BruceyB

The hawkeyes haven't had a #1 recruiting class since 2012.. And I'm not disagreeing that transfers are a part of the game, but the idea of transfers is to fill holes in your lineup.. a la Penn State. Iowa brought in four transfers and still has two holes in their lineup.. I'm not saying they're dead, far from it. but I don't understand how anyone could look at their last five recruiting classes and act like it's not a concern. I'd love to see what other consistently relevant teams have managed to only turn one recruit into an AA from the classes of 2019-2023. Regardless of the sentiment, "the game changed so you adapt." I'm bored enough that I quickly went through the big boards from 2019-2023 and made a quick list of schools with 2 or more AA's from their own original recruits. I'm sure I'm missing some schools or athletes. OK St - Ferrari, Plott tOSU - Welsh, Feldman, Mendez, Kharchla, D'Emilio Cornell - Shapiro, Foca, Cardenas Michigan - Ragusin, Amine VT - Henson, Stewart, Ventresca, Andonian, Latona Minnesota - Vombaur, Nagao, Salazar Iowa St - Swiderski, Frost Lehigh - Stanich, Crookham NC St - R. Jack, Ed Scott, Orine Missouri - KOT, Rocky, Elam Nebraska - Taylor, Lovett Arizona St - Figs, Schultz Wisconsin - Hamiti, Barnett West Virginia, Hall, Waters Rutgers - Shawver, Poznanski Little Rock - Bailey, Little So at least 16 schools have produced more home grown AAs during this stretch. Transfers are great, but they don't win you a National title or in the conversation with Penn State unless you can grow your own AA's to compliment them.

It's amazing that there are so many examples of perfectly adequate bracket websites.. and this is the format they decided on..

I had the same problem, but if you hover over the bout it will tell you how to result happened.

When it comes to their NCAA placement, sure I'll give you that. But how about incoming recruits? How about development of those recruits? Their 49, 57, 65, and 197 pound wrestlers are all products of prior environments. Their four most dependable NCAA tourney point scorers aren't even from their own program. Looking back at recent recruiting classes.. (not including 2024 or 2025 classes because they haven't competed yet) 2023: Kueter and Arnold are both Freshman starters and have a lot of upside. 2022: 0 AA's and not a single recruit on the starting roster 2021: 1 AA. Ayala is the only contributor from this class. 2020: Zero AA's and Patrick Kennedy is the only relevant name, and he has yet to AA. 2019: Zero AA's and zero current starters. In their last five classes, only three recruits are currently in their starting roster.. and just a single recruit has reached the podium in march. They have two promising freshmen, so they may help break this trend.

It's not on flo or track. There is a link above, but here it is again. https://iasportsco.smoothcomp.com/en/event/21427/schedule/brackets

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.