Blue White Illustrated

you have the expectations on you. How o1en do you hear kids talking about wanting to be the underdog? That drives me crazy. Who wants to be an underdog? You want to be expected to win. Usually with expectations come the resources and the assistance to help, but it still comes down to performing. The more you're given, the more is expected. So I love the high expectations. Now we're expected to perform, our teams are ex- pected to improve and make progress throughout the year. We're expected to have a great [NCAA] tournament. We're expected to have Cinderella upsets at the national tournament and host big dual meets. I wouldn't want it any other way. It's not the easy route, but it's why I chose it. Nico Megaludis is back this year. Zain Retherford, too. I think the ques- tion everyone looks to next is how does that lineup work? We're trying to /gure that out. I wouldn't say anything is set in stone. I think the guys who win, regardless of what weight they're at, they're the ones who set the lineup. The other guys fall in. What does that mean? It means, well, what weight does Zain Retherford want to go? He's a guy who will go any weight he wants. He's a team player, though. Would it be realistic for Jimmy Guli- bon and Zain to move up a weight class? I think that's a great possibility. Proba- bly more likely than not at this point. I wouldn't say anything is 100 percent, but it's probably close to that. Then there's just a logjam from 157 to 184. Obviously there are guys like Bo Nickal and Jason Nolf, but you've talked a lot about Shakur Rasheed, too. We haven't seen Rasheed compete a whole lot. He came in and was a guy who we expected to challenge [for a starting spot] right away. If he was ready, he was going to wrestle, but he had major shoul- der surgery before he le1 high school. He's just a great athlete, and we have high expectations for him. He's a kid who comes to me and says, "Hey, what do I have to do to win a national title?" In my history as a coach – short histo- ry – if you have a guy coming to you and asking, What do I have to do to be a na- tional champion? That's the kid you want in your lineup because that's very rare. You'd think it's not, but even in a program like Penn State, most guys think they know their level. They've been so successful throughout their life that they think they know exactly what they need to do. But you can always be coachable. When I was competing a year before the Olympics, I told Coach [Kevin] Jackson, "Whatever I have to do to win, I will do it. You just tell me what to do." I meant it sincerely because win- ning was everything. There was nothing else. At that point of time in my life, if my life was going to go on, I needed to win a gold medal. I would do whatever it takes to be successful. I'm not saying [Rasheed] is me. I'm just saying he has an attitude where he's asking about it. You've spoken highly of Nolf, too. We call him Wolf. He's just a kid who is con/dent, works hard, and when he competes, he just turns it on. He doesn't get tired, he's good and he's con/dent. He can scramble and he's explosive, too. He's a guy who we expect to compete for a national title next year. He has every intention of winning nationals as a freshman. What about Nickal? Can you com- pare him to someone? When we were recruiting him, we were looking at him as a guy who is going to wrestle like [two-time NCAA champ and four-time All-American] Quentin Wright. He has the ability to /re from the outside but he will also go upper body. He has tremendous hip strength, so I think you'll see some similarities between him and Quentin. I think he's going to pin a lot of guys, just like Quentin did. We haven't talked about Nick Nevills yet. How's he doing? Nevills is supposed to be on the mat live in June. He just had a bad [foot] in- jury. ... He's gotten a little better and stronger, so he's taking advantage of his time o0 the mat. Has that helped or hindered him with adding weight? He's bigger and stronger than he looks. He just has that baby face, so he looks like he's still a sophomore in high school and he comes to practice every day and his hair is sticking up the side like he just got out of bed. ... But he's con/dent, and he's kind of goofy (laughs). He thinks a little di0erently. Most great athletes, or wrestlers, are a little di0erent. They march to a di0erent drum, and that's a good thing. He's going to be fun to watch. ■

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