The transfer portal opened up on April 1, and Nebraska has seen three wrestlers enter over the last few days.
Nebraska’s All-American AJ Ferrari — who transferred in last offseason to wrestle at heavyweight — will spend his senior season elsewhere. In addition to Ferrari, Nebraska also saw talented freshman Ty Eise and backup 125-pounder Alan Koehler hit the portal.
As for Ferrari, he went 18-5 this year and made it to the semifinal round of the NCAA Championships at heavyweight, but he fell there to Iowa State’s Yonger Bastida. Ferrari then medically forfeited out of the tournament to place sixth.
It’s unclear where Ferrari will land, but one thing is clear — he’s going back down to 197 pounds. The word is that Iowa is trying to bring in not only AJ, but also his younger brother Anthony who is transferring out of Campbell as a 165-pounder. The Hawkeyes are apparently trying to bring all three Ferrari brothers together as they already have Angelo at 184, according to Pat Mineo.
As for Eise, Nebraska wanted him at 184 pounds to replace All-American Silas Allred, but it turns out the freshman wants to be at 174. The only problem is that Nebraska already has the presumed preseason No. 1 wrestler at that weight in Christopher Minto. During his redshirt year, Eise went 13-6, mostly at 174 pounds. He did get into two duals this year at 184, going 0-2 in those matches.
Eise announced Saturday that he was committing to Oklahoma — he’ll have four years of eligibility. Great pick-up for the Sooners.
A junior-to-be, Koehler also announced his decision to transfer. Koehler went 10-13 this year while competing for the starting spot at 125 pounds — he went 2-9 in duals. A solid prospect coming in, Koehler would be a really good pick-up for a lower program or a Division II program.
What This All Means
The big thing is this opens up three roster spots that Nebraska can fill via the transfer portal. Ferrari’s departure also frees up a big chuck of change that Nebraska can use to bring in a big-time wrestler — likely at 125 pounds.
With Eise leaving, Nebraska really doesn’t have a viable option on the roster at 184 pounds, so they will almost certainly be bringing in someone to fill that weight class — likely either Bennett Berge of SDSU or Jake Dailey of North Carolina. Berge would be a one-year guy, but Dailey has three years of eligibility left and seems to be the preferred target. This past season, Dailey beat Eise 8-4 in the dual.
With Ferrari leaving, it means that Nebraska will have junior Camden McDanel and redshirt freshman Cade Ziola anchor the lineup at 197 and 285 pounds next season. If Ferrari had stayed on, the Huskers would have redshirted McDanel and slid Ferrari in at 197.
