning
gives a lot of space, right? We said that when we saw hit.
You know, how much more, you know, see personality, but how
much more outspoken he was in interviews and how much more

(42:45):
egregious he was being with his online persona.
Like you could see that he wasn't being reined in at all.
And that was very clear. And we've spoken to that on
multiple points. And that's what, you know, a lot
of frustration on my side. It really bothers me.
I don't like, I don't like how people act like that in general.
You know, persona or not, it's, it's annoying.
But you could tell that he wasn't being reined in.

(43:07):
You could tell that he was kind of had the run of the room and,
and, and was getting away with things that other people weren't
getting away with just through the way he was acting in public.
So, you know, what do we know that's going on behind the
scenes if he's doing this thing,these things in public?
Exactly, Yeah, Austin, I want, Iwant to bring you into the
conversation of like what, what were your thoughts on this?

(43:30):
And, and the whole, I don't evenknow, like there were so many
layers to this. What were some of the ones that
you tried to unpack first when you read this article, Austin?
Well, just to give you an idea what we're dealing with, I'm
sure you guys saw it too, there were a few anonymous accounts
saying that the allegations weren't real because the girls

(43:53):
came out as anonymous. You know so how this works.
Yeah, that's, I mean, that that's, I think that's a little
bit of irony there. You know, you're putting a a
statement out there where you'renot even a real person.
But yeah, back back to the article.
It's when the when Bo was in there mentioning that he told
the coaching staff and he told other people at the school and
nothing happened. You know, it's how much did the

(44:16):
staff know? What did he tell them?
And you know, how was that handled internally, if at all?
You know, it seems I'm not sure the article may seem like things
kept going, kept getting worse and the theft was retaliation
for Beau. And you know, it's it's a lot
for Beau and even his wife to put their names out there on

(44:36):
this. You know, it's it's not.
I mean, it's it's bad no matter who it is, but it's not a third
four string kid who didn't like Carter because he was picked on
or bully by car. You know, this was a legit all
American, multiple town, all American, almost NCA champ and
Beau Bartlett putting his name out there for this.
And you know, you, you got it. It goes along a little more,

(44:59):
goes a little further, I think, than being anonymous, you know?
And he's standing on it too, like he's, he's continued to put
things out and, and addressing things that are said.
And he, I feel like he's handling it very well.
He's very well spoken. He's he's speaking to directly
to the allegations that he's making and to the things that
are being said about him and he's handling it more maturely

(45:20):
than 99% of the people in the wrestling community.
Yeah, it's it's rare to see someone get up and leave Penn
State, you know, after being a four year starter, being
successful there as they're going to continue wrestling,
they're most likely going to stay at Nitty Lion Club, you
know, and for him to just get out of Dodge pretty quick.
They're just graduated, boom, left.
You know that I think that says something to usually people

(45:42):
hang, at least hang around therefor a little bit to train.
Yeah, and there were there were people also saying like, if this
was going on, why did you stay at Penn State and all this like
1, Like Beau went to Penn State for a number of reasons, right?
Like educationally, it's good toget a Penn State degree.
Let's call it what it is. It is.
You're also in the number one wrestling room.

(46:02):
So even though there's some bullshit happening on on one
end, you're not going to allow that one level of bullshit to
ruin your final year of a sport that you love, right?
And you and you honestly shouldn't, especially when you
feel like the coaches that recruited you to come there are
going to hopefully protect you from that.

(46:24):
And also, how do we know if it was I, I, and maybe I'm, I'm
forgetting this from the article.
What was it like past years thatthis had happened to him?
Or was this like this year? Right?
Like, I don't, I don't remember.Sounded like it was this year.
Yeah, for for me, it sounded like it was this year and not in
past years, but I I don't reallyknow.

