Kaleb Larkin

[Idaho]

4 minutes ago, SunDevil said:

To call Figs a wildcard is absurd. He was undefeated in a year they have the nod to Courtney in the postseason. He won the nation championship in his second year. Hodge trophy contention in year 3. 

Wildcard in the sense of his health and how it affects his wrestling... Of course he's good when he is healthy - he was in good health and put together a great run through the Pac 12 and NCAA.... prior to that he was in bad health and recovering and lost to the OSU backup. 

[Idaho]

49 minutes ago, Bardamu911 said:

I thought Angel Cejudo was the coach at Valient?

Yes he is the head coach - Larkin is the the co-founder of Valiant, director of operations and does some coaching. 

[SunDevil]

10 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Wildcard in the sense of his health and how it affects his wrestling... Of course he's good when he is healthy - he was in good health and put together a great run through the Pac 12 and NCAA.... prior to that he was in bad health and recovering and lost to the OSU backup. 

It’s a shame the 2025 class fell apart. If ever healthy the team is solid but nowhere close to what is expected. Losing Sunkist and Zahid has hurt. 2026 recruiting off to a decent start. Some top guys on the radar.  It’s always seems to be wait a couple years. I think they need to move on from Zeke as head coach. 

[Idaho]

Just now, SunDevil said:

It’s a shame the 2025 class fell apart. If ever healthy the team is solid but nowhere close to what is expected. Losing Sunkist and Zahid has hurt. 2026 recruiting off to a decent start. Some top guys on the radar.  It’s always seems to be wait a couple years. I think they need to move on from Zeke as head coach. 

Yeah I agree. They had a couple trophy teams that were pretty good, but losing Sunkist (and funding)  and Zahid were huge like you mentioned. Rebuilding the RTC is a big factor.  If Ysaguirre, McClane and Larkin were in the lineup it would help a lot. It always seems to  be a big mystery as to what is going on, but that's not uncommon in college wrestling.  You may be right that they need a reset. 

[SunDevil]

33 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Yeah I agree. They had a couple trophy teams that were pretty good, but losing Sunkist (and funding)  and Zahid were huge like you mentioned. Rebuilding the RTC is a big factor.  If Ysaguirre, McClane and Larkin were in the lineup it would help a lot. It always seems to  be a big mystery as to what is going on, but that's not uncommon in college wrestling.  You may be right that they need a reset. 

4 years of both Larkins. 4 years of Manville. 3 years of Ruiz. Couple years for Yas. Year for Figs. This next class needs to be elite or Zeke needs to go. 

i think the community out here is elite. Larkin, Cejudo, Pritts, Molinaro along with Bader and a nice MMA community. Need something to turn the corner. Like a Dake that wants to be that guy that makes history out West. 

[Bardamu911]

1 hour ago, SunDevil said:

I think they need to move on from Zeke as head coach. 

do you think Zahid has a future as a coach?

[SunDevil]

8 minutes ago, Bardamu911 said:

do you think Zahid has a future as a coach?

I think he still has 2 more Olympic cycles of training. So it’s a considerable amount of time. But to answer the question as best I can. His dad is an elite HS coach, so maybe that translates. 

[1032004]

2 hours ago, SunDevil said:

Hodge trophy contention in year 3. 

Figs is not in Hodge contention 

Edited 2 hours ago by 1032004

[BruceyB]

19 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

Figs is not in Hodge contention 

I don't know. He's 4-1 with an injury loss and three of those wins came by DEC pushing him to a 20% bonus rate.