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Wrestling Recruiting: OSU Throwing Everything They Have at No. 1 Recruit

OSU’s cards are on the table when it comes to getting AJ Ferrari to Stillwater.

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On Friday night Oklahoma State target and No. 2 overall recruit Braxton Amos announced his commitment to wrestle for Wisconsin. With No. 2 off the board, the last big remaining chip on the table for Oklahoma State in the 2020 recruiting class is the No. 1 overall recruit in the country, AJ Ferrari.

I don’t know that any OSU wrestling recruiting target has ever been covered as thoroughly as Ferrari. I’ve written about AJ at length on here — search “Ferrari” on the site and you’ll find about 15 articles. I have done my best to paint a clear picture of just how talented this kid is and I still don’t know that I’ve fully been able to do it justice.

He’s as blue-chip a recruit as they come, a weight room junkie that’s just incredibly athletic and has a swagger about him that’s unmatched by most. He’s also a great size fit as OSU currently has one commit in Konner Doucet who could be either a 197 or 285, and Ferrari fits a similar mold. FloWrestling did an impressive story on him that really breaks down just about everything you could want to know about him as a wrestler.

OSU fans have been focused on him for some time. On social media, when I run into people at duals, or even just out at the grocery store, I’m routinely asked if he’s going to be a Cowboy. The ultimate answer I have to that is I really don’t know. He’s been making his visits around the country the past few months and has made stops at Rutgers, Nebraska, Ohio State, and this past weekend Penn State. Oklahoma State is the lone remaining official visit.

Even with the OSU visit still pending, he’s undoubtedly close to the Cowboys and their staff. He’s been within the radius of the RTC the entire time he’s lived in Allen, Texas and has been able to work and train at OSU via that connection.

The staff and wrestlers at Oklahoma State have worked camps in Texas, hit up tournaments he’s wrestled in, made in-home visits, and done just about everything available within the confines of recruiting rules to develop Ferrari as a wrestler and build a relationship with him.

I don’t know that other schools have made quite the same effort as OSU, but they all certainly have their connections and selling points.

The Ferrari family lived in New Jersey for some time and during that time became close to Rutgers, and he included them as a part of his top five. He even once said they and OSU “are the two main ones.” He’s a guy that’s very proud of his Italian-American heritage, and Rutgers has a lot of that in their program. They also have a brand new facility.

Oklahoma State is a program that certainly has its fair share of Italians as well. Arguably at a comparable level to that of Rutgers. John Smith is the most common English name out there, but on his mother’s side is Italian. In fact, John is the only wrestler in the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. Zack Esposito is Italian, Chris Perry being the nephew of John has some Italian descent, and strength and conditioning coach Gary Calcagno is also Italian.

Ferrari is from Allen, Texas which certainly helps Oklahoma State as geographically he’s a whole lot closer to Stillwater than any other program. But Allen, Texas is also where Penn State’s Bo Nickal is from. And there’s a connection between those two that helps Penn State along with the fact that they’ve been the dominate program of this era. The other schools he’s looking at are Ohio State and Nebraska, which both have their selling points as well.

Ferrari is a program-changer and will massively elevate whatever school he chooses to attend. Beyond his talents, he also has two younger brothers that will likely attend the same school as him and look to create their own “Smith-esque” family legacy at that school.

Not that they already weren’t, but the Cowboys will likely put all the cards they have in their hand on the table and throw absolutely everything they have at Ferrari to finish off their already stout 2020 recruiting class with the No. 1 guy in the country.

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