What OSU Wrestling’s Recruiting Success Means For Future of the Program

Oklahoma State signed the best recruiting class in the country in 2020, signed another top-three class for 2021, and has already started off 2022 with two monster commitments in Jordan Williams and Anthony Ferrari.

Which begs the question: how does Oklahoma State fit everyone in? Recruiting wins are great, and everyone loves to bring in blue-chippers. But how and where they all fit is a larger question I’ll try to address below.

First let’s take a quick look at everyone the Cowboys are bringing in with the 2020/21/22 classes

2020 class

AJ Ferrari
Dustin Plott
Trevor Mastrogiovanni
Jakason Burks
Luke Surber
Konner Doucet
Daniel Jezik
Alexander Yokubaitis
Trevor Dopps
George Marsh
Sam Sherrer
Evan Shetley

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2021 class

Victor Voinovich
Travis Mastrogiovanni
Teague Travis
Cooper Birdwell
Blake Skidgel
Talmage Carman
Cade Nicholas
Kyle Haas (Waiting to Sign and likely taking a grey shirt)

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2022 class

Jordan Williams
Anthony Ferrari

If you don’t factor in anyone except the true freshmen this season, the signees for 2021, and the two commits for 2022, the lineup theoretically sets up almost perfectly.

125: Trevor Mastrogiovanni/Jakason Burks/Cooper Birdwell/Alexander Yokubaitis

133: Trevor Mastrogiovanni/Jakason Burks/Cooper Birdwell/ Alexander Yokubaitis

As far as recruiting stars go, Mastro and Burks are the guys most expect to be the future of 125-133 for the Cowboys. Birdwell and Yokubaitis could certainly develop and insert themselves in the conversation.

141: Jordan Williams/Teague Travis/Cade Nicholas

149: Victor Voinovich/Anthony Ferrari/Travis Mastrogiovanni

157: Victor Voinovich/Anthony Ferrari/Travis Mastrogiovanni

165: Victor Voinovich/Anthony Ferrari/Travis Mastrogiovanni

When you look at this group, they’re all high profile recruits and all wrestle at 152 currently, which is certainly unique. Ferrari may grow a bit as he’s younger but they’ll spread out across this weight. My best guess is Voinovich at 149, Mastro at 157, and Ferrari at 165. Naturally, that’s pure speculation that no one knows for sure at this point, but Mastro and Ferrari have longer frames that Voinovich and there’s more potential for Ferrari to grow as he’s younger and certainly has the genetics to do it.

174: Dustin Plott/Daniel Jezik/Talmage Carman/Sam Sherrer

184: Luke Surber/Daniel Jezik/Evan Shetley/Talmage Carman/Sam Sherrer

197: AJ Ferrari/Kyle Haas/Luke Surber

285: Konner Doucet/Kyle Haas/George Marsh

I tried to list everyone here from these classes, and you truly never know who may came out of nowhere and be the next Nolan Boyd, Preston Weigel or Derek White — guys who come in without a lot of credentials but wind up as a significant lineup piece for the Cowboys. The fact is that on paper you probably have natural expectations for who should fill most of the starting roles.

And ultimately, if this entire group stays together and does what they’re expected to do, and no one has any insane growth spurts, all of the guys that are coming in with a lot of recruiting credentials should eventually find their spot in the starting lineup.

It’s been a few years since OSU had some pretty highly touted recruiting classes and the last group they had were all the same size mainly with Chance Marstellar, Joe Smith, and Chandler Rogers. That didn’t shake out well.

Thankfully, if you’re an Oklahoma State fan, that shouldn’t be an issue here as all of these wrestlers can pretty reasonably eventually find their spots.

What becomes a bit of a different conversation is how everyone will mesh with the guys currently in the room. Who will need to start immediately, who will have some time to develop, and who may overtake some of the guys around in the starting lineup? I’ll revisit that discussion a bit later.