I take it basically none of you watched Franek wrestle before he came to Iowa?

[MSU158]

Look, I get that most of you simply expect offense at all times. But, that simply isn’t realistic for nearly all but the very elite.

Franek is a very good wrestler and a clear top 3-5 guy at the weight. But, he has NEVER been an offensive wrestler. He has made a career out of great positioning, super heavy head/hands defense and winning close, strategic matches.

In other words, this is the 1st time in a long time he has lost this way. He has always been very comfortable wrestling defensively at the end of matches. In fact, that is usually where his best offense(counters) come from.

I get that it can be hard for many fans to watch, but don’t expect this rather aged leopard to change his spots. Not all top guys, just ask Jacob Warner, have the offense to feel comfortable shooting away with a close lead late, especially when they get countered and lose one at the end.

Franek will be just fine. This will let him know that he can in fact get taken down late and he still has things he can work on. You just have to realize that some guys wrestling styles can be much less aesthetically pleasing than you hope for.

 

[Bucky712]

Hopefully this wakes him up. When Franek chose to shoot, he actually was extremely fast and athletic. Which was surprising to me.

 

[TailgateTom]

Wasn’t expecting an air raid offense from him, was expecting him to NOT lose to Michael Blockhus.

 

[west2east]

Franek never felt threatened during the match and Blockhus is athletic enough to sting you and he did

 

[Redm18]

Glad it happened in the dual hopefully lesson learned for post season.

 

[poorwrestler]

Wasn’t expecting an air raid offense from him, was expecting him to NOT lose to Michael Blockhus.

I think many of you are underselling Blockhus because of all the losses he took to Murin over the years. He was a big ten finalist and AA last year. This is not his first big win.

I’m an NDSU alumn and Franek is someone I’ve followed and rooted for since he was at West Fargo. The OP is right and this is his style. He will not be “woken up” by this loss and will likely continue wrestling this way, which is still good enough to be top 3-5.

However, Blockhus is probably in that top 8 or so group too. He’s looked good up a weight.

 

[LIV4GOD]

I agree with the no "wake up" aspect. I quit hoping on things like "wake up call" with Iowa wrestling during the Brands era years ago. It's rare.

I think Franek will have the slightest of adjustments, perhaps next time going more intensely to finish off that single leg with 30 seconds left.

 

[so cal hawkfan]

Going to be f*n trying to seed the B10 championships at 157. I imagine the parity will continue at the weight. Blockhus has a lot more horsepower up a weight than I anticipated. I thought Franek was going to cruise. Murin beat him up pretty good last year scoring 11 points on him and that was without the 3 point TD.

 

[diverman]

Wasn’t expecting an air raid offense from him, was expecting him to NOT lose to Michael Blockhus.

Blockhus was an all-american last year. He is now doing mma so I imagine he now has a lot more time to train. He is not an easy out.

 

[Sett1997]

The sad thing about Franek is, he has the go, he just doesn't use it.

 

[TailgateTom]

Blockhus was an all-american last year. He is now doing mma so I imagine he now has a lot more time to train. He is not an easy out.

He’ll pry win the Natty.

 

[eobhawk]

When he got in on a shot with a minute left in the third, it initially looked like he could finish if he drove through. After about two seconds I told my daughter, who was watching with me, that he was going to hold on to kill time, rather than staying active and it was going to finally bite him in the ass.

Hopefully he reevaluates these end of match situations, because this could have easily not been the first time that he was stung at the end of the match with this strategy.

 

[Sdwrestler_20]

Blockhus is the kind of guy that can beat or lose to anyone. Last year he took Sasso to OT in the big 10 finals, beat Yahya Thomas, a red hot Graham Rooks but also split with Dom Demas and lost to Dayne Morton. The year before at NCAA's he was beat out by Willie McDougald and took losses during the year to Christian Kanzler and Legend Lamer. He is a bit up and down.