(46:46):
But the other thing for me is the fact that everybody is, is
going at Bo's wife. And I understand why people are
like, well, she's the one that'sout here talking this, that,
whatever. And I'm reminded of it's, it's a
funny meme that I, that I read before where it was like, it was

(47:08):
like 2 tweets that turned into ameme where a girl says quiet
guys or nice guys. Why do you go for, for the loud
girls? And the response was, well,
well, somebody has to tell the waiter that we didn't order the,
the fries or whatever else, right?
Like that's what I'm reminded ofin this regard.
Bo is, is an introverted, you know, young man, I should say,

(47:31):
right? He's, he's a very introverted
guy. He him speaking out on things
has been strategic. He spoke back out against Piles
today because Piles made statements about him and his
wife. So he addressed Christian Piles.
He may have done it on a public forum, but he also responded to

(47:51):
somebody who spoke about him on a public forum.
So he did that. He did it this exact same way.
He also went on to the forums initially on Intermat I believe
and put that out or maybe it waslike one of the Penn State
message boards and put the put out his thoughts initially and
spoke to it, which is what our initial thoughts were when we

(48:12):
said it was a really vague statement.
We didn't know what to make of it.
So until more comes out, we can't call balls and strikes on
it, which we hadn't until literally now.
But then like the only other time that he has spoken out, I
mean, I think there's been three.
There's one on the Penn State forum.
The other one was in this article.
And the third one was literally today when he addressed piles.

(48:33):
His wife has been the one that has been more vocal about it,
which I believe that she's just standing up for her husband in
that regard and their story. And herself.
And herself, because she is certainly part of it.
She made a phone call, accordingto this article, to Sorachi's
girlfriend. So like she is speaking up for
her accounts in all of this stuff too.

(48:54):
And I don't know about any of y'all, but like, if somebody's
doing wrong to me, my girl's going to speak up for me as
well, right? Like that's part of having a a
partner that that has your back.So I feel that that that is all
that she is doing for Beau, especially because Beau isn't
that kind of guy. Bo is the happy, smiling,

(49:15):
flipping dude that we see on themat, not somebody that wants to
be part of confrontation, right?And if you know his family, his
family is the same way. His dad is the same way.
His dad will let you know, like that's not how things are going
to go down. But every time I talk to Bo's
dad, it's the same way when I talk to Bo, right?
There's always smiles, there's jokes, there's hugs and hand
pounds, right? Like it's just how it is.

(49:35):
So for anyone that wants to say,oh, she's bringing it on
herself. No, like she's one defending
herself as most people would do in this situation, and two,
she's defending her husband. So I don't fault her in that
regard like whatsoever. But like I said, I, I think the
article had multiple sources. I think it pointed to the

(50:00):
different allegations and it hadpeople that spoke their first
hand knowledge of all of these things.
So it gave that credibility. I think that the reference in
the end about Yik Yak or about like whatever group on there, I
feel like that was thrown in kind of carelessly.
I don't think that there was like a lot that I think it could
have been done better. But also like I've been kind of

(50:21):
doing this for a very long time.So I think I would probably know
how to tie that into a story better if it was relevant at
all. But I can see why the story was
written. You had multiple first hand
sources. You spoke to the investigators.
You didn't have to in my regard,in my thought, you didn't have
to provide the police report because you had the people that

(50:42):
spoke to the report. You also could have provided it
to back that up, but you had thefirst hand, first hand accounts
to have people speak to it, which is literally one O 1 for
me. But I think that there's still a
lot more that is going to come out and to say that everything

(51:04):
in this story is true and the people in it aren't lying or
this or that. Like we're not calling anybody
liars. We're not saying Carter is
guilty. We're not even saying that the
coaches did what Beau said or didn't do what Beau said, right?
I I mean, what, what did Kale and the coaches know and what

(51:25):
did they do in trying to rein this in?
We don't know. We only have one side of it,
right? So again, we're not trying to
pick sides of any of this. But the initial reports of this
don't look good, obviously for the people being accused, which
they never do. But there are multiple accounts

