Packard

So the standard of being the best is too much for Iowa? That’s an interesting take. Even so, the standard doesn’t have to be as high as beating Penn State. How about produce a National Champion? Just one besides Spencer Lee. They’re able to bring in the best recruits, have every resource you could possibly need, recruit half their roster from the Portal, and still… no individuals stand at the top of the podium. They scrape by just getting somebody into the finals! If Tom and Terry were as great as you claim you’d think somebody could sneak onto the podium (outside of a generational talent)

Mainly because Spencer Lee came into college ready to be a multiple time national champion. He could have gone to NDSU and won 2 nattys. So, take out a generational talent that didn’t require much coaching and Iowa hasn’t had a national champion since 2017. In that time span, off the top of my head, VA Tech, Northern Iowa, and Cornell have all had multiple people win a natty. For the premier program in college wrestling that seems like an underperforming program.

The Brands and Iowa underperformed as usual. They consistently do the least with the most resources. Take Spencer Lee out and they Cory Clark was their last National Champion - in 2017.

We saw Bo Nickal bashing Greco and Kamal Bey responded. The Greco faithful love to say Greco is the most popular style in the world. What data do they have to support this?

I’ve enjoyed the format. Great opportunity to see our athletes that I don’t normally watch. Greco is… well Greco. Those athletes deserve as much recognition as any others. However, I am perplexed why 57 and 65 just wrestled this morning. Can’t make sense of that.

Elore/Molinari. Do we not teach a head in the hole cradle in the international styles?

Is it possible to score a TD in Greco Heavyweight?

It was hard for Nolf to even make contact with Dake for the majority of the match. What’d he supposed to do just dive from across the mat?

Passivity is more confusing than stalling. Dake backs up and circles the entire second period while Nolf chases, or stands in the middle, but Nolf gets put on the clock?

Did Snyder leave NLWC?

I don’t watch freestyle enough to criticize officials, but I see wrestlers compare how US officials call matches vs international officials. Wouldn’t it make sense to bring in some international refs for these tournaments so we get a sense of how matches will be called?

So Burroughs has to take out the entire NLWC to make the Olympics? Feels like a video game.

That’s a good point I’ve wondered about myself. It seems the portal guys that come to PSU are not the same style as the HS recruits. They all seem to be stingy defensive guys that win close matches, but never open up offensively. It seems really odd the contrast.

PSU is obviously at a standard not seen for a long time. I doubt anybody can come in to Iowa and overtake the Cael machine right now, but Iowa fans should expect to be the clear second best team. Sure, over the last five years they’ve have the second best overall finishes, but they are still not the dominate team. Instead of putting 4 or 5 guys in the semis with 3 making it to the finals, they are crossing their fingers, hoping on a wing and a prayer, to get 1 guy to the finals. The expectation isn’t dominated 2nd and competing for 1st, it’s hoping to continue traditions. Although other coaches haven’t elevated programs to Iowa levels, what could Dresser, Schwab, Pop, Grey, or any number of guys do with the resources that Iowa has?

In many cases the gambling case and Ferrari would be job killers. Iowa has always been “no excuses get better”, but the gambling probe was nothing but excuses. Brands never really took responsibility. It was just the blame game. Compound that with having a new AD who served this past fall as the interim. While she was trying to get the job as AD she had to deal with a legal investigation and then had to tell Brands he couldn’t bring in a wrestler because of bad PR. That can’t leave a good taste in her mouth. Have to wonder how her experience with the Ferentz OC situation influenced her as well. A lot to unpack. Hard to imagine their aren’t some changes coming down the Hawkeye way.