The_KC_Godfather

I'd love to see them all as much as possible. While the 3 star freshmen (#2 Vega, #2 Robideau, and #2 Lockett) have some big wins, I think they still need as much high level competition as they can get. Vega - Could have had #9 Land, although Land only beat Mizzou's backup 16-13. Vega likely would have eaten him for lunch. Outside of Vega's MD over Hardy, he wrestled #7 Jack and #11 Bailey to pretty close matches. He needs some more tough tests if he's going to compete with Mendez. Robideau - Would have liked to see him against #7 Webster. Robideau the most impressive of the three to me so far with what he did to Cardenes and Vonovich. I haven't been that impressed in a long time. I think he beats Watters but needs the comp. for Duke. Lockett - Don't think the Cougar Clash would have helped much with competition. Big wins so far over Caliendo and Garvin, but Messybrink is a different level.

My impression was that DT sent guys that need work...Figs, Swiderski, Facundo, Ryder. Not sure I would say Doucet needs a lot of work. I actually thought we might see Spratley and Merrill after their NDI performances. But, who knows who's nursing injuries. Non-related question...Did Richy Figs get any NIL money?

Hahaha. I literally was thinking "La Quinta is Waffle House, Motel 6 is Denny's" before I saw your reply...

Hahaha. I was waiting for this reply...

I have a feeling that he’s redshirting, barring injury. For whatever reason, Smith seems to be high on Conway and I doubt he’ll replace Edmond in his last season. Not what most of us would like to see, but that’s Smith.

Perhaps you missed his matches against Stanford (MD #3), Cornell (TF #24), NC State (Dec #9), Iowa (MD), Arizona State (MD #23). Go watch the Iowa dual and tell me he didn't "Iowa Style" Iowa.

Thank you for your input. Very helpful.

What if this was "build an NCAA team of Iowa style wrestlers"? 125: Bouzakis or Lightning Luke 133: Davino? 141: Mendez or Vega 149: Lachlan or J. Frost 157: Robby-Do 165: Messybrink 174: Haines 184: Rocco? 197: ... Hwt: Younger?

Yes...yes, I am.

Maybe we should put our sig bet in place...

Illinoise isn't sending their full team? Typical.

Unless I missed one here or there, yes.

I really like that match. It's top 3, in my opinion, with Robideau vs. Webster, and Little vs. Merrill. But Sinclair vs. Ryder is probably at the top, at least for me.

IF starters were to go, here are the ranked wrestlers you'd see. Nebraska and Mizzou are both in St. Charles, MO for a Quad on Friday...wish Nebraska would head across the river and join this tourney! Teams: - Brown (BRWN) - Illinois (ILL) - Little Rock (UALR) - Missouri (MIZZ) - Northern Colorado (UNCO) - Northern Iowa (UNI) - Oklahoma State (OSU) - SIU Edwardsville (SIUE) 125: #9 - Troy Spratley (OSU) #17 - Mack Mauger (MIZZ) #18 - Spencer Moore (ILL) #19 - Trever Anderson (UNI) 133: #1 - Lucas Byrd (ILL) #10 - Dominick Serrano (UNCO) #13 - Ronnie Ramirez (OSU) #16 - Julian Farber (UNI) #24 - Kade Moore (MIZZ) 141: #2 - Sergio Vega (OSU) #9 - Cory Land (UNI) #14 - Danny Pucino (ILL) #21 - Zeke Seltzer (MIZZ) #31 - Brennan Van Hoecke (UALR) 149: #11 - Casey Swiderski (OSU) #16 - Josh Edmond (MIZZ) #18 - Caleb Tyus (SIUE) #19 - Caleb Rathjen (UNI) #23 - Brock Herman (UALR) #32 - Michael Gioffre (ILL) 157: #2 - Landon Robideau (OSU) #7 - Kannon Webster (ILL) #20 - J Conway (MIZZ) #25 - Jaivon Jones (UALR) 165: #2 - LaDarion Lockett (OSU) #6 - Matt Bianchi (UALR) #7 - Ryder Downey (UNI) #9 - Braeden Scoles (ILL) #14 - Max Mayfield (MIZZ) #29 - Max Norman (BRWN) 174: #9: Alex Facundo (OSU) #11: Cam Steed (MIZZ) #19: Jared Simma (UNI) #28: Colin Kelly (ILL) 184: #2 - Aeoden Sinclair (MIZZ) #9 - Zack Ryder (OSU) #22 - Chris Moore (ILL) #24 - Brock DelSignore (UALR) #25 - CJ Walrath (UNI) 197: #3 - Stephen Little (UALR) #9 - Cody Merrill (OSU) #15 - Evan Bates (MIZZ) #24 - Cade Lautt (ILL) #31 - Andrew Reall (BRWN) 285: #7 - Konner Doucet (OSU) #8 - Luke Luffman (ILL) #14 - Wyatt Voelker (UNI) #23 - Jarett Stoner (MIZZ)

Holy crap would that be a good matchup! Well, not anymore since Mark is 65 and the last time I saw him he was in pretty rough shape (it's been a while, though). But if you brought Schultz from 30 years ago, Bo would get humbled real quick...