(51:47):
from different people that are stringing bad things together
about specifically one person inthis regard.
And it's going to be interestingto see what else comes out.
If Carter makes a statement, if Penn State makes a statement,
because they are certainly tied to this of having things
reported to them and how they handled it or didn't handle it

(52:10):
or what went into the investigation.
So there's still a lot more thatwe have to find out and figure
out. But gentlemen, any other
thoughts on any of these topics with Penn State?
You know what you know, if you want to speak to handling from
coaches or Bose response to piles or Aaron Brooks stuff or

(52:33):
Carter or Carter the Carter stuff, like anything else that
you guys want to speak to Robbie, I'll give you first go
at it. Yeah, I mean, first, first and
foremost, sexual assault is is ahuge issue, especially on
college campuses. Yes, it's it's a weird place
with a lot of interesting power dynamics.

(52:54):
And when you throw in a a high level and famous athlete, that
compounds things even more. When you throw in the
allegations that it's underage girls or, or you know, sixteen
1718 year old girls, there's also another power dynamic there
that's going to make it more difficult for them to feel
comfortable speaking out. And also 2.

(53:15):
Yeah, and teammates, they, I mean, I'm going to speak to this
part first and then I'll speak to the, the teammate and culture
aspect. This is, this is a, a subject
that I'm very have very strong feelings about.
When I was in school, one of my really close friends got raped
the first week we were there. And it, it changed my outlook on
a lot of things. Also led to me drop kicking a

(53:35):
guy off a porch and beating the shit out of him because he did
it. But that was another issue.
Allegedly, allegedly I did that.Allegedly, so we know it's an
issue. I'm not connected to the Penn
State program in any way, and I've heard rumors and whispers
about this for the last three years.
So to say I was surprised. I'm not.

(53:57):
I'm not surprised that these things are coming out.
I know that there's more becauseI've heard more.
So I won't be surprised when more things come to light.
That being said, I can't speak to his guilt or his innocence.
All I can speak to is is what I've heard.
But what I want to do is I want to commend those young women who
have who have come out. I want to commend Beau for

(54:18):
speaking up for himself. I want to commend him for
speaking up for his wife. I want to commend her for
speaking up for both of them andfor the other people involved.
Because it's a very difficult thing to do, especially when you
have all this other things working against you.
And then when you look at the other aspects of the, you know,
possibly assaulting teammates and, and taking naked pictures
of, of them, that's that to be speaks to a very big culture

(54:42):
problem. I mean, we've all been in enough
locker rooms to know that a lot of random weird shit happens
there. And you know, it's not out of
out of sorts for things to be awkward.
But I know that if my team mateswere taking naked pictures of me
and sending them around, that would have been a very big
problem and it would have been dealt with very quickly.

(55:02):
So the fact that that was just happening and and a joke and
comfortable that that to me is it, it speaks to a much bigger,
bigger issue if that actually was happening.
Yeah, Kevin. Yeah, I was thinking about how
Carter came out to the music from Halloween for his like,

(55:26):
walk out music, and that seems scarier now, you know?
So do the same. Thing.
Man, that's weird. Is Mike Myers, he, he had a
fifth year. He's still not gone and he now
we're still talking about him. He's still chasing.
Us this never goes. Is this Halloween H2O?
No, I I don't know, man, it's it's scary stuff.

(55:47):
The culture thing I think that Robbie talked about is is spot
on. Like and you know, I'm sure if
whatever coaching staff, if the coaches there whoever, like
assuming it is as Beau alleged, it was right that that sucks.
You know, that's not what what you want to be around and I'm
sure that that's not the case. I I hope that you know, I don't

(56:14):
know. I don't want to I don't want to
belabor the point. It's scary.
I hope whatever justice looks like in the the right world, you
know that it that we get there at some point here soon, Reed.
Austin. Yeah, I mean, the article did
mentioned a, a, a bunch of different topics, you know, when

(56:36):
it comes to the assaults, the the theft and, you know, just
straight, I guess bullying. And, you know, it goes beyond
that, you know, it it does speakto something that it, it, it
just it, it, it's ugly. It looks really ugly.
And for it took Bo Bartlett to kind of speak up on it, for it

(56:57):
to become a thing after all these years.
If if they were happening over years and Bartlett finally comes
up and says uses his huge platform, his wife, who I think
has a lot of TikTok followers, Iwant to say close to 1,000,000,
something like that to use to use her huge platform.
It it speaks volumes that you know, it.
It took something like that for this to get out.

