Eagle26

That’s my take as well. You see Penn State and many other programs adopting the mindset of just “having fun and scoring points”. Iowa is still stuck on winning is everything. Even though PSU is super competitive and wants to win as bad as Iowa, the mindset they promote is much more freeing. It allows their guys to wrestle without all the pressure

Well that aged poorly lol. I guess if you wrestle amazing enough for 3 minutes, that is good enough!

Or at least go grocery shopping with him haha

That’s true. Get him on Ghasempour’s strength training program or get him in with the Russian State Lab and he will be fine ha

That’s a good thought… not sure if it’s the weight cut or just cardio, but it sure seems like the weight cut probably has something to do with it. At 70, I think he’d be a beast! Problem is it’s not an Olympic weight and I’m not sure he could fill out to be a full sized 74 any time soon. We all know 74 is LOADED, so I just can’t quite see him having the horsepower to compete them in the next year or two. But 2028 is still a long way off, so if he starts right now maybe that will be his best shot?

I have to think it will be. Amouzad has looked amazing for about 4 minutes, but that’s not going to cut it against Kiyooka.

Dang. That’s about the worst way to lose after you thought you won. scoring was a little sus. There were 3 turns in that first challenge. Should’ve been either 11-8 Kaz or 10-8 Jax depending on who you say initiated the last one… I think Jax but it’s a 50/50 at best. I think there definitely should have been 4 plus 2 for Jax earlier, but you aren’t going to challenge when they gave you 4. But fun match. Other than that one position, Jax looked better. His future is bright.

Wow! What a match by Haines! He earned that win!

Trent looked good, but I am a little worried that jump go behind will get him in trouble against a tougher opponent

I totally agree. I wouldn’t be shocked if someone bursts on to the scene with world gold in their first ever senior world championships. As you point out, we’ve seen it happen many times and I think it can be a bit of an advantage not being the guy who has been scouted for years. However, as you also pointed, you can’t really predict it. I think’s possible that we get our youngest male world champ this year. I’m just saying if I had to put money on my top picks, I wouldn’t be bold enough to make that call. I sure hope I’m wrong about that though!

It seems crazy that we only have 4 guys seeded and one of them is 8th. But I get that is what the numbers give us and I don’t mind having a set criteria like that. I predict we out perform our seeds but not by much. We definitely are experiencing a changing of the guard and I’m not sure if some of the young guys are ready just yet. By 2028, the rest of the world better look out though!

No VPN and yes in the US

So how do you watch this? Anyone else getting this message?

My thoughts exactly… How do you watch this if you don’t have that channel?

C’mon, those picks aren’t that bad. What would you change? Tomasello over Ramos maybe but I see that as a toss up. I’d lower my confidence in Yianni but still pick him. Other than pretty good if you ask me.

Just to clarify, I do agree that seniors is THE measure of success and I’m not proclaiming this young group is going to rival JB, Snyder, Dake, and Taylor just yet. But it’s hard to ignore their age level (and above age level) results and not be excited for the future! To be honest heading into and after 2024 Olympics, I was a bit worried about our future because of seeing some of our GOATs ending or heading towards the end of their careers. I think many don’t realize how spoiled we were with several all time greats all competing at the same time. I’m just saying these young guys are making me feel a lot better about the possibility of seeing more guys to pass the torch to!

I think Jordan Burroughs helped usher in the “Golden Age” for USA wrestling and was followed up by Snyder, Dake and Taylor. It is pretty incredible that we got to watch 4 of the top 6 American wrestlers of all time compete at the same time! And J’Den Cox has an argument to be in the top 10 all time. Unfortunately, this era is starting to come to an end (I know DT and Cox are the only ones officially retired, but the point still stands). However, you can’t help but be impressed with what our young guys just did! Duke, Blaze, and Forrest are doing things I never saw anyone their age do before! Could they and others bring in an even better golden age? You can never predict anyone to have the long lasting success like JB and Snyder, but I think some of these guys have the talent to do it. I’m interested to see if any of these guys can make a run at 7+ senior golds!

I was just looking it up too, I think it is Mark Fee

I actually think this is one thing that Jimmy makes a good point about. Nothing against Valenti, he sure seems like a great dude and a great coach. But so was Bobby Douglass. Opportunities to hire one of the GOATs of the sport rarely come up, especially for a team that’s not already a perennial powerhouse. If Penn has a chance to hire Burroughs, they’d be foolish not to make it happen. They’ve got the money now, and they’ve got the huge advantage that Burroughs already lives nearby. Time to make it happen before someone else takes him.

Bo is amazing but he doesn’t belong in the conversation with these other three. Those 3 have beaten very accomplished senior level guys like we have not seen in a very long time. I do think Bo will have an amazing career, I just think like others mentioned, there are other wrestlers close to his level. Blaze, Duke, and Forrest are on a tier of their own. One thing I find interesting is that we did not get to see Blaze vs Jax during this last world team qualifying process. I’m not sure Jax wins that match if it happens. I do think he is more dynamic while Blaze’s specialty is his defense and reattacks. So to answer the question, I’ll guess Jax, Duke, Blaze in that order for best combined career. But you can’t go wrong with any of those three, they are all just incredible

I am not sure what injury Vito has or had, but I am sure this was an intentional strategy. Jax hits his dump and his slide by when his opponent reaches with his left hand. Don’t think he hit either one so good coaching and good strategy. Jax isn’t one dimensional though, so he still found a way to get the job done.

A lot of people naming some great wrestlers who were pretty good in high school too. The question the OP raises is, who is the worst wrestler to become a D1 AA? There’s got to be somebody we probably don’t remember that placed 7th or 8th or something that never even qualified for the state championships in HS.

Best single season 1-2 punch, would likely be Zain and Nolf 2017. Both undefeated and bonused through the NCAA tournament. Not sure their whole season bonus percentage, but I am almost positive no one would beat it.

I guess it can come down to the age old debate of how you define best - best at peak or best career. Best career, I don’t think there is anyone else that can beat Starocci and Brooks. For 3 years in a row, they were back to back NCAA champs. Then the 4th year there was a weight between them, so I suppose you can’t count that. 9 titles between them for a career is of course impossible to beat, but if you are just counting back to back years it is 6. Don’t think there is any duo with 7, so you have to give them the nod due to the best overall career.

A lot of great names being thrown around… not to be a Debbie downer, but is this a job that any of them would want? Perhaps Borshaff is stepping down in part due to lack of support? I certainly hope the admin rallies behind a great new hire, but I’m a bit skeptical that it will happen