Can Ben K make 197 lbs next year?
- Thread starter HawkCharlotte
- Start date
Considering he will likely want to weigh about 235+ for football, no.
Duh ... I forgot about Franklin. If memory serves, the coaches are very high on Franklin.
Possibly even a Ferrari. Who knows and I am not saying yeah or nay.
Whatever they’re smoking, I want some.
In all seriousness, nothing points to Glazier or Franklin scoring big points in their careers. Would hope to be wrong, but I don’t see it.
Where exactly do you think he can lose 20 lbs from?
No. This is not a possibility. At all. Maybe in another year when the next one graduates HS.
Kirk isn't going to be happy that his future AA LB has to remove a limb to get to 97 next year.
Pointless. That would just be yet another guy who’s not an AA level wrestler without taking a big leap forward in the off-season. Not an answer.
Brands mentioned if we can get Spooner to hold down 197lbs for a season all is good.
Lol. Ben K is a great athlete and he’s going to do great things on the football field, but that dude ain’t wrestling at Iowa. Football doesn’t even get done playing and back home until New Years, he isn’t just gonna hop on the wrestling bus and start competing in the B1G schedule raw.
Anyone who thinks he’s going to be playing two sports at Iowa is tweaking hard.
Anyone who thinks he’s going to be playing two sports at Iowa is tweaking hard.
Well, he says he is, so there's that.
Due to the new-this-year rule that true freshmen can wrestle 5 dates, my opinion is that contrary to the dominant opinion--including from some national wrestling minds (@smalls103)--we actually have our best shot at seeing BK wrestle in an Iowa singlet in the 2023-24 wrestling season. I think that chance is about a 20% likelihood of happening. Unfortunately, my theory is that we might only see BK twice or three times for his entire career and that the matches will all happen next wrestling season. I'm predicting the matches would happen after the football team's bowl game and before March 2024. Perhaps BK will take a Friday match against a bad Big10 team with a weak 285#, if the Sunday dual is against a good team or a team with a more competitive heavyweight for Cass.
I think it all depends how much BK plays in football next fall. If he is not a starter by the final four games of next year's football season, then I think we might see BK Mid-January to late-February, 2024. His body wouldn't be that beaten up and one could make the wrestling case for him that he is not yet that important to the football team. Stir in that BK loves to compete and wouldn't have done much of that in a scenario assuming he was not starting most or any of the season, that he probably would love to run out in Carver at least once in a singlet, and that both Brands would like to give him a wrestling amuse bouche if they can make the case to Kirk. Brian Ferentz is on the wrong side of the ball to care, but seems to have already opened the window a crack from the public side of the football camp in a recent interview.
I’ve said this in a less direct way multiple times - seems to fly over everyone’s heads. Smart move would be to pick up a top level heavy. But I’m sure brands is working on this or some viable plan for case’s replacement.
He isn't making 197 either. You could see the cut to 195 as a senior in highschool was taking it out of him. As soon as he went back up to 220 he looked way more comfortable. I'm sure he is over 230 now.
He's been doing it for years now. Not a big deal. Football will already have him in 1/2 shape. A couple of weeks and he would already start looking good. He would have 2 1/2 months of wrestling competition. When you alreadfy have serious skills, it doesn't take much to get the rust off. I'm pulling for him.
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The one helper is if there is a weight that is easier to do this in it's heavyweight.
IMO, BK has a bigger upside on the wrestling mat than the gridiron.
Altough I agree with this 100%, the highest upside of wrestling doesn't have 6+ zeros behind it. If he even thinks he has a 10% shot at the NFL, I just don't see how he doesn't end up 100% into football by year 2 or 3. As many say here, what happens his very first year on the football field, will almost certainly decide if he has any career on the mat.
If he already gets significant playing time as a true freshman, I think the pressure will be too much for him to really dedicate any substantial time on the mat. As a selfish wrestling fan, I would guess most on here would hope for a rather lackluster performance on the football field. Anything more than that and we almost certainly don't get to see how good he could be on the mat....
I also had my doubts as to whether or not Ben would compete in both sports but I happened to see an Interview that Dan Gable gave over the weekend about Ben and he told of how Ben had been introduced to him many years prior and how he had worked with him for many years. He also said he had coached him and had him and his folks at his place for training sessions and workouts over the years and how much Ben had bought into the Iowa philosophy . I think if anyone would be able to judge Ben's skill set it would probably be the best wrestling coach the sport has ever known. So i feel better that we will indeed see Mr. Kueter on the mats wearing the Black and Gold Singlet sometime soon.
lol depends how you define upside. If money is a deciding factor, prolly not.
I love everything you typed here. However, how does anything you typed tell us he would choose to still wrestle if football looks like millions of dollars?
I cant foresee the future for myself let alone this young guy....and i admit it looks like he probably wont be on the mats for a long time. BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT i do some light ahead after hearing the Gable interview. If he thinks the kid will give the 2 sport deal a try....then I am anxiously awaiting his debut.
