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Honestly my first thought is Daton Fix. I know he is still competing, but I have to think that he will be able to do both

Well I am happy to see Zack go to Ok St. it will make even more interesting.

If PSU loses Duke, I think that would send shockwaves throughout college wrestling, especially if Iowa lands him.

So as much as it would be great for Iowa to get Ryder, I don’t see Ferrari being big enough for 197, he looks a little small for 84. Caliendo has been spectacular at 165, and if I was TnT I wouldn’t mess with that. Kennedy proved himself at 174, so once again I wouldn’t touch that either. Arnold may be the odd man out here and might be relegated to a backup role. Now it might work if Ryder could go 97, but I have no idea if that’s realistic. Honestly though I think Ryder is going to go to Okie St.

I could see Davis hitting the portal, it’s going to be crowded with Blaze and Ono.

Trump making Wrestling Great Again

Well my belief is that he will try and make the World Team, because I don’t know what else there is for him right now. WWE, and Football didn’t work out so I think he returned to wrestling to find success and support. I guess he could try MMA, but I haven’t heard anything about him wanting to give that a go. As far as who will be our rep for 125 KG this year, I would’ve have picked Gable all day before last night. But now I am not so sure.

Well I like the Coach/staff going out and establishing a relationship with a wrestler and then recruiting and developing him. I’m not really a fan of going around and trying to “hire” a guy, but I understand the world we live in. Next year maybe it might be Ferrari, or Bassett if he’s ready. But Iowa like other teams are constantly trying to compete with Penn St, which is really a “super” program nowadays. So not only do they have to compete with them on the mat but they also have to compete with them for recruits. Add in Ok St. which has made the commitment to return that program back to its past success, is going to be another team going after the top talent. Also Nebraska, was this a one off, or is this a signal of things to come from in Lincoln. Now I don’t have any inside information about Iowa but if you look at all their assistants it’s all home grown talent, but a poster on another thread suggested that maybe Iowa should hire Jason Nolf, and the more I think about it, maybe they should start looking outside of Iowa City.

The SunDevil’s are in a tough spot, like many programs. So many teams are struggling to secure funds, recruit, develop and maybe even acquire talent in the portal, and of course dealing with injuries. Programs are also looking for quality assistant coaches. Add in the fact that Penn State and a few other programs are able to consistently find success, putting pressure on everyone else. This year Nebraska a traditionally very good program had a great season with phenomenal results, so is this going to be the norm for them going forward? Also Ok St. has made the commitment to put that program back on top, which is another issue to contend with. Anyway, I am sure Coach Jones is doing the things that he can under the circumstances he finds himself under. I think that if he could find additional funding, it would probably be a huge shot in the arm.

Amazing, I knew that they were tough, but wow. Fantastic tourney for the Cornhuskers.

That would be huge, but he’s about the same size as Morningside so I don’t know how the dynamics would work.

Well all the teams have to work through their injury situations. But what I think is Iowa’s issue is that I see guys just getting worn down to the nub. Perhaps 5 years of the intense training is too much for a lot of their wrestlers.

Iowa will have 5 AA’s and 3 guys are in the finals, and they got hit with the injury bug. So I don’t see them getting anything but praise when they get back to Iowa City. I think Kennedy and Kueter had a pretty great tourney.

Things are going badly for Iowa. Teemer and Parco seem to be injured.

So both Dan Gable, and Cael Sanderson were incredible wrestlers, both in college and internationally. But was their impact on our sport more as a coach than as a competitor?