Sorry, really long but the seats a assembly hall were too tight to post so I saved it all for one post back home.
Some of our guys, for the lack of a better term, are Cannon Fodder by choice. From their feet, they wait for their opponent to go on offense and react, hoping this will open the door for them to score, they ride with the mentality of holding on as long as they can simply to stay in the top position. While that may work when they are wrestling MSU or Indiana, it’s not going to win matches when they wrestle good competition, unless they have the skill set to make it work, and many don’t.
BS lost to Jordan trying to create a repeat performance of their earlier meeting, but because of an escape, he didn’t have a back-up plan to win the match. AM lost trying to hang on for dear life, counting on a riding time point and no opponent escape point to win the match, but when you give up a last minute escape, your whole plan is shot to hell.
Russian Ties are an old school and very effective way to control your opponent, if you have the skill to score from that position, perfect example, Cory Clark, but AM does not have this ability and BS only has that ability on inferior wrestlers. You have to have other ways to score, perfect example Cory Clark, he has a nice single leg, he can hit the high crotch, he has scored off snap downs and duck unders, he is a good scrambler, and by the way, when healthy, he is always working to score from top.
I was actually a little scared watching Gilman change his game plan in the finals from catch and release to riding for the win. It worked for him because he is a superior wrestler, but not something I was happy to see.
psu and fosu guys are ALWAYS looking to score, from their feet, from the top position and even from bottom. This is not some new invention that carl came up with, like dodgeball, this is what Iowa used to be, this is what Tom and Terry were as wrestlers, this is what our upper weights Ed and Lou used to do, it’s what Lincoln did and Joe Williams and Barry, Zelesky, Ironside, McGuinness etc… This is the Iowa style and some of our guys have lost it or never possessed it. If you are excited about watching Kem wrestle, there is a reason for it, it’s because that’s how Iowa used to wrestle. Always move forward, always look to score.
I get it, give us a real back up HWT and Holloway moves down and is a really good 197, scoring us some points. Wilke did the best he could up at 97, Gunther and Carton out kicked their coverage for stretches this season, but personal bests and crossed fingers don’t win championships. Playing defense does not win championships. These last few seasons Iowa as a team and individually has been wrestling “not to lose”, instead of wrestling to win (ask the Falcons how that turned out in the super bowl). It’s cost us many matches and resulted in poor team results.
There is good news, TNT are great coaches and their re-focused dedication to recruiting the best of the best is paying off. But no matter who is representing us on the mat, the mentality needs to be about scoring, not trying to eek out a win. Get on your offense, if it’s not good enough, then it’s not, but trying to hang on for the win 8 out of 10 matches is silly and is backfiring. Alex and BS are both more talented than that.
