Michigan grades

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

Anyone think that maybe Brands has lost the room? I mean we see it all the time with coaches. You can have talent and the talent doesn’t translate because they don’t care for the coaches? IDK but we have seen this same song and dance for 10 years now. It’s actually quite sad see how far we going backwards this year. This squad is honestly not good. I said it after dual one this year. We are supposed to be a light weight school and our light weights go 0-5 when favored in what 3 of them? Idk. Just sad times and honestly heartbreaking to see what’s happening. The past two duals against FAAAAR less talent hid a lot Of the teams problems. Our mid level team may not have more than 4 AAs on the squad. I think we can count 141 157 165 and sure fire AA. fringe at 125 74 97. Huge holes elsewhere. I don’t mean that as a knock on Riggins either because that dude a dawg.

The only three wrestlers I believe care enough and show it on the mat are Caliendo Riggins Glazer. Everyone else seems to be going through the motions.

I think Hill is giving what he's got as well! And PK has been doing well...just wasn't making it happen (and perhaps some bad coaching - why take down). I still remember TNT having Spencer take down against Noto when Spencer was up like 11-1. Noto rode him the entire period and Spencer ended up being gassed, and then got pinned the very next match. I like TnT, but I do think their game planning sucks at times. At times they seem more about showing toughness and grit vice doing some critical thinking about what the best CoA is for that moment in time. For instance, had TnT had SL take top against Noto there's a great chance he would have gotten the SL tilt one more time (got it twice in the first period), and not drained his tank going 3 periods before going into the next round. I think it's all about the small things our coaches are not doing from time to time.

 

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

Gotta admit, it is crazy seeing the best wrestler of the season so far is the one they were trying to replace.

Can't argue that point. Glazier has been a godsend!!

 

[OldestandGreatest]

Yes, because he seemed to be the only one attacking, and yet he didn't. His match should have been over way earlier than with one second, and he never tried to pin his opponent.

I critique the best as reflection of the worst. Glass was great, but yet his match was a reflection of the worst. Make sense?

 

[Muscles1989]

Gameplanning is a thing against top competition, just not at Iowa.

 

[pish69]

And Beau Bartlett should have definitely lost...not sure how he won to be honest. We've been the recipient of one or two of those gimme calls in the past so I know it happens but Mendez beat him in regulation.

In what world should Beau have lost? Beau had the neutral danger and if they didn’t stop it, he would have converted the takedown. Mendez wasn’t close to taking him down

Now Davis was controversial no doubt, but I didn’t think there was any controversy with Beau. 1. He held him in neutral danger for what seemed like 5 seconds and then refs stopped it as Beau was about to convert the takedown

 

[drunkengoat]

Iowa is bad at mat wrestling team. Cant ride, cant break down opponent, can’t turn them for back points.
Up and down the line up.

Bad at elite level takedowns too. Can’t break through good defense/scrambling. So…teams know to just take most of our guys to the end and a takedown at the end wins. Most of our guys don’t have that elite takedown. Your standard 1990 collar tie to straight on single leg doesn’t work any more—too many counters to this. Need a lot more movement, heel picks, etc.

We clearly some new assistants at a minimum. Our head coach is great but lacks the ability to see what needs to be done. Need a committed plan and money for recruiting, new assistant coach, and more. Needed this for the last several years and hasn’t done it. A facility won’t help these issues. It will allow the Athletic Department to assign more costs to the Wrestling program.

Iowa Wrestling is the college Football version of Nebraska. Even when we won the title 2021, we kind of backed into it. How many guys have won individual Championships since Cory Clark won in 2017? The answer is 1. Why would any elite kid dreaming of a title want to come here over PSU?

 

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

Brands said Michigan wrestled perfect and we allowed them to dictate the wrestling. Im not stupid enough to say we will beat PSU next week but thinking we will see big difference from what we saw last night. This was a big letdown, too bad it didnt happen against Northwestern rather than a good team. Brands will get this team to bounce back.

