Let's simplify what we're looking for during the season...

[artradley]

There is so much wailing and gnashing of teeth over a lot of things that just don't matter. Yes, it's frustrating watching 41, 57, and 65; but everyone just needs to resign ourselves that the guys we have at those weights right now just are not going to be big contributors at Nationals. And that's okay. So you can root for those kids to perform well and improve, but understand that poor results don't affect our chances that much, and if one of them starts to break through it's nothing more than a huge bonus.

125, 133, 149, 184, 197
These guys are proven. We know what they have and regardless of a subpar performance here-and-there all we need to hope for is they're all healthy at Nationals and perform well there. So there's really no reason to agonize over how good they look during the season -- other than getting enough wins for a nice seed.

Here are the only things that anybody should be watching closely during the season, and caring about if things don't look as good as we hope:

141 / HWT
Hope that either a)Grothus can get down to 141 and perform well, or b)Stoll really comes on and looks to be a decent AA. We only need one of these, but if both of them come around it would be great.

174
Hope that Alex performs well and progresses during the season. We absolutely have to have an AA from him.

That's it. 141, 174, HWT. Those are the only things to be watching during the season. If things look good there, then all we need is for the team to wrestle well at Nationals. If things don't look good there, then there isn't much hope.

 

[McCulloughd]

??????????????. That's all folks.

 

[choosenuetral]

Sounds a little bit like an Obama campaign strategy.

 

[TarpHawk]

4 finalists, 3 champs.

 

[CFNiteHawk85]

A team NC and whatever will make that happen, in simplest terms.

 

[whejoe]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Cooper will go 2-2 at nationals.

 

[artradley]

4 finalists, 3 champs.

Well, that would do it. I'm thinking 7 AA's and 3 finalists. Either way, while I wish all the luck in the world to Logan, cooper, etc; I'm not going to agonize over their struggles.

Admittedly, I'd like to see the young guys show potential. But if they don't look like AA's just yet it's not a big deal.

 

[255]

Not simple.

Here is simple.
What we need.

10 AA with at least 5 finalist and an NCAA title.

10 of our weighs need to wrestle over their head.

Simple.

 

[Spoons]

PSU has Meg: Top 4, Conaway rd of 12, Guilibon rd of 12 to low AA, Retherford Top 3, Nolf Top 4, Nickal Mid to low AA, McCutch rd of 16 & McIntosh Top 3. We have to find a way to do better than that to win it.

As of right now we don't but its not March. Right now I truly believe Gilman, Sorensen and Brooks are finalists with pretty good chance to win it. Clark is a bit off right now but I have a TON of faith in him to be top 3 & maybe more. Burak is top 4 and laugh all you want but I think Stoll is a low AA hwt. I still think psu is the team to beat.
It will be interesting to see how the rankings shake out this week with some of the upsets at Vegas. We were 20+pts behind psu last week it will be interesting to see where we r this week.

 

[wasdt21]

except nolf we have someone for everyone of those you mentioned. win the head to heads it can be done.

 

[Knight563]

Nickel is a stud and I can see him as a finalist!

 

[Chickenman Testa]

except nolf we have someone for everyone of those you mentioned. win the head to heads it can be done.

Nolf with a few "Olde Tyme" scores today:

23-8, 27-14

Looks like he's trying to set Penn State's takedown record.

 

[Actiondouble]

Looks like there is a lot of big talent from a lot of different schools this year. That kind of spreads the points out come March to several other schools other than the perennial powers, Iowa, OSU, Minn, PSU, etc. I can see team winning Championship with 90 points or less. Watch out for tOSU again this year and maybe MIZZ. NCSt is a real surprise this year so far.

 

[1975hawkfan]

It's going to be tough to win it this year, too many holes, too young a heavy weight, and not enough bonus points. Bonus points really hurt, the year Ramos won he had zero bonus points. (He was a great champion but we need tons of bonus points this year to win it.) I hope they all are champions but truthfully it won't happen. Stoll will not be AA, not this year as a freshman, tough weight class. Brooks is a monster and love him tons but I don't think he wins it, its another tough weight. (I hope he proves me wrong). Cooper going 2-2 at nationals is asking alot. The three weights are a deal breaker, theres no getting around it. We would need at least three champs to have a chance. Penn State, OSU, and Ohio State have too many horses. However, miracles do happen!

 

[TarpHawk]

Cough, cough. 4 finalists, 3 champs.

 

[SCstunners]

It's going to be tough to win it this year, too many holes, too young a heavy weight, and not enough bonus points. Bonus points really hurt, the year Ramos won he had zero bonus points. (He was a great champion but we need tons of bonus points this year to win it.) I hope they all are champions but truthfully it won't happen. Stoll will not be AA, not this year as a freshman, tough weight class. Brooks is a monster and love him tons but I don't think he wins it, its another tough weight. (I hope he proves me wrong). Cooper going 2-2 at nationals is asking alot. The three weights are a deal breaker, theres no getting around it. We would need at least three champs to have a chance. Penn State, OSU, and Ohio State have too many horses. However, miracles do happen!

