Leg rider

I think Scott got pushed out by young talent, or at least there is enough highly regarded young talent there to make that not as big a loss as it could have been, losing Dailey wasn't ideal but we replaced him in the portal with what on paper at least is at worst and even swap, and I am high on the potential of bringing in McCrone. Remember the guy we brought in last year from Ohio State we turned into an AA (Hepner, aka the only wrestler to hold MM to a decision all season)

True, and I am excited about him, but nice to have a veteran, and I feel like depth is most important at 125 and HWT since they are the hardest to shuffle people around to from other weights

Yeah, not hating this, 125 was the biggest hole in the line up before transfers with Terukina graduating, and this fills in the hole left by Dailey transferring

I would like to see Yanni reunite with Coach Koll and take a spot on the bench at UNC

I don't have video, would love to see it as well though. I was teammates with Chris and I can tell you from a pure talent perspective he was a monster, absolutely had national champion level talent, unfortunately I don't think he had his head and his heart in it in the time I knew him anyway

Long way to go, but you can't be an undefeated 4x champ without getting it done the first year so it is at least something to keep an eye on

Since you told your story I will throw mine in as well. I was always a better mat wrestler than I was on my feet and my senior year of high school the coach at a rival high school had convinced his wrestler he was going to get an upset win over me by getting takedowns and then cutting me (learned that from some of the other guys I knew on that team after the fact). I guess his entire plan was to not wrestle me on the mat because when I got the first takedown rather quickly all he did was clam up and try not to let me do anything on top, zero effort to get out. I kept active looking for an opening and the ref was encouraging him to start to wrestle, eventually he had to start calling stalling and he was DQed before the end of the first period

How many of you can think of another match that ended with a stalling DQ? I was a part of one in high school but it looked a lot different than that one

How do you slot Kolat in the 2x champs conversation?

Great find, glad to see my memory hadn't failed me on that one. Kolat was such a monster

I have a vague memory of that as well, like he landed from the flip and immediately shot in. And I could see that working, it would be tough to mentally transition from how can I finish from this great position to defending a shot, especially from someone like Kolat (to be fair it was tough to defend against Kolat even when you knew he was going to shoot on you)

Awesome story, I also started wrestling in 9th grade and also ended up with a State championship as a senior, though I ended up being a D1 practice dummy. I did beat an All American in practice once on the opposite of your story, he tried to throw in legs and got too high and I managed to pin him (I knew how to defend legs because as my screenname indicates I liked to ride legs myself)

Those two by themselves would have placed 17th last year

Anyone have any intel on these?

I am a UNC guy, and I really hope he can keep his head on straight because I have serious concerns about him, though as mentioned he at least dialed it back some this year. As far as NIL (and I have zero inside information) I know Coach Koll has a reputation for building programs and pulling in resources, and there are a few very financially successful UNC wrestling alums out there as well as general UNC alums that value athletics so it is possible he found a source of NIL funding that previously wasnt there or was at a lower commitment level than they are now