He's 48, but still old (I can say that because I'm not there yet!). And LOL at "skinny-fat Bo"

100%. Just my gut feel.

I think it depends on what level of program you're talking about for "hottest" coaches. If it's a big program with a lot of money (Iowa, tOSU, OSU, PSU, ISU, etc.), it has to be... 1) One of the big names like Burroughs or Dake 2) A highly respected alumni (ie. Metcalf at Iowa, Jaggers/Stieber at tOSU) 3) A successful coach at a school that doesn't have Iowa/tOSU/OSU/PSU/ISU money (ie. Pat Pop, Erisman, Coleman Scott, Schwab) If you're talking about tier two programs, or say someone that would take over for a Schwab if he moved on from UNI or Pat Pop if he moved on from NC State or Brian Smith if he retired: It has to be guys that had success on the mat and have been in an assistant or associate head coaching role with good programs. 1) Logan Steiber 2) Brent Metcalf 3) Josh Churella 4) Jared Frayer 5) Kellen Russell 6) Bryan Snyder 7) Tervel I don't see Nolf, Lee, Snyder, Zain Train, Valencia being plugged into a HC role without getting coaching experience first. They aren't David Taylor. I do, however, think that Nolf and Lee would be fantastic assistant coaches with their knowledge.

I think the married thing has something to do with his wife being from CoMo and having roots there. I also thought I read that KOT started a company there and doesn't want to leave it. For some reason, I tend to think that he might be done with international. He lost twice at WTT and at 74 you still have the likes of Burroughs, Dake, Nolf, Haines, Messybrink, Lockett, and at 86 you have Chance, Carter, Brooks when he comes back, Hidlay, Ringer. He may still want to stick around, but those are loaded fields even if some of the ageless wonders hang it up. My gut tells me he wants to stay in CoMo and continue to be around wrestling and this is likely the best paycheck you can get in that scenario. Maybe he eventually opens AWA South.

Can't be worse than the Iowa fans! Ha! But to your point about 2015, it seems like winning a team natty is when the standard is set and fans expect the best every year. I thought I read somewhere that Logan might be the next in line? I know Jaggers has tenure and likely wouldn't stick around if he didn't have some sort of handshake agreement, but would kind of think the same about Logan. He seems to have those aspirations as well.

Interesting. I don't see Keegan wanting to be an assistant for the next 20 years.

I agree. Who do you think the successor is? Keegan? Does Clemsen come back? I'm sure Max Askren is a no with AWA. Couldn't be anybody big like a PSU alum, Burroughs, or Dake with the lack of NIL funds.

I watched the Flo clip this morning about the criticism of Iowa being fair or foul. CP talked about Iowa's standard, and said "Penn State doesn't have a standard, they have Cael Sanderson". Iowa's standard was set with Gable, and even after Cael eventually retires, I don't know that the "Cael standard" will be as strong with fans as the Gable/Iowa standard is. Nebraska lost 18 of 20 matches in their last two duals at NDI...nobody is calling for Manning's head. Iowa is just a different beast in that even a top 5 team every year is unacceptable if it's not 1st. I think the the main concerns are 1) Lack of recruiting/use of the portal (although I'm saying that after they landed four top-25 recruits in 2027) and 2) lack of offense. Iowa Style is attack, attack, attack, yet they barely shoot. Again I'll reference David Taylor's mentality of shoot, score, cut, shoot, score, cut...that's Iowa Style, but why isn't it happening? And if there was no NIL, how would they be doing?

I've always thought that wrestling teams (whether HS or college) are built on assistant coaches. When we had Sammie Henson, Alex Clemson, Joe Johnston, it seemed like we had a lot more in-state (or Illinois) talent and were more aggressive. The 2015 team comes to mind with Waters (Park Hill), Synon (Ill), Mayes (Ill), Drake (FZW), Eblen (Park Hill), J'Den (Hickman), and Mellon (Lawson). Others that come to mind in that era were Daniel Lewis (Blue Springs), Brent Haynes (Oak Park), Le'Roy Barnes (Belton), McCormicks (Kansas). It's weird though because some live up to the potential (Waters, Haynes, J'Den, Keegan, Aedon), others exceed (Mayes, LaVallee), but a lot more seem to regress (Weist bro's, Toal bro's, Boyd, Edmond, Surtin, Mauller, Jacques...the list goes on). I don't know if it's just adjustment to college or if it's the room. I'll be curious to see how things go the next few years with Keegan onboard now. The primary thing that concerns me is the lack of offense and the "come at me and I'll scramble for points". The successful ones are the attackers (see OK State...cut him, score again, cut him, score again). I don't know why that's not drilled and pushed for everywhere.

We HAD Antonio Mills in the pipeline for 125/133, but he flipped to tOSU. Smith definitely has some work to do, although Gage should fill in nicely. My hope for next year... 125: Mauger 133: Walker 141: Seltzer 149: Mendoza 157: Rath 165: Bamby 174: Steed 184: Aedon 197: ... Heavy: Stillwell Very, very young team and likely no podium for anybody but Seth, Cam, and Aedon.