I'm thinking that if we don't do something pretty respectable against PSU the guys on this board are going to absolutely lose their shit! PSU looked very human at most weights so we should be able to compete if we bring the best versions of ourselves. If we bring last night's version it's going to be a bloodbath (0-10). The guys who won last night can't win wrestling like they did against PSU. Guys like Caliendo need to really perform. He was keeping the match close last night when there was no need to do so (it's like he fell into Franek mode instead of doing what he's been doing). When he finally got a little pissed he had no problem getting a TD to put the match out of reach in the 3rd; he needs to do that shit the entire time against Mes. Same goes for Ayala, Woods, Franek and Kennedy. There is no reason we can't win those five matches, especially at home. TnT need to game plan for these guys' opponents and make things happen. I'm still in shock over the embarrasing performance last night. It was like everyone except Glazier were wrestling to survive until the third, with the plan being to what? Wear them down? We need to assume we can't wear anyone down...and we need to start scoring in the first two periods. Check that. Most of the guys were trying to make it to the 3rd; a couple of our high performing guys were shit by the middle of the 2nd and hoping not to be TF'd.

 

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

LOL if you dont think Cael is playing it all out waiting for next week. He will have his team set to kill next week and they will be a machine come March, get ready for a beating next week.

I'm not doubting that, but PSU is human, though certainly not beatable this year. They have the best recruits by far, but their guys weren't all peaches and cream last night.

 

[Libertylover]

It's more a recruiting/talent problem than a teaching problem. You could teach me Spencer's tilt techniques and I'd still be counting stars much of the day.

Very true. Spencer had the talent to do basic moves his opponents knew were coming, and still beat them with them. Woods mat game was great last year, and has been MIA this year.

 

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

In what world should Beau have lost? Beau had the neutral danger and if they didn’t stop it, he would have converted the takedown. Mendez wasn’t close to taking him down

Now Davis was controversial no doubt, but I didn’t think there was any controversy with Beau. 1. He held him in neutral danger for what seemed like 5 seconds and then refs stopped it as Beau was about to convert the takedown

Yeah, Davis was as well...even he was excited after they ruled in his favor. Again, I'm not mad, and I'm certainly not a PSU hater. Hell if we wouldn't have gotten some of those very same calls earlier in the season Franek would have at least one more loss as would Real Woods. Just mentioning what I saw. And to be honest, I must say I did cruise throught the PSU matches pretty quick.

 

[pish69]

Yeah, Davis was as well...even he was excited after they ruled in his favor. Again, I'm not mad, and I'm certainly not a PSU hater. Hell if we wouldn't have gotten some of those very same calls earlier in the season Franek would have at least one more loss as would Real Woods. Just mentioning what I saw. And to be honest, I must say I did cruise throught the PSU matches pretty quick.

Yes. You’re a pretty fair poster and that’s why I responded to you. Watch Beau match again and let me know what you think. I thought it went exactly how it would. One takedown match.

 

[TailgateTom]

Did you watch PSU last night; they did struggle with that kind of stuff. They won but nobody outside of Kerk and Brooks looked all that impressive. And Beau Bartlett should have definitely lost...not sure how he won to be honest. We've been the recipient of one or two of those gimme calls in the past so I know it happens but Mendez beat him in regulation.

One match, sure. On the whole? What you saw out of Iowa is what Brands coaches, and was stereotypical results when we face someone who is not Lindenwood, Columbia, Northwestern, Purdue and Illinois. What you saw from Penn State isn't' characteristic of that program. They look to score points and dominate. Two programs on the opposite end of the spectrum. One coach flaps his jaw about domination and doesn't. The other stays quiet and dominates.

 

[DeangeloVickers]

I am admittedly am not an expert. Watching the replay tonight... why was both Brands getting on Riggins after the match, after he got a hard fought win? Looked like Riggins wasn't too happy with what that they had said...

I was taught by a very good coach decades ago, "the time to be hardest is when things are going good. When things aren't going good is when you lift them up."
Think about how receptive you are to feedback when things are good vs things are bad. I have no problems with what brands were doing with Riggins in that moment. It'll help him get better.

 

[DeangeloVickers]

Very true. Spencer had the talent to do basic moves his opponents knew were coming, and still beat them with them. Woods mat game was great last year, and has been MIA this year.

