BruceyB

In the age of streaming, I would think all notable tournaments would use the format of front side matches on specific mats, and backside on others. Having to hop around 8 different mats is such a headache.

I can't find what rounds they are doing during each session. Is this evening going to be quarters and semis, or are semis in the morning?

I do agree. I'm not saying that the time for a change is now, but it's eerily similar to how I felt about Ok St especially starting 4-5 years ago. If the gap between Iowa and Penn St keeps widening over the next handful or years, and Ok St starts closing the gap.. I wouldn't be surprised if a change is made.

My perception of the Brands/Iowa brand has definitely taken a hit over the last handful of years. Of course they will continue to be relevant and land some top end recruits, but it seems like, 10 or so years ago, Iowa was a more highly sought after destination where it seems they are landing the real blue chippers at a noticeably lower rate. I'm not sure if this is because so many more blue chippers are going to Penn St, or if they prefer to spend their money on transfers rather than recruiting, or if the "you just have to be the toughest guy on the mat" and hyper-intensity of the Brand just isn't as appealing today's kids as it has been in the past. I had a similar feeling with John Smith the last handful of years. I felt like Ok St wasn't landing top end recruits at the clip they had in the past, and the several guys going there weren't developing as expected. I thought it was time to bring in someone new to reinvigorate the program, despite how much I have always like John Smith.

What on earth does a comparable weight class have to do with a 4th stringer..?

I'm curious if he is somehow actually doing back to back RS seasons. I'm assuming last year was an Olympic RS, and maybe he's using this year to grow into a Snyder-esque HW and letting the big dogs graduate?

Hammerlock's not wrong. But what I really meant is that it's a shame that Gable has such an absurd gift of athleticism and wrestling ability but doesn't seem to have a genuine passion for the sport at this point. No one with a deep-driven passion would voluntarily leave their sport voluntarily for the last past 4 World/Olympic championships.

It's kind of sad that Gable was willing to come back for presumably a significant amount of money, but he doesn't care enough to wrestle more than basically the bare minimum. Edit: fix a typo.

I was curious and looked up his wrestlestat where it shows he redshirted last year, and it shows that he is redshirting again this year (listed as 285)? I was just curious if anyone has insight to what his future plans are as far as college wrestling is concerned.

Midlands and Scuffle used to be the best weekend of regular season NCAA wrestling. I miss the good ol' days.

That was my thought. Do the Woods and Griffith move.. get your Stanford degree and go wrestle 1 year as a mercenary and make some money.

Destroyed? I put Shayne on his butt and nearly scored in the first.. they go back on their feet and Jordan gets the first takedown. I actually was surprised that it looked like Jordan Williams had the better of Shayne on their feet in the first. I never thought Williams was going to win, as I figured he'd fade by the third, but Shayne got on top and it was over. "Sophomore Shayne Van Ness, ranked No. 2 at 149, came back from an early first period deficit against No. 16 Jordan Williams to pin the Trojan at the 4:39 mark of the second period" Per Gopsusports.com EDIT: I hadn't caught up on the thread before replying. Sorry for restating what's already been said. Regardless of the SVN match, I agree that Taylor needed to establish a culture and dealing with a "wild child" while trying to do so makes for a headache. Hopefully Williams goes on to have success, but it likely wasn't going to work with someone who expects the structure and dedication that DT does.

Well, with the rule change you would give your backup headgear to your coach prior to the stepping on the mat. Like the old "blood rag check" in FS the ref would confirm each coach has their athlete's spare. But I agree, if you have an issue with your headgear, finish the match without it.

I agree. In college, we were all given new headgear at that beginning of the year, and everyone already had their own anyway. It seems reasonable that every athlete has a "backup" headgear in their bag incase something happens. I also agree with making headgear optional in matches, but I think it would have to follow the international rules where you can request your opponent removes it. I would hate to wrestle someone like Vito wearing the old CK hard plastic headgear. FWIW, I got my ears busted in practice.

Rokfin

Ah I forgot to mention this in my above post. I thought 100% when KOT's grip on the leg broke that the match was over. I couldn't believe that he was able to recover and gain the advantage from there. He was stretched out, left with one hand on the leg and turned it into a favorable scramble.. It was honestly remarkable that he was able to score from that position.

TBH, I didn't start watching college wrestling until 2007. I shamefully admit that although I've watched a lot of wrestling that happened before 2007, I have never watched Jon Trenge.. I just know if him from talk. Care to provide a link to a match showing how good he really was? I'd love to watch.

I completely agree. Unless you are able to get in and finish cleanly, getting to Keegan's legs is really like 1/4 of the battle for a lot of wrestlers. I'm jealous that you'll get to watch the matchup in person. I can't imagine a boring match between them. If you don't mind my asking as I'm new, I know your an Okie guy and regularly attend events, are you near Stillwater?

Something happened being that not many can hold up against the unrelenting pressure of Mesenbrink. I'm not a PSU guy, but MM puts on a pressure that matches, or I would argue surpasses that pace that peak Metcalf put on his opponents. You can score early, but you also have to be able to hold him off in the third. When it comes to Hamiti, I think he is close to the level, but he's definitely an underdog going into a match against either. I don't think those matches are a toss up, but I think he's close enough that if he wrestles a great match, he can certainly pull an upset.

The majority was correct. KOT was obviously the favorite on this board.

I would argue he didn't have KOT's arm pulled as much as KOT was grabbing around his neck with his right arm while his left was around the leg so he could push the head away while pulling the leg in.. and then Haines put the leg in to prevent himself from sliding off. It was close either way, but I didn't feel that KOT ever stopped improving his position despite the leg coming in and slowing his improvement. Obviously I was rooting for Keegan, but I also want calls to be correct, and in the moment I was afraid they were going to call a premature TD for Haines because I wanted the position to play out. I also wish they would have waited to call the takedown until Keegan had it confirmed beyond a doubt and given Levi a chance to scramble (I think the TD was eminent, but would have preferred the situation played out fully). If leg in position happened with Haines starting on top, I think most people would say that Keegan was in a better position for a reversal than Haines was from maintaining control.. Because he really didn't have any control in that position, it just resembled being on top, despite not having control.

I think to be the "best to never win" you should have probably either been the heavy favorite to win, or been stopped by an all-time great. Tyler Caldwell fits the latter situation where he was likely good enough to win at least one, if not multiple titles but suffered NCAA losses to 3 of the best to ever do it. Hazewinkel fits the former where he was the odds on favorite to win his senior year, and Donahue pulled a huge upset to stop him from becoming champion. But really I think Fix would probably be my pick. He was a common pick his freshman year against Suriano, the first RBY final, and it was still a coin flip going into their second final. Not many would have picked Vito over him during Vito's first run to a championship, and this past season was probably the first time many didn't consider him at least a 50/50 favorite to win. He was on the level for so many years but was never able to put the whole run together. Another guy that I think gets forgotten is Joey Dance. He was phenomenal during the regular season, and just found a way to fall short at the big dance. Alan Waters was another guy I think of that was really tough but couldn't put the full tournament together. I wouldn't put either of these as "the best" but worth a little trip down memory lane.

Wouldn't that pull his red shirt? He has 1 or 2 dates left. Not sure the exact amount.

I'm assuming they are saving him for conference duals. If they were going to use him against PSU, he would have wrestled the other too matches as well.