93 replies to this topic

[Mama_Bull]

Did he enroll?

[usfbullrider]

I know he was at the spring game.

[ckparrothead]

Tell me South Florida just successfully recruited Wakanoho Toshinori to play defensive line. Please tell me that's true.

[Mama_Bull]

Someone with access can check if he is currently enrolled.



Soslan Gagloev

http://southflorida....c=1&nid=6248451

[Mama_Bull]

I know he was at the spring game.

Yep.



http://southflorida..../2/1180310.html

[ckparrothead]

Seriously, if this guy is coming to USF, that's pretty god **** awesome.

I would think other major schools are on his trail though. Maybe they're afraid of his being new to football and his past. He was kicked out of sumo wrestling for possession of marijuana. He changed his story quite a few times when it came to who he was smoking with and also with respect to allegations he made of match-fixing in a sumo magazine. He sued the sumo wrestling federation to try and stay in the league, then dropped the suit with a settlement of about $80k. Later he made allegations of match-fixing and said he was forced to accept bribes to throw fights. Then he recanted, apologized, and claimed he only said those things because the magazine in question promised him that he would be back in sumo wrestling within a week if he made those allegations. Then later, he recanted again and said the match fixing allegations were true after all, and this time he claimed that his first recanting was because the sumo federation promised him to make good on his retirement payments if he recanted his original allegations. He said they renegged on their promise of the retirement payments and that's why he is reiterating the initial allegations of cheating (which I believe have been fairly evidenced to actually be true).

Anyway it's a big hairy mess but it doesn't change the fact that yeah you can call this guy raw because he's a sumo wrestler and all that, but he's a 23 year old man amongst boys so to speak and he's got better instincts for hand placement and striking than probably any recruit the school could bring in from high school, and that is born out by his Webber film. Just don't expect him to have a firm grasp of the rules, hence the roundhouse kick he performed on the ball carrier at the 1:21 mark of the highlight tape that was linked earlier in the thread, lol.

I'm telling you though, I effing love it. Not just from a football standpoint. I'd make signs for this dude if he were starting games, lol.

[Bullwinkle]

Also I'm hoping he actually comes through on his promise to get to the NFL and does what is needed to get there. I watched a documentary on Sumo wrestlers and they are well trained athletes in their own rite, and if he has that dedication, he will become a scary athlete with our food and nutrition program and weight training programs.

This is also a case were the athlete is actually bigger than listed, no way this guy is 280, unless he's 5'8. Q came in a lot bigger but didn't go through the rigorous training and nutrition programs(if you want to call them that) that he has so the sky could be the limit with this kid, he definitely is top heavy which is nice to see for once. Who knows I remember we had a similar situation with a German kid, but I'm going to give this kid the benefit of the doubt after having at least performed at a competitive level of some kind.

I really would love to see us use the 3-4 with him if he pans out, think about who we have returning at LB and all four deserve playing time, plus would allow Lanaris to be on the field to lead everyone.

Remember, he was a World Class Freestyle wrestler before he trained in Sumo. He has to have some severe discipline to have gone from that to Sumo to FB? I wrestled in HS and some in College. In HS, the FB coaches made the wrestling team mandatory for some of their FB players. They usually never turned out to be great wrestlers, but they learned to leverage their weight and learned balance.Extremely important to Linemen. Our FB team won GA top classification 2 of the 4 years I was there. The wrestlers worked the hell out of those FB players. For anyone that doesn't know, wrestlers, swimmers and soccer players are considered some of the best conditioned athletes in all of sports.

[Mama_Bull]

Also I'm hoping he actually comes through on his promise to get to the NFL and does what is needed to get there. I watched a documentary on Sumo wrestlers and they are well trained athletes in their own rite, and if he has that dedication, he will become a scary athlete with our food and nutrition program and weight training programs.