(57:18):
And if that's the case, that's also not good, right?
Because it wasn't just Bartlett who knew the stuff.
I'm sure other people knew and then did not come forward with
it. You know, like you guys were
saying it. Is it a culture problem?
It kind of seems that way if if these allegations are true.
I I, yeah, I did think of one other point I wanted to to add
in there. Let's look positive note, right?

(57:43):
I'll go positive first. I, I hope that maybe all of
these things happening at once, like, you know, the, the
incidences with the new line wrestling club, all this stuff
with the culture stuff. I hope this is like a look at
yourself in the mirror. Coaching staff like re haul, you
know, and and they get an opportunity to be like, where
did we let this go? Where did it get too far away?

(58:05):
Who do our leaders need to be? And that they can right the
ship, right, Even for anybody who's out there and is like, oh,
down with the the dynasty or whatever.
It's like, I don't know, I thinkthe spirit of competition, like
you'd rather just beat them at their best rather than just have
this culture thing completely RIP them apart.
Now that happens sometimes with good teams.

(58:26):
You know, that's why it's very hard for for anybody to do this.
But you know, I think that hopefully they can get that
culture piece figured out. The other thing, just just to
finish this thought, we haven't talked about it here at all.
I haven't even watched it yet. But for all of this to come out
right now on the heels of the the HBO Ohio State dock too,

(58:48):
like this is a bad look. We gotta get in front of this.
Like let's can we all just not be shitty people?
And like, why is it what we needmore positive stuff in the news.
So let's get back to doing that.I thought we did a lot of that
for a while. Yeah, that, that is probably
definitely a topic, a topic for another day.

(59:08):
I think the the thing for me with all this, right, and we've,
we've talked about the multiple layers of what's happening with
Penn State, but the wrestling portion of it is what people are
trying to tie to this, right? And saying, is this what
crumbles the dynasty? And it's like, no, it's it's

(59:29):
not. And mostly because of the
incredible firepower that they have coming back in into their
lineup and then the the recruitsthat they have, right.
Like this isn't going to be the thing that takes the crown off
of Penn State. It's not sorry for people that
definitely. Put some chips in it though.

(59:50):
Yeah, but it's. Definitely have recruits looking
at things differently. It it can it, it certainly can
it can it can have recruits thinking maybe that's not the
best room for me, right. Maybe the the culture isn't what
I thought it was for sure right,But.
I also feel like the the recruits they have coming in,

(01:00:13):
you know, the Blaze, the PJ Duke, like those guys on top of
all the other guys that are already there, like it's going
to be really hard to continue tobeat them.
It really is. So like from a wrestling
standpoint, people that are hoping that the dynasty falls
and whatever else, like you, you, what do they say about

(01:00:35):
wishes? You, you should hope in one hand
and shit in the other and, and, and see which one fills up
first. Keep doing that because that's
the, that's the, that's the way that that it works, right?
And, and maybe I said that wrong.
Maybe it's, it's, you know, whatever, but the, the gist of
it is there, right? Like you, you guys are hoping

(01:00:56):
for something to happen. That's probably not going to
happen for a little bit unless the only thing I can see that
this bans this is if they do an investigation, they see that it
was reported to the coaching staff and it wasn't elevated and
nothing was done about it. And they say we can't have this

(01:01:17):
because as we've said, there have been very high profile
things that have happened in Penn State locker rooms that
they don't want to have a 2 point O of that.
They say we're not going to allow this to spiral into
something bigger and want to replace people.
I don't see that happening. I hope that they do an
investigation into all of it. I hope we get the truth for for

