In one of the most shocking moves of the offseason in college wrestling, Nebraska secured a commitment from AJ Ferrari — the uber talented yet highly controversial junior-to-be who won an NCAA Championship in 2021 for Oklahoma State at 197 pounds.
On the mat, Ferrari is a monster. In two seasons — one at Oklahoma St. and the other at CSU Bakersfield — he’s finished first and third at NCAAs. His career record in college is 51-2.
And it seems the plan is for Ferrari to compete for the Huskers at heavyweight. He said in his announcement (watch below) on FloWrestling that he weighs “almost 230 pounds” and would like to go heavyweight.
That’s great news for Nebraska — its biggest question mark on the roster going into this season was at the largest weight class. Last season, Nebraska qualified nine weights with heavyweight Harley Andrews missing the cut. At NCAAs, two Huskers won national titles, eight landed on the podium, and the ninth fell just one win short of it — resulting in Nebraska’s best team finish ever at the national tournament as they finished second behind Penn State.
When you can turn your weakness into your strength, overall improvement can be incredible. Nebraska now has seven All-Americans in its projected starting lineup — two have won NCAA titles and three have been in the finals (Ferrari, Antrell Taylor and Brock Hardy).
In addition, the heavyweight class cleared out in a major way this past season — six of the Top-7 and ten of the Top-16 graduated. Ferrari would be an early-season title favorite along with guys like Isaac Trumble of NC State and Yonger Bastida of Iowa State. Big names like Gable Steveson, Greg Kerkvliet, Wyatt Hendrickson and Cohlton Schultz are gone. The top of the podium is ripe for the taking.
Long story short — AJ Ferrari could absolutely win an NCAA title at heavyweight for Nebraska next season.
The controversy that follows Ferrari stems from his time in Stillwater — he was dismissed from the team after being charged with felony sexual battery in August 2022. These charges were later dismissed in October 2023.
He missed the 2022-23 season and competed unattached in 2023-24 while training at Iowa then Northern Colorado. Last season, Ferrari competed for CSU Bakersfield — he went 21-1 on the year with his only loss coming to eventual national champion Stephen Buchanan of Iowa.
A few weeks ago, Ferrari committed to North Carolina to wrestle this season but decided to decommit a week ago — this led to his announcement to wrestle at Nebraska.
For a guy with a checkered past, Ferrari may be in just the right place — Nebraska head coach Mark Manning runs a tight ship and doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. He sets a tone that his coaching staff and wrestlers follow.
Nebraska head coach Mark Manning after finishing second at the 2025 NCAA Championships.
Photo by Isaac Wasserman/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Ferrari also mentioned this staff’s faith in Christ as being a big factor in his decision. For a guy who has been known to literally take his wrestlers to church, Manning seems to have formed a real connection with Ferrari.
The culture and chemistry of this team is incredibly strong and durable. In a lot of ways, this signing reminds me a lot of when Bill Belichick would take on troubled veterans like Randy Moss and unleash their potential — and he did it by creating an unbreakable culture where nobody was bigger than the team, even Tom Brady. Guys bought in to what he was preaching, and they created a dynasty doing it — now we’ll see if they can disrupt a dynasty that way too.
It seems that Nebraska has added the pieces now to possibly contend for the top spot — another team trophy at the least. I know that Penn State is still way out in front of everyone else going into next season, but this move certainly put a thumb on the scale in Nebraska’s favor.
Manning has publicly proclaimed that he is chasing down Penn State — this is him showing that he’s confident in his ability to mentor, grow and challenge his wrestlers on and off the mat.
Ferrari touched on the entire coaching staff, including assistant coach Tervel Dlagnev, one of the country’s top upperweight coaches who doubles as the head coach of the Nebraska Wrestling Training Center.
Nebraska assistant coach Tervel Dlagnev (front) with head coach Mark Manning (left) and associate head coach Bryan Snyder (right) during a dual in 2022.
Dylan Guenther / CORN NATION
This will only help Ferrari, a former Junior Fargo Freestyle Champion and bronze-medalist at the 2018 Cadet World Championships. He was the top-overall recruit in the 2020 class — he chose Oklahoma State over Nebraska, Penn State, Ohio State and Rutgers. He has a serious future in freestyle, likely at 97 kg.
At Nebraska, he’ll have training partners Eric Schultz, Christian Lance, Camden McDanel, Harley Andrews and Cade Ziola — as well as Dlagnev, himself an Olympic bronze-medalist at heavyweight. For a NWTC that just showed out at the US Open, this injects a lot of excitement and increases its legitimacy alongside RTCs at places like Penn State, Oklahoma State and Iowa. It certainly puts this program under a brighter spotlight and brings it more attention.
With Ferrari, the sky is the limit. With two year of eligibility remaining (maybe?), he has the ability and ceiling to be a two-time undefeated champion, joining the likes of Jordan Burroughs.
But his commitment to Nebraska comes with a decent amount of hand wringing, and deservedly so. However, I have confidence that Manning, this staff and this team can really bring the best out of Ferrari and help him turn his story into a triumph.
After all, everyone deserves a second chance — now is the time to see what he does with it.