This is also a case were the athlete is actually bigger than listed, no way this guy is 280, unless he's 5'8. Q came in a lot bigger but didn't go through the rigorous training and nutrition programs(if you want to call them that) that he has so the sky could be the limit with this kid, he definitely is top heavy which is nice to see for once. Who knows I remember we had a similar situation with a German kid, but I'm going to give this kid the benefit of the doubt after having at least performed at a competitive level of some kind.

I really would love to see us use the 3-4 with him if he pans out, think about who we have returning at LB and all four deserve playing time, plus would allow Lanaris to be on the field to lead everyone.

Remember, he was a World Class Freestyle wrestler before he trained in Sumo. He has to have some severe discipline to have gone from that to Sumo to FB? I wrestled in HS and some in College. In HS, the FB coaches made the wrestling team mandatory for some of their FB players. They usually never turned out to be great wrestlers, but they learned to leverage their weight and learned balance.Extremely important to Linemen. Our FB team won GA top classification 2 of the 4 years I was there. The wrestlers worked the hell out of those FB players. For anyone that doesn't know, wrestlers, swimmers and soccer players are considered some of the best conditioned athletes in all of sports.

Some good pics of him working out

.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.285601811962.176738.214416986962&type=3#!/media/set/?set=a.285601811962.176738.214416986962&type=3

[Gismo]

I know some of you are saying he's slow, and won't be racking up sacks, but with his wrestling background I can see this guy putting some moves on the opposing o-line and breaking through a lot more than an average d-lineman... Even if he's slow it will be putting extra pressure on the QB having a 330# guy running right at you. I think he'll be great.

[Mama_Bull]

His FB page still shows Webber.

http://www.facebook.com/soslan.gagloev

[Bullwinkle]

I can't wait. I've said it before, this is the most "out of the box" signing in Div 1 FB in a while. This guy will either be off the charts , crazy good, or a total bust. But then again, I guess that's why you have all those schollies. We seriously need a nickname contest. First off, he is an instant enrollee in the All Name, HOF. I mean, the guy has a Russian and Japanese Sumo name, just to start with. Secondly, both are decidedly unpronounceable to 99% of the Tampa Bay demographic. Thirdly I suspect, he has enough character traits, flaws or qualities to demand that we begin immediate contemplation on what he should be called. Let the games begin.

Edited by Bullwinkle, 26 June 2012 - 09:48 PM.

[Florida Bull]

I can't wait. I've said it before, this is the most "out of the box" signing in Div 1 FB in a while. This guy will either be off the charts , crazy good, or a total bust. But then again, I guess that's why you have all those schollies. We seriously need a nickname contest. First off, he is an instant enrollee in the All Name, HOF. I mean, the guy has a Russian and Japanese Sumo name, just to start with. Secondly, both are decidedly unpronounceable to 99% of the Tampa Bay demographic. Thirdly I suspect, he has enough character traits, flaws or qualities to demand that immediate contemplation on what he should be called. Let the games begin.

Although his football-related skills may be relatively 'raw,' I look forward to his contributions, and feel optimisitc about his potential. The decision to include him is bold, characteristic of bulls who know what they want. USF does not back down from from any challenges.

Edited by Florida Bull, 26 June 2012 - 09:54 PM.

[Mama_Bull]

Still no confirmation that he will be playing for USF.

Greg Auman is a facebook friend of his, so he should know his current status. Perhaps, GA can provide an update.

[usfvictor]

He's enrolled, unless there's another Soslan Gagloev at USF lol.
The pic comes from the USF directory.

[usfvictor]

Family Name Given Name Affiliation College Campus Email Campus Phone Campus Mailstop Gagloev Soslan Undeclared Tampa


My picture didn't show up in my previous post.

[tbull]

Would not he be better suited to play on the offensive line if indeed he is a tad slow ? A 330 lb OT monster opening the way for Lamar , Shaw etc WOW !

[Mama_Bull]

He's enrolled, unless there's another Soslan Gagloev at USF lol.
The pic comes from the USF directory.