(01:01:39):
everyone, right. I hope there is justice the
whatever that looks like. But I also think that people
that are are hoping and wishing that this is what propels
Oklahoma State and David Taylor to the top or or allows a a
Nebraska to to bust through and and pick up another trophy or,
or, or whoever was at the top. I don't I don't see that

(01:02:04):
happening. I just don't.
Any other thoughts, gentlemen? And none of this made Levi hands
bad at wrestling all of a sudden.
Not for one second. Let's let's move to another Big
10 power. And that is the news that came
out today of Gabe Arnold no longer being at Iowa and the

(01:02:27):
news tied to it. And I had gotten something that
he was being told to come back to Iowa.
And you know, the news was also shared in our in our group.
I thought he was home in Georgia.
It came out that he was on vacation, I believe in Florida
and he was. Nothing good happens in Florida.

(01:02:49):
Nothing it happens in Vegas either, but he was told to come
back and didn't and defied whatever else and his locker was
then cleaned out and he was taken off the team.
Right? Like that's the story, the
behind the scenes story I guess that people are talking about.
I think the the flip side of this is he just gave them a

(01:03:14):
reason to get rid of them. I feel like if you're looking
for a reason, you'll easily findone because I don't, I think
right now it's it's camp season.Guys are all over the place
right now. They're they're really not at
their respective schools in in in their respective rooms.
A lot of guys are all over the all over doing camps and things

(01:03:35):
like that. Unless they're training to
wrestle at worlds, they're somewhere doing a camp.
So I feel like he gave them a reason, right?
They they have viable guys in the lineup at 74 and 84 that a
Gabe Arnold is let's face it, it's it's extra now for them and

(01:04:01):
they're like, well, we can use this as a way.
That's what that that was a thought for me, right?
And and that's a thought I had it in a in a conversation.
Another group that I that I had of just like, you know, they're
like they you gave them a reason.
And if you give a guy a reason, if you give somebody a reason to
make a decision on your behalf, they're going to do that.

(01:04:25):
What did you guys make of the news, Austin?
What were your thoughts of the the Gabe Arnold News out of
Iowa? Yeah, I think it was.
One of you guys brought that up a few days ago saying, hey, is
this stuff with Gabe Arnold true?
I didn't know anything about it.And then you're looking back at
what, you know, what Willie was saying and some of these other
things, you know, it seems like there was a few different issues

(01:04:48):
going on simultaneously that kind of maybe this is a straw
that broke the camel's back withwith Gabe Arnold, but.
There was also that post where somebody, the other this maybe a
month ago or somebody else had said that Gabe Arnold needs to
get his shit together or something like that.
I remember that post. One of the big donors said it.
Yeah, that's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that was on a forum. It was on a.
Forum and I was. Like it's a big donor at I don't

(01:05:10):
know if that's true, but I'm sure he has some insight of
what's going on in that program.You know he donated.
His name's on the. Dodge to it.
Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I don't know exactly
what's involved. I don't know if it's grades,
extracurriculars and other stuffgoing on.
I'm sure maybe it's a little bitof both.
I'm not sure. But, you know, it's when there's
a ton of stuff going on and, youknow, you just do something else

(01:05:32):
that just keeps, keeps these coaches unhappy and they give
them reason. You know, it's, you know, I, I
think it's, it's a it's, it's might be legit in their in their
case, I don't know. Yeah.
We'll see. Robbie, your thoughts?
That's kind of what it felt liketo me.
It was just an excuse or a reason to to clear some roster

(01:05:53):
space and some probably some realistically cap space if we're
if we're being honest. He's a cap hit now.
Yeah, but I mean, Gabe had some struggles last year, probably
didn't perform up to to what he was expecting and what what the
team was expecting of him. He has a ton of potential and I

(01:06:14):
don't know how it's going to work for him to land somewhere
else just because it's a a weirdsituation with the portal being
closed and him. I mean, I guess he can unenroll
when enroll somewhere else and the.
Portal's a formality. People like, I don't know if
people have realized it, but theportal is just there so that
coaches know that you're essentially open for business.

(01:06:35):
As we saw last year with what was it, glazier that you can
enter, you can literally unenroll from one school and
enroll in another. The portal is is a formality.
He can move to Mount Pleasant, MI to tomorrow.
Fire of chips, yeah. Just say it.

(01:06:58):
See, we'll see. I mean, it sounds like there's a
good recruiting pitch right there.
That sounded pretty strong, Kev.It's a.
Great spot to be. Ken, what are your thoughts?
On this yeah, no, I, you know, it's kind of stinks because like
I'm going to so fondly remember those like five matches he had

(01:07:18):
as a freshman or however many four matches they he.
Was a hero as a freshman. Dude, that I was state duel.
They don't win that without him.He goes out there and bumps up
to 184 beats. Was it Feldkamp who was a
returning All American? Like he he had some awesome
matches in that freshman year where it was like, this is going

(01:07:39):
to be so awesome. And then, you know, it was like
you, you watch the trailer, the movie and then you go see the
movie and you were like, it was fine.
You know, it's kind of like whatthis season was.
And then they're like, but look,this other shiny toy we have,
this is this Ferrari here. It's going to go so fast.
And then he had his own little freshman, you know, moments
beating plot and and having some, some big wins himself.

(01:08:02):
So I don't know. I think that's that's one of the
things that that's really going to bother me is I felt like he
did a lot and it was was very impressive.
Now, again, I can't speak to offthe mat stuff because that's
not, you know, what we're doing here, but but I can say like
it's got to be really tough whenyou come in there, you've got
all these expectations. You're finally get your chance

(01:08:23):
in the lineup. Turns out the Big 10 at 184
really hard. Right.
It's, you know, and it's so weekafter week after week, you
wrestling somebody who's ready to take your head off and that
paired with maybe some of the pressure of having Ferrari on
your heels and you know, like, Idon't know, that's it's just
tough, man. I think I think a change of

(01:08:45):
scenery will be good for him Wherever, wherever that ends up
being. He'll be fine.
He'll he'll, he'll bounce back. Hey Robbie, is there, is there
still an opening at 174 and 184 at some school in the in the
ACC? Yeah, kind of.
Well, yes and no. It filled with Chattanooga kid

(01:09:07):
Desante, so wiggle around a little bit.
I definitely need some help midline up in in one of the
schools in North Carolina that could.
Use Yeah, I did see, I did see apicture of Gabe Arnold from
doing a camp this summer. Man looks kind of thick right
now. He's always been a thick boy,

(01:09:28):
but like, yeah, he look, he's, he's looking a little, a little
extra thick right now. Camera adds 10 lbs holes.
Remember that. Yeah, it it does.
I'm I'm actually 175 lbs to be completely honest, but he's he's
looking kind of big right now. So we'll we'll see if, IF84 is,
he would be a very short 97. I'll tell you that right now

(01:09:50):
that yeah, he would. That'd be.
That'd be kind of tough. He's no Duron win.
There's only one of those. There's only one of those.
Like a fire hydrant. He really is.
He really is. Let's let's end with with some
coaching news. And today it was announced, or I

(01:10:12):
should say yesterday because this is going to be out on on
Tuesday morning. Yesterday, Lehigh announced that
Sammy Sasso was returning to Lehigh Valley.
As we were signing on here, Sasso got back to me about doing
an interview. So look out for that.
I'm going to try and get that scheduled.
I think it's awesome to see him back in the Lehigh Valley.
Austin, this is obviously your territory in EWA, So what are

(01:10:35):
some of the notes and things that you got around the Sammy
Sasso to Lehigh hire? Yeah, well, I was making some
phone calls before this. We hopped on here.
I kind of forgot and it wasn't really highlighted much that
Evan Henderson was on staff there and then left.
So Sammy Sasso is replacing Henderson in that spot there not

(01:11:00):
competing for the Lehigh Valley Wrestling Club, just focusing on
coaching. And other coaches are excited
that he's going to be a big pole, especially that local
talent that kind of grew up watching Sammy, you know, not
just in Lehigh Valley, but across the state and, you know,
nationwide. Samus Hasso is is a big name.
And having him as a workout partner in those middle weights

(01:11:20):
is is going to be huge as well in the room.
You know, he's just all around good guy.
I mean, you sure you guys have alot of experience with them?
Totally down to earth. Awesome dude, nice as can be and
you know, just have him back home or he's or he's kind of a
legend already. I, I think it's going to go,
it's going to be perfect, perfect.

(01:11:40):
Yeah, if if Ryan Crookham startssitting to a cradle, you're all
in trouble. Yeah, I mean, my thoughts too.
It's it's good to have Sammy back home.
I actually was able to, I think I've said this before.
I was able to interview Sammy for his first ever interview
back when I was working for the newspaper and he beat Justin
Mahea at Flo Nationals. And I called his house phone and

(01:12:01):
spoke to his mom. And I think it yeah, I think it
was his mom that paid the phone and spoke, spoke to them.
And then Sammy did the interviewfrom from the house phone in in
the kitchen. So back before the the young man
had a cell phone and was just onthe come up back then.
So but no, it's it's it's great one.

(01:12:22):
It's great to see him, you know,recovered, even if he can't
compete. Great to see him recover.
But it's also great to see him back in the Lehigh Valley and,
you know, being able to give back to the town that, you know,
helps him grow and gets where heis.
Kevin, your thoughts on Sasso toLehigh?
I mean, it's huge. I, I'm, I'm really pumped for
him. You know, I'm sure they would

(01:12:42):
have loved to have kept him at Ohio State too.
And, and obviously he talked, he's talked many times about how
great that community was to him going through everything that he
went through and coming back from the, the injury and trying
to compete one last year. But you know, they, that's,
that's one of the the problems when you have a really
successful program like Ohio State and you just load up with

(01:13:03):
former wrestlers on your staff, there's not always new openings,
right? So this, this seems like a
perfect spot for him. I'm very excited.
Technically, he was always so wildly good and dangerous.
And and I'm sure part of that with anybody who, you know,
wrestles to a certain extent or to a certain level, like it's
feeling it's hips and everything.
But I still think whatever he hehe'll, he'll translate to a

(01:13:25):
coach really effectively. So it's going to be fun to
watch. Watch what they do there in
Lehigh. That plus the women's program,
plus everything else, like it's all, it's all coming up Lehigh.
Big fan, big fan that Lehigh Valley, it bred some real good
guys. I tell you that right now,
Robbie, bring it, bring it home on last word on Sasso to Lehigh.

(01:13:47):
And then what are also what are you hearing on the Northern
Colorado edition as well? I love that the addition of
Sammy. I've been super impressed with
him every time I've had the chance to talk to him.
Real down to earth kid, technically just a phenomenal
wrestler. Just going to add another
dynamic to an already really dangerous team.

(01:14:13):
Heard a few different things. Northern Colorado was latest
leaning. I'm hearing is is a an ACC
wrestler head in that direction maybe taking another one with
him. I'm not going to not going to
jump on anybody's announcement, but from what I'm hearing
somebody from ACC country is is heading out West.

(01:14:36):
Yeah. And the, the other news that
came out, I mean from the ACC was that Tony Ramos had turned
down that job and I had reached out to Tony and believe it was
the day he turned it down. He gave me kind of a a cryptic
answer of one of those confirmednor denied type things where I

(01:14:56):
think he was just he was. And, you know, it's for a guy
like Tony, who, you know, has wanted to be a head coach for a
while. And I feel like he obviously
deserves it. This had to be very tough for
him to give up with, you know, and we had mentioned it before
where we said, like, Tony would be perfect to be in the mix.

(01:15:20):
But like, from a family standpoint, it just didn't make
sense, right? Taking your family all the way
to Colorado, you know, uprootingeveryone it, it just didn't make
sense in in from that regard. But Tony Ramos as a head coach
certainly does. So at some point, I'm hopeful
that he gets his opportunity to be a head coach.

(01:15:42):
I wish that the, the, the situation at Campbell was in in
better shape so that I think he would probably consider that one
for sure, because it is still inNorth Carolina.
Wouldn't really have to make much of A move and a change,
right. But yeah, I, I was able to speak

(01:16:03):
to Tony that day. And then, you know, Willie had
put it out, I think like the next day or so that he had
turned it down, which was again,a little unsurprised, you know,
not not too surprising just based off of that aspect of it.
But, you know, in the coming days, I'm hopeful that we'll see
whether the news that that, you know, we're getting behind the

(01:16:26):
scenes is correct and, and what it is.
But there's definitely a lot of good that can happen in Northern
Colorado. We saw what Troy Nickerson was
able to do at Northern Colorado Colorado and how he was able to
build there. And it can certainly, the
momentum can continue and it cancertainly be done.

(01:16:46):
So I hope that it does. The last thing is, Speaking of
Troy Nickerson, Austin, I know you have a little bit of Troy
Nickerson news that you wanted to share.
Yeah, I'll be interviewing him midweek this week.
Just, you know, catching up withhim talking about Northern
Northern Colorado. Obviously the new job at Army

(01:17:09):
that's going to be coming out around July 4th.
So try and throw in a patriotic question or two there just to
make it festive, you know, for the nice holiday coming up.
So. Kevin's making it festive for
all of us right now. This USA banner behind him.
That's right. That's right, baby.
Our kids were watching Hunger Games in the basement on the
projection screen we got from the library, so posted up out

(01:17:31):
here today. Not a bad spot there, you.
Go, gentlemen. That is.
That is the show. There has been, they said a lot.
There's been a lot for us to talk about this offseason more
than. There's more coming, don't
worry. And there's so.
And there's more coming too. Like to the people listening, we

(01:17:52):
have wanted to talk about the new rules for like 3 weeks and
every time we have it on our agenda in the dock, we kick it
to the next week because three more friggin headlines pop up
that we need to get to and speakto in a timely manner instead of
getting to the rules. But I, I promise we'll get to
them at some point. We'll dissect these things,

(01:18:13):
we'll talk about them. Gentlemen, any final words, any
shout outs or anything that you want to make before we close out
today? The dog.
The dog Days of summer, man. Oh, and I'm going to try.
I got Willie Nicholas coming up as well.
Moving to northern or North Dakota State, so another week or

(01:18:34):
so maybe. Nice, nice, nice, nice.
So we're going to keep kicking it with the content.
Stick with us, people. We appreciate everybody watching
on YouTube, listening on Spotify.
You should be able to watch thistoday on Spotify as well as we
switch platforms with our hosts on the audio portion as well as

(01:18:54):
listening on Apple. I apologize for last week.
The platform that I upload everything to was given us,
given me, I guess some a little bit of issues.
So the Apple portion of things didn't get to where it was
supposed to as quick as it was supposed to.
But that's all fixed. We made some switches, we made
some moves and we appreciate people that reached out and

(01:19:14):
said, hey, where the hell is theepisode?
That means a lot to us honestly,that you guys watch, that you
guys listen, that you guys support.
Throw those comments in there. So yeah, throw in those
questions as well. If there is something that you
want us to speak to, you can comment on literally every
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(01:19:35):
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them. So we appreciate it as well as
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Use QP 25 to get your discount over there on

(01:19:57):
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Starocci, Brooks & PSU Drama, Gabe Arnold dismissed from Iowa | Ep. 7

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Starocci, Brooks & PSU Drama, Gabe Arnold dismissed from Iowa | Ep. 7