I don't know if I agree with every thing you say here. I do see Stoll being an AA. Out of the top 4 of Gwiz, Walz, Marsden, and Coon, it is pretty wide open. Kroells from MN and Cabell from UNI are also talented, but I don't think I would put them above and beyond of what Stoll is. Yes, Stoll is a RS Freshman, but the kid has put in just as much mat time as anyone. With the way Stoll is on top, he could score some bonus points we need at nationals.
The new rules and how they will force Gabe Dean to wrestle rather than stepping out Brooks wins that match. I see him in the thick of things. I also see him getting bonus pts at nationals.
We do NEED bonus pts to make up for the lack of pts at 41, 57, 65, but I don't think it will take a miracle for us to win it because I do see Clark, Gilman, Brooks, and Stoll getting the pts we need. Sorenson and Burak will be right there. Unfortunately, we won't get a lot of bonus out of these guys, but they have proved to be very consistent and dependable. 74 is what makes me nervous, all the tools are there but.......you just never know.

Midlands will be test #1 to see where we are at. It's gonna be fun in March. Looking forward to it.

 

[Gusaford]

It's going to be tough to win it this year, too many holes, too young a heavy weight, and not enough bonus points. Bonus points really hurt, the year Ramos won he had zero bonus points. (He was a great champion but we need tons of bonus points this year to win it.) I hope they all are champions but truthfully it won't happen. Stoll will not be AA, not this year as a freshman, tough weight class. Brooks is a monster and love him tons but I don't think he wins it, its another tough weight. (I hope he proves me wrong). Cooper going 2-2 at nationals is asking alot. The three weights are a deal breaker, theres no getting around it. We would need at least three champs to have a chance. Penn State, OSU, and Ohio State have too many horses. However, miracles do happen!

Well, that was a cold slap to the face.

 

[Gusaford]

nm

 

[DonHawkeye]

It's going to be tough to win it this year, too many holes, too young a heavy weight, and not enough bonus points. Bonus points really hurt, the year Ramos won he had zero bonus points. (He was a great champion but we need tons of bonus points this year to win it.) I hope they all are champions but truthfully it won't happen. Stoll will not be AA, not this year as a freshman, tough weight class. Brooks is a monster and love him tons but I don't think he wins it, its another tough weight. (I hope he proves me wrong). Cooper going 2-2 at nationals is asking alot. The three weights are a deal breaker, theres no getting around it. We would need at least three champs to have a chance. Penn State, OSU, and Ohio State have too many horses. However, miracles do happen!

tOSU & OSU don't have any more horses than we do. Penn State does but 1 is out for the year (HWY), 1 is wrestling the wrong weight (141), and 2 are kinda horses at super deep weights 133 & 184 that are going to have a very hard time placing.

 

[BIG10MANIAC]

We're talking about the Iowa wrestling program here.... The most dominant and winning program of the past 30 years. We should never have to settle with being happy at only 5 proven weights.

Given our ability to recruit and national exposure to the sport, not to mention the fan support and the money that the University provides to the program..... I expect Iowa to be ready to go at all 10 weights every year. Best of the Best is the IOWA way....

 

[Scryed]

The Hawks winning comes down to Meyer, Brooks and Stoll all being able to secure AA slots. I think 174 is the weakest of these weights, so I think Meyer has the best chance at making the top 8. Brooks looks great right now, but 184 is very loaded with talent so he will need to string several high level wins together to make the podium. He could fall almost anywhere in the 1-10 range. Stoll will likely be battling it out for a 7-8th finish, heavy just has a lot of talent as well this year and it is asking a lot of the freshman to step up (but I think he will).

On the flip side - I think Penn State has some serious fire power and bonus will take them over the top.
125 is more or less a wash, but I do think Mega is a slightly better wrestler (not to say he will win a meeting with Gilman, but I'd favor him slightly).
133 Iowa has an advantage here, but Clark will likely fall to number 3 in this week's rankings update and Connoway is a stretch to AA but will likely make R12.
141 is a favorite towards Penn State as Gulibon is a fringe AA/R12 as well but I don't see anyone going beyond 2-2 for the Hawks (Grothus included).
149 now I know I will catch some heat for this comment, but I believe Zain is closer to majoring Sorenson than Sorenson is to beating Zain. This with the added bonus Zain will put up will be an edge in favor of Penn State, but a 2nd place finish wish 1-2 bonus matches would definitely soften the blow to Iowa.
157 Nolf will bonus almost everyone he wrestles with the exceptions of iMar and Ian Miller. This will be a big weight for the Lions and of course a hole for the Hawks.
165 Rasheed just lost to a teammate but looked to be a fringe AA possibly in his other matches. 165 isn't too deep, and the point spread will be pretty narrow here, regardless.
174 Meyer looks like an AA candidate in a fairly open weight, I think he will end in the 5-8 range which is pretty solid. However, this is another weight where Penn State has a stud freshman who has a real chance to win it, especially if there is no Bo Jordan in March. I expect a top 4 finish from Nickal.
184 I think Brooks is the favorite here even if he's not wrestling lights out. I think he will score more bonus points and could end up as high as 2nd place this year. McCutcheon will be scrapping it out for a 7-8th place finish at best, but he has also looked good up until this injury this season.
197 Burak looks to be the 3rd best guy behind Cox and McIntosh. I don't see either Penn State or Iowa picking up a lot of bonus points here.
285 Stoll is solid and I think he will be battling for a 7-8th place finish to R12. Penn State is unlikely to pick up much of anything here so an AA finish would help add some points to Iowa.

Overall I just don't think the Hawks have enough power to knock off Penn State with their blue chip line up. I do think there's a chance, but I thinkt he Hawks will be battling it out with Oklahoma State/Ohio State for 2nd (I don't see the Hawks finishing below 3rd without any injuries/wild upsets). It's looking to be another great year for wrestling, best of luck to the Hawks on making a run this year.