How I Can Tell the Ed Ruth Hire Was Awesome?

 

Judge these things based upon your gut feeling and the reactions from your opponents.

ILLINI fans are tripping over themselves with joy, while the fans of other teams are tripping over themselves to try to find any shortcomings.

That makes for the perfect hire!

Besides a three-time NCAA champion, the ILLINI gain through Ed Ruth’s MMA experience. You want that in a room to gain the attention of high school kids who have MMA aspirations. Add all that to his connections on the East Coast, and you get sour grapes from fans of other teams.

Let’s compare the Ed Ruth hire to recent hires from other elite schools. Frank Perelli was named the Head Coach of Cornell’s Spartan Combat RTC. He’s a one-time All-American, who finished second once at Senior Nationals.

Not a homerun.

Staying at Cornell, the school hired Mike Grey, two-time AA, as Head Coach for their university team. Again, not a homerun.

Stanford got a proven winner in Rob Koll, but his assistant hires, I would say, don’t meet that same homerun hurdle. Enock Francois was a three-time AA and a one-time national finalist, but that was at California Baptist. Koll’s other hire was Vincenzo Joseph, a two-time champ, but he’s still in his teens.

Mark Hall is another teenager who is now an assistant coach for Pittsburgh. He’s a one-time NCAA champion. Anthony Ashnault is still another teenager and one-time NCAA champion. He was hired on by Rutgers as an assistant coach.

Then, look at existing coaching staffs and take Iowa as an example: Ryan Morningstar and Bobby Telford. Not a lot of cheese on that trap to attract recruits.

Now these folks are all probably fine individuals and undoubtedly great wrestlers, but when a fan from another school tries to rip on Ed Ruth, you just know they’re jelly.