dragit

Or change the rules to make holding and taking down offensive linemen legal?

Does he have a secret plan to grow 6 inches? And to have Superman fly around the earth a bunch of times to go back ten years so he can play football in high school, to, you know, learn how to play the sport in question?

That's what the announcers said which didn't make sense to me at the time - wouldn't have meant a bonus point.

We all did, immediately, but appreciate the effort so much that we didn't want to say anything.

That's true and last night didn't demonstrate he can recruit amd develop recruits, as he must to compete with Penn State. But of course given the timeline it wasn't possible for him to have demonstrated that this weekend. What he did do was show that he can get the most out of a roster, which at a school with that tradition and that commitment to getting back to the top will translate to him being the most likely coach to challenge Penn State since 2011. Doesn't mean it's going to happen but based on what I saw this year I think the odds are better with him than for Nebraska, Iowa, or anyone else.

When Dan/Gable lost the biggest upset of the 20th century, he used it to fuel the most dominant Olympics ever. Or to be more precise, I guess he felt sorry, moped around, drank a lot of beer, then his mom whacked him upside the head, and he then used the loss to fuel the most dominant Olympics ever. Gable/Dan can and will do the same thing, but only if he's got the interest for it to fuel him. If he does, I don't think that Captain America and David Taylor or anyone else, including any Iranians or Russians, are going to keep him from any gold medals. But Gable/Dan is a much different guy than Dan/Gable. He isn't as obsessed with wrestling as his namesake. In fact, he may be the least obsessed with wrestling of all of the 330 guys in the brackets this weekend. My view is that he's best off committing to wrestling. He's better at this than he is or will be at anything else, he's healthy largely because he's not obsessed with the sport, he's the best in the world when he's engaged, he'll do as well or better financially as he could in anything else in life, and he won't get punched in the face (which I doubt he has the personality for) or be subject to a capitalist making capitalist decisions about his marketability (which didn't work out for him last time). But I think the odds he'll go this route with full commitment are no better than 50/50. Sadly.

I agree that you'll remember tonight more for Starocci and Lt. H. For sure. And you should. But I think that Coach Taylor will have a bigger impact on the sport in the coming decades, and tonight was when we saw that he does in fact have what it takes as a coach to jump past everyone else and produce the most viable threat to Penn State since wrestling was invented in 2011. Think it was Metcalf's second in 2010 after he got upset in 2009.

Nuance in the public square? I thought that wasn't allowed? What are you doing trying to unpack the merits of these issues? Please call back under your cozy rock.

Good point and it's a matter of opinion, but I'd put this upset over Ramos and Lee. Ramos put Lee on his back their prior match, and Lee was a walking MASH unit.

My hope is that he'll use this as motivation to go all out for this upcoming quad. For guys at his level, wrestling today is a real job, he could make as much or more money winning gold medals with stipends and endorsements as he could as an MMA novice. My guess is his MMA earnings potential just went down, which if so would be great news for us. We had an awful 2024 at the world senior level, we could really use him back on the world teams, and if he were to put everything he has into it the results will be incredible.

Couple years ago I think he was there. Stayed for every match to his credit. Not surprising on the ratings. Matches haven't been great, not a lot of action and the length of the TV timeouts and the other filler is demoralizing. 70 minutes of wrestling in 180 minutes of TV. I can't watch it live, it's too boring, I start about an hour in and then fast forward through the commercials. Only downside is I have to stay off this board and not look at texts to avoid spoilers.

I said "the stories of the night." A commissioned officer in the Air Force coming out with the flag and winning the biggest upset in half a century and saluting the president is a great story. That doesn't mean Trump hit a slick slide by or that anyone has to like him or his politics, or even Hendrickson and the flag. But it certainly by definition is a big story, whether the beholder likes the story or not.

Maybe we can agree that it wasn't going very well before he got there.

Yeah agree that is wrong even though I don't think it's the biggest ever. I probably would put Gable Dan's loss below Dan Gable's loss as number two in terms of surprising. Hendrickson is a very bad man with a very nasty record, a more fearsome opponent than Owings. And he's huge. But it's still stunning. Made me think of a few other matches. Reminded me a little of Snyder and Gwiz. As the match went on, you could see that he was figuring out how to deal with the other guy's advantages, and he was close enough that if he could hit the big takedown and do it late enough for the rideout that he had a chance (Snyder's rideout got him to OT, not the win, but that's all he needed because Gwiz was gassed). Also made me think of Gable and Cassar. Shorten the match, get it to the end, Gable might have a brain cramp, which is a little bit what happened tonight, I thought, it looked to me like Gable could have gotten out of the attack if he went pure defense, but thought about trying to turn it into his own takedown which he didn't need, and that split second let Hendrickson pull him in far enough to be able to eventually get control. Not perfect analogies but I think relevant.