Thanks, then he should at least be a walkon at USF this year.

GA has been updating the walkons the past few days, so I expect that he will have a story up on him shortly.

[ckparrothead]

Let me put it this way. I evaluate NFL Draft prospects for various media outlets and newspapers, and I would sign this guy to an NFL contract to come to training camp pretty much based on the extremely limited information at our disposal, sight-unseen.

I think Bullwinkle has it right, he is either going to be totally awesome, or never see the field. I like that his goal is to get into the NFL.

People talking about him being slow and everything...I think you're missing the mark. He gets off the snap really, really well. Very explosive. That's what sumo wrestling is all about, explosiveness off the blocks. The initial clash (tachi-ai) in sumo wrestling is extremely, extremely important. Many believe you win or lose the match based on that alone. That's the key in all this, and that's I think why Soslan was drawn to playing defensive line for an American football team. He had to be thinking ****, I've already been training to do this for a decade. The other thing is his hand strikes. Not just hand placement, leverage, all that. I'm talking about actual hand strikes. Very important in sumo, and again usually a part of the tachi-ai.

The only thing that really concerns me is conditioning. Not speed. Speed doesn't even enter my mind as a flaw, especially seeing how he played on those Webber highlights. Highly, highly explosive player. But is he well conditioned? Sumo conditioning isn't anything like football conditioning. But then, as has been pointed out, he was a freestyle wrestler before he was a sumo wrestler, and I think he's done some more of that after his sumo career ended. I think wrestling conditioning is generally better than football conditioning, to be one hundred percent honest. So you kind of have the best of both worlds here with Soslav which is why I initially expressed confusion as to why the bigger programs aren't on to him. I would be all over him as a football recruiter. I'd be learning Russian just to impress him.

HIs sumo name was Wakanoho. Maybe he could have a nick name that goes along the lines of "Whack a ____". Either way I just find the whole thing pretty entertaining.

Edited by ckparrothead, 27 June 2012 - 12:07 PM.

[Bullwinkle]

Let me put it this way. I evaluate NFL Draft prospects for various media outlets and newspapers, and I would sign this guy to an NFL contract to come to training camp pretty much based on the extremely limited information at our disposal, sight-unseen.

I think Bullwinkle has it right, he is either going to be totally awesome, or never see the field. I like that his goal is to get into the NFL.

People talking about him being slow and everything...I think you're missing the mark. He gets off the snap really, really well. Very explosive. That's what sumo wrestling is all about, explosiveness off the blocks. The initial clash (tachi-ai) in sumo wrestling is extremely, extremely important. Many believe you win or lose the match based on that alone. That's the key in all this, and that's I think why Soslan was drawn to playing defensive line for an American football team. He had to be thinking ****, I've already been training to do this for a decade. The other thing is his hand strikes. Not just hand placement, leverage, all that. I'm talking about actual hand strikes. Very important in sumo, and again usually a part of the tachi-ai.

The only thing that really concerns me is conditioning. Not speed. Speed doesn't even enter my mind as a flaw, especially seeing how he played on those Webber highlights. Highly, highly explosive player. But is he well conditioned? Sumo conditioning isn't anything like football conditioning. But then, as has been pointed out, he was a freestyle wrestler before he was a sumo wrestler, and I think he's done some more of that after his sumo career ended. I think wrestling conditioning is generally better than football conditioning, to be one hundred percent honest. So you kind of have the best of both worlds here with Soslav which is why I initially expressed confusion as to why the bigger programs aren't on to him. I would be all over him as a football recruiter. I'd be learning Russian just to impress him.

HIs sumo name was Wakanoho. Maybe he could have a nick name that goes along the lines of "Whack a ____". Either way I just find the whole thing pretty entertaining.

Nice insight.

[Bullwinkle]

All the freshman are in from what I've read. Does anybody know when they will update the roster?