No program has had more ink spilled over it in the past nine years than Penn State, and no team has been as heavily discussed on FRL and the message boards than the Nittany Lions.

Of all the reasons Cael Sanderson has become a legendary head coach, perhaps right at the top is his ability to recruit blue chippers at an astounding rate. But after getting a head start on his competition by getting the best prospects, he and Casey Cunningham and Cody Sanderson exact the most of their potential. 

Let's take a look at PSU's roster, broken down by weight and grade, along with their incoming recruits.

They graduate five major keys, nearly all of them at 184 and above. Please note, all of the weights come directly from the official Penn State athletic site, while the weights of their recruits are our best guesses.

Make sure you follow this up with Willie's article on the Nittany Lions' recruiting targets. On to a breakdown of all 10 weights and how they shake out both this year and down the road in Happy Valley.

125 Pounds

This Season: It’s between Teske and Teasdale, with the PA boy being the odds-on favorite to start. However, they only have five competitions in the first semester: four duals and the Keystone Classic. So, if need be, they can throw out Devin Schnupp while Teske and Teasdale go to open tournaments to determine which one should stay on redshirt as a true freshman.

Long-Term Outlook: It just makes sense to juggle the redshirts of Teske, Teasdale, and Roman-Bravo-Young in a way that maximizes their ability to start all four years. With that in mind, I think Teasdale redshirts in 2019-20 or 2020-21 to get Teske in the lineup. I also think Teasdale grows out of 125, so Teske eventually becomes the guy. The wrinkle is if Adam Busiello is just done growing and how he fits in.

133 Pounds

This Season: There is a long list of guys Penn State has rolled out as true freshmen: Nick Lee, Mark Hall, Nick Suriano, Zain Retherford, and Morgan McIntosh. So RBY being the starter isn’t anything usual, especially given that he was considered a blue-chip recruit for basically his entire high school career. It’s going to be difficult for him to place because of how loaded 133 is going to be, but he’s clearly the best option for the Nittany Lions.

Long-Term Outlook: No weight is as confusing or option filled as 133 for PSU. It’s possible that at some point, all of Teske, Teasdale, RBY, and Busiello are listed as 133s on the roster in the same season. I’ve always thought Busiello was ultimately a 141 in college, but he hasn’t grown as quickly as I expected he would in high school. Bravo-Young probably spends most of his career here, but this is one weight they probably won’t need to recruit for a long time.

141 Pounds

This Season: Isn’t this supposed to be where Nick Lee makes a big jump? After spending two years in Happy Valley (he moved there during his senior year of high school), it feels like a PSU leap is coming. However, Yianni’s a sophomore, Eierman’s a junior, and McKenna is a senior but in Lee’s way twice this year.

Long-Term Outlook: There is no way Brady Berge holds 149 for more than one season, but it remains to be seen if Lee's is a career 141 or not. To fit all of the above-mentioned lightweights in the lineup, Lee will need to bump up, but that probably knocks out Jarod Verkleeren, as we'll get into below.

149 Pounds

This Season: Junior world teamer Brady Berge is the guy. It's rather difficult to judge where he stacks up in the 149lb pecking order, considering he only wrestled one tournament last year and it was up at 157. However, he's a reliable leg attacker in a weight that saw Troy Heilmann place last year, so it's clear that he can be in the mix to land on the podium.

Long-Term Outlook: Berge is moving up to 157 once Nolf graduates, so it's probably up to Nick Lee to hold it down the next two years. Unless Lee wants to stay at 141, in which case they'll get three years of Jarod Verkleeren. This will probably be the weight the coaching staff needs to focus the most on in recruiting.

157 Pounds

This Season: Jason Nolf. The Matrix. The Nolphin. A nickname never quite stuck for him, but he's in his final year in a Penn State singlet and is the co-favorite with Bo Nickal to win the Hodge. He could pretty easily end his career as one of the Top-10 point scorers in NCAA tournament history.

Long-Term Outlook: Berge will man this for the next three years, so Cael and company shouldn't need to focus too much of their energy searching for a 157 from the current group of high school juniors and seniors.

165 Pounds

This Season: Two-time NCAA champ Vincenzo Joseph now takes on the role of the hunted with Isaiah Martinez graduating, especially considering the third placer from 2017 (Logan Massa) did not place last year, and Evan Wick walked into the 2018 national tournament as the 10 seed before finishing third.

Long-Term Outlook: This is where the greyshirts start coming into play. Even with Joe Lee spending his senior year living and training in Happy Valley, he has not signed his National Letter of Intent and is not enrolled at Penn State. He can train with the NLWC, compete in open tournaments, and redshirt the 2019-20 season when Cenzo is a senior.

174 Pounds

This Season: The prodigy enters his junior year and, to no one's surprise, he can win another national title. Hall has registered pins in nearly 40% of his college wins and has a sneaky good dominance score of 4.16, averaging better than a major every time he walks on the mat. The Nittany Lions probably won't need those kinds of bonus points this year, but you'd prefer to know they're coming.

Long-Term Outlook: Marky finishes out his college career in 2019-20 (unless he decides to take an Olympic redshirt) in his "home" state of Minnesota. Cadet world champ Aaron Brooks is in Trnava, Slovakia and may add another gold medal to his resume while he spends this year at the Olympic Training Center. He'll redshirt next season, after which we'll have a better idea of whether he's a 174 or 184. If he goes up, they'll still have two years of Mason Manville at 174. That alone gives them right to be selective among current high schoolers they pursue for 174. If Brooks stays small, then one of 184 or 197 becomes an area of need.

184 Pounds

This Season: Aside from the three freshmen entering the lineup, the most intriguing change for PSU was switching Shakur Rasheed and Bo Nickal. While Rasheed was cutting entirely too much weight as a 165lb freshman, he was undersized as a 197, reportedly weighing in at 192 for NCAAs.

Long-Term Outlook: With Manville having three years of eligibility left after this season, Brooks could start at 184 right away next year. If they pull a recruit in the 174-197 range, then everyone's going to be looking to see how big Michael Beard is.

197 Pounds

This Season: One of my favorite stats from last season's Hodge notes is that Bo Nickal's average time spent on the mat was less than Zain Retherford. He had double digits pins in the first 90 seconds of a match, and that very well could continue one weight up. Again, he or Nolf are the front-runners for the Hodge.

Long-Term Outlook: I know I said 149 was maybe the biggest area of need, but they do have Verkleeren. Just like at 174 after Hall, they still have Mason Manville, meaning their backups are still fantastic recruits. But there is also the possibility Michael Beard spends his greyshirt year getting down to 184. Now, that would leave a hole for a year while they chase after someone like AJ Ferrari, but it just goes to show how well Penn State is set up to weather even one year with a single down weight.

285 Pounds

This Season: Penn State does everything for a reason, so there is strong reason to believe that it will be Anthony Cassar all season. First, Seth Nevills is greyshirting; he's not on the roster. Why would that be? Likely because his brother Nick is going to miss this year with an injury and apply for a sixth year of eligibility. So expect to see Cassar from jump street.

Long-Term Outlook: All the hubbub of Penn State's pursuit of Daniel Kerkvliet belies the fact that the coaching staff set themselves up well with (probably) one more year of 2x AA Nick Nevills, and his little brother, four-time California state champ Seth Nevills.

Depth Chart Analysis

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