It looks to me like Woods had a pretty relaxed off season. One thing about the psu guys, they take massive physical jumps every off-season. Whether it's always clean or not is up for debate but you can't argue with the physical development results they're getting. Brooks looks like a flipping WWE wrestler this year. Bartlett looked a little soft to me last year now he's jacked.

 

[sdvike]

Thats very optimistic. I hope your right but i dont think so. Psu almost shut out mich.
possible wins:
Ayala
Woods

After yesterday these two are a toss up

I think Schreiver/Teske, Rathje/VV, Franek and Cali have to be included as possible wins. We are really outgunned above 165 though, would be major upsets.

 

[Life=HawkeyeWrestlin]

I think Hill is giving what he's got as well! And PK has been doing well...just wasn't making it happen (and perhaps some bad coaching - why take down). I still remember TNT having Spencer take down against Noto when Spencer was up like 11-1. Noto rode him the entire period and Spencer ended up being gassed, and then got pinned the very next match. I like TnT, but I do think their game planning sucks at times. At times they seem more about showing toughness and grit vice doing some critical thinking about what the best CoA is for that moment in time. For instance, had TnT had SL take top against Noto there's a great chance he would have gotten the SL tilt one more time (got it twice in the first period), and not drained his tank going 3 periods before going into the next round. I think it's all about the small things our coaches are not doing from time to time.

I like this reply. Well thought out and I honestly never even thought of the Spencer aspect last year. Great proof here

 

[Life=HawkeyeWrestlin]

I think Hill is giving what he's got as well! And PK has been doing well...just wasn't making it happen (and perhaps some bad coaching - why take down). I still remember TNT having Spencer take down against Noto when Spencer was up like 11-1. Noto rode him the entire period and Spencer ended up being gassed, and then got pinned the very next match. I like TnT, but I do think their game planning sucks at times. At times they seem more about showing toughness and grit vice doing some critical thinking about what the best CoA is for that moment in time. For instance, had TnT had SL take top against Noto there's a great chance he would have gotten the SL tilt one more time (got it twice in the first period), and not drained his tank going 3 periods before going into the next round. I think it's all about the small things our coaches are not doing from time to time.

I also want to agree with the PK and Hill comment. I should have included them as well. PK will never not go full steam but he’s flat footed alot unfortunately. So many of our dudes weren’t ready for the spotlight in 2024 but were forced into by gambling. Hard to fault the coaches but I’m looking at some other squads who got true fresh ready to wrestle and beat top tier cats from match 1. We got 5th yr seniors getting beat by true frosh and others looking to hold on for a 1pt victory or stay losing by 1

 

[blcoach80]

The way I see it Iowa has two options. Wrestle like last night and get our ass handed to us by PSU and OSU or start wrestling to score early in matches to force our opponents hands. For heavens sake can we start game planning and use some strategy in our matches?! If we are already, somebody else needs to start handling it because we are terrible at it.

 

[Inthecircle]

I will say things should be quite a bit different if the ref had called ANY stalling . First stall call didn't happen until 174? 125 and 141 there was zero offense by Michigan. I'll give them credit they have perfected blocking with a hand to the head and staying center without any offense.

This is where Iowa has failed to improve in game planning and having a 2 or 3rd neutral offensive technique. Look how many times RBY flummoxed ADS with no solution. Same thing last night.

Good post. Stalling calls are a complete mystery as to how and why they are being called. Stalling won’t be called if opponents do what you mentioned.
When I look at PSU in tough matches (last night at 125, watch the Davis TD. RBY vs ADS, Kem Dawg final vs. Star). They take one high quality shot and convert quickly because the opponent is immediately off balance, other than that they didn’t do a damn thing.
It’s like football, the block is made after contact is made, you have to finish quicker, which is based off the quality of the shot. Opponents wait for us to shoot and drape us, working into scramble positions because they know we are highly inefficient when scrambling.
For example, becoming better at instantly shelving on low singles and working up, not allowing guys to drape. Clear your damn feet when guys drape. It was really disappointing when Woods had his shