Andrew Campolattano will (officially) wrestle for Ohio State

Campolattano is perfectly sized for 197 in my mind. He looked small in the couple matches I watched him at 215 this year. I think he just went 215 because 1) he wanted to get bigger for football, and 2) he was good enough to beat everyone at 215 anyway, so why not.

On a side note, I really wish college would change 197 to something a little heavier. It just makes sense to make it somewhere between 210-215 so it aligns with the next level (211 pounds for international styles) and high school.

The similarities to Cody Gardner are a little closer than you'd think. Gardner was a 4X State Champ, only had a couple losses (less than 4 I think?) and won just about everything from Fargo to Ironman, even with allllll that talent and allllll that great coaching down in Christiansburg Va, he didn't pan out not only at Virginia Tech for failing a drug test, but also at tOSU. I'm big on Camp, I think he's an exciting big guy to watch and is nothing short of great, really would've liked to have been able to go watch him wrestle at VA Tech, but I am very curious and interested to see if he does indeed pan out. I know I can predict what I think will happen and then it'll be totally opposite because with Gardner I said he'd wrestle at Tech all 4 years, struggle the first couple and end up AAing as a Junior or Senior at around 7th or 8th, I also said Devin Carter would get smashed as a Frosh this year and eventually would grow into his weight and college wrestling, not only did he not get smashed, but he smashed and if he would have AAed around 6thish like a lot of guys thought he may I'd felt like a real dummy. Truth is, these guys are still kids 17 to 20 years old, it's way too hard to tell what is going to happen to them in a year...

Camp is a great talent. I don't think OSU was the best choice as far as maximizing his talent, but I still feel he'll have a nice career.

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Originally Posted by bwh27

Not sure the relevancy of comparing 215 and 189 when Campolattano is still capable of making the cut down to 189. Note my Kurt Backes example of someone who competed at 215 in high school but ended up wrestling at 184 his first three years (approximately) before going up to 197. No one is going to argue that 215 isn't a relatively weak weight class, but why does that matter in the particular case of Andrew Campollatano's potential as a college wrestler? He's proven himself plenty down at 189 and you're not going to find a single college coach who doesn't recognize his tremendous skills. You bring up a legitimate point that he may not have the commitment to really excel in college, of course that's possible for almost any top recruit, but to question his physical abilities just doesn't make sense to me.

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According to what's being said, Camp doesn't want to cut down, at least not to 184 anyway. Anyway, who's making assumptions now? You're just making the assumption that Camp can or wants to cut down to 184 or 197. The kid is pretty lean where he is right now, does he look like he's got the size to compete with Dustin Kilgore? Simaz? Brandvold?From what I can see, he's going to need to put on more muscle to his frame, but there's also not much weight for him to cut, especially for 1 hour weigh-ins. Looks like the definition of a tweener. Especially if the commitment issues hold any water, the cutting will be an issue.

No, I'm not assuming that he will be wrestling 184, he's clearly projected at 197 for Ohio State. I brought up the Backes example because the fact that he wrestles 215 does not prove that he's a tweener in and of itself, and in this particular case he was capable of making 189 so it's even less credible to focus on the weight class issue. Of course a high schooler needs to get stronger to compete with the best 197's in the country, that's very rarely not the case. But he's not entering college with a particular strength concern. You can also get much stronger without gaining weight if you lift the right way. Camp hasn't grown in four years, why do you all think he's going to balloon up now? It's not like he didn't gain strength from his freshman to his junior years at 189.

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Originally Posted by Zapp Brannigan

Dustin Kilgore? Simaz? Brandvold?

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All three of these guys have spent time at 184 in the past.

205 is a good weight for Campolattano to be at right now to make a successful transition into the 197 spot after a redshirt year.

He's bigger than Simaz right now if you ask me. Definitely looks to be more muscular.

Not like Clayton Foster was a physical specimen but he did just fine this year. Kids got unreal athleticism and I dont get where people think he lacks strength so much. I think Camp seemspretty strong for a senior in high school, so I dont get where the lack of strength argument comes from. When college trainers get a hold of him he'll be able to put on plenty of muscle and make 97 no problem.

Remember he's weighing in at 205, which means he is eating as much as he wants. Probably with mild food discipline he could make 197.

The past year he has been trying to bulk up for the linebacker spot. Let's face it, 205 lb linebackers don't cut it in the NCAA, even at Rutgers. He didn't have a DI football senior year and I think between not gaining the weight expected this year he saw that football was more dream than reality. He was up to a shade under 215 at the onset of the season and immediately lost 10 lbs with the wrestling workouts. It would have been a 2 year project to get him up to 230 for football.

OSU needs to muscle him up 8-10 lbs for 197. His 215 Dapper Dan bout proved he isn't as strong as the top 215's, he couldn't hold his tilts, and won't be as strong as the middle of the road 197s in DI.