Just like those rookie announcers who no one has ever heard of who were absolutely stunned. Although I guess a lot of Burroughs' experience is actually wrestling in the finals, which technically isn't watching the finals.

While they did change the criteria, it seems to me that was a reaction to the pin becoming so rare. But if I had a vote I would give Hendrickson extra credit for the pins, which are the most exciting thing in wrestling and the best evidence of dominance.

Obviously the stories of the night are the 5x champ and the commissioned officer with the biggest upset in half a century in front of the Commander in Chief. But in terms of overall historical significance in the big picture, David Taylor's first season might end up having the biggest impact on the sport. He came in to a train wreck and brought them up to a solid third. He took a guy who was 6-6-blood round and beat two champs to take first place. He took another guy who hadn't been in the finals who also beat two champs to take first, in that gigantic upset. It's just one year and they are only in third place now, but it's definitely possible to picture OSU under Taylor being the next great power at a level competing with Penn State (which I don't see Nebraska or the current regime at Iowa doing).

I think it's a little more than just one "something" and it goes back a little further in time than just one recent breakup and its aftermath.

That would make him like all other top comic talents. To come right off the mat after a grueling seven minutes and do back to back stand up sets like that is not something that a happily married homebody like KOT or all of the other boring wrestlers could pull off. AJ may have even surpassed Palacio this weekend.

Sorry. There for posterity. Don't fight it.

This was a nice bookend to his interview off the mat with Quint, which was top level comedy, the high point being when he cited a Bible verse and asked Quint if he knew it, Quint responding deadpan, "No, I don't," and then asking him another wrestling question, with AJ then when he had a chance reciting the whole verse. That he keeps proclaiming being "humble" as the key theme during these, umm, not humble, interviews is what makes all these interviews instant and automatic viewer gold. In a related story, ESPN wants to thank KJ for having Cardenas take bottom, which guaranteed the post-match interview. They weren't interested in sticking around through the last match to have a chat with Cardenas about how amazing Ann Arbor is.

I think all this Penn State/Nebraska stuff is pretty straightforward. Some folks got threads going based on their correct recognition that Penn State might not have the same type of individual champion stable they've had throughout their amazing run. They were right. There was really only one PSU guy who was really a lock here, MM. Even their 4x champ wasn't/isn't really a lock. He's got one of the top four PFP guys in his weight class and has had to go to OT vs Keck and the 3 seed already this year. This isn't a team full of Taylors, Ruths, Retherfords, Nolfs, Nickals, Brookses, Halls, etc. 125 - wide open race, true freshman who had a great B1G, but so did Davis last year and there was no reason to think anyone knew who could win this weight class. 133 - not a strong champion contender. 141 - super cautious, has never shown he's likely to get it done. 149 - one of a group of guys who could have won but not close to being a dominator. 157 - a legit co-favorite, kind of a surprise what happened to him. 165 - prohibitive favorite. 174 - not the favorite, he's two weights up and KOT is the guy, and Hamiti not surprisingly has taken that step up that was long expected now that he's now coached by . . . Penn State's number one product in the Cael era. 184 - amazing but not a lock. 197 - up a weight and young. 285 - no chance to win with the GOAT in the bracket. Bottom line, this wasn't likely to be a 4+ champion team, which is the model of the great PSU teams. But the idea that they weren't going to win, even if Nebraska did what it had never done before and ran the table, was ridiculous, because math. This is a different type of 170+ point PSU team. Different from the past such teams, not a 4+ dominant guys team. But ALSO different from the past, no holes in the lineup, a 10 AA team. So hail to the Happy Valley Winners again. But, also, sincere props to Nebraska, they've taken the step up that they hadn't before, they'll be third which is their best in the Manning years. And maybe tomorrow they'll solidify that with another step by being the runner up and having multiple champs. They're an impressive group.

Anyone wrestling against someone that strong on one leg would look weak.

Nothing normal about Happy Valley Excellence Central.

The predictions have 165 at 3-3 so far - interesting and a tribute to how good Caliendo is. That being said, I don't see it. MM doesn't look like he's one iota complacent and he is a bad bad man.