Anyone suggesting he might start for the Iowa football team by the tail end of next season might actually want to watch him play football once first. 0.0% chance.
If Kirk’s son remains the OC maybe their season will conclude in November
The B1G ain’t high school or the junior circuit, my man. It’s the toughest wrestling slate in the United States not called freestyle. Wrestling in the Big Ten chews up and spits out even the very best athletes, Keuter isn’t immune to that.
Tom and Kirk did what they needed to do to get him signed and on campus, and now KF’s gonna take over. Every 18 year old kid thinks they’re invincible and capable of impossible things, and to be honest that’s a trait I’d want in an athlete. Sometimes you just have to let kids find out on their own.
How people here can’t understand that just blows my mind. Apparently those folks think a guy is just going to drop right in the middle of the Big Ten schedule at 245 lbs with no practice and hang with Kerkvliet, Davison, Schultz, and any number of other guys. Ain’t happening no matter how much we want it to.
In football, they had Ben listed at LB correct? Maybe Running back also? As a LB, at his height, he will need to put on 20-30 pounds. Question is. Does he have the speed? Now they could move him to say D-end, but now he would need to add at least 50 pounds. I do not see him as a RB at a higher level.
As for Wrestling, I think it is safe to say he could be a multiple national Champion. As some have already said, I believe how his grid iron days go, determines how much wrestling we get out of him. It is one thing to be a HS star, and another to be a college star, which is pretty much what you have to be to play in the NFL.
Certainly not saying he can not be a star, just not seeing exactly where he will play? The questions would be. 1) If he does not become a starter in first couple of years. Does he go all in wrestling? 2) How would that play out as far as Scholly $$$$ especially if you bring in another high end guy? 3) If he is a starter in football, but not projecting as an NFL draft pick type, but is having great success on the mat. Then what does he do?
Wish we could just have everything more simple. No recruits going to become Seals. No recruits playing 2 sports. No recruits deciding on which school to pick etc.....
As for Wrestling, I think it is safe to say he could be a multiple national Champion. As some have already said, I believe how his grid iron days go, determines how much wrestling we get out of him. It is one thing to be a HS star, and another to be a college star, which is pretty much what you have to be to play in the NFL.
Certainly not saying he can not be a star, just not seeing exactly where he will play? The questions would be. 1) If he does not become a starter in first couple of years. Does he go all in wrestling? 2) How would that play out as far as Scholly $$$$ especially if you bring in another high end guy? 3) If he is a starter in football, but not projecting as an NFL draft pick type, but is having great success on the mat. Then what does he do?
Wish we could just have everything more simple. No recruits going to become Seals. No recruits playing 2 sports. No recruits deciding on which school to pick etc.....
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Is this the real Ironbird? This is, by far, the most well written(concise and near-perfect formatting) with no ranting post I can ever remember reading. If you are the same guy, you have to find a way to post this way when arguing with PSU posters. They literally turn you into Mr. Hyde when you go back and forth with them and this post actually makes you look well rehearsed like a Dr. Jekyl!
Yeah I know right because I mean it’s never been done and totally unprecedented in college sports. Why would someone be so insistent about it not happening when the guy is clearly committed to it and it’s been done before. So freaking weird.
If Kirk’s son remains the OC maybe their season will conclude in November
JFC. Dorks going to dork.
Literally some dude out west just AA’d a few years ago while also playing football. To think a talent like Ben Kueter can’t is simply ignorant.
Truth is if you are a good enough wrestler, you can still all-American in half a season of work. And if you are good at football, you can make the NFL without being a college star. You can make the NFL without even playing college football at all if they just think you are a good enough athlete. Josh Hokit proved these just in the last few years and he wasn't even a heavyweight until his final year. He was 197 as a junior all-American and Heavyweight as a senior (where Covid cancelled had to settle for "second team" all-American). He didn't get drafted, but he signed with the 49ers and while he's never actually suited up an NFL game yet, he's hung around rosters for three years now. And Ferentz is as big a wrestling fan as you could ask in a football coach so he's not going to force him to choose one. You can go back to Jon Beutjer, coming off injury and being the possible starting QB the next year, playing on the basketball team in 2001 or Brody Brecht right now pitching in baseball. Jordan McLaughlin filled in the second half for wrestling before too. Practicing for football isn't going to harm his wrestling development, if anything he might get stronger for a heavyweight that isn't going to be on the huge side.
It isn't that he can't do both and be good at both. It is that he can't do both and be ELITE in both. Eventually, one or the other is going to call for a level of committment he simply can't give when doing both. Both sports take an exceptional physical toll and are back to back. I just don't see how the transition can ever be seamless.
The above is why I think he eventually will need to go all-in for 1 or the other. By all accounts, the guy is super dedicated to achieving the loftiest of goals that most can only dream about. After a year or 2 doing both, I simply think he will see how hard it would be to achieve those type of goals in both sports. At some point he will realize he can't, no matter how much he wants to, give them both the amount of time that the few elites he would be competing against, can give to just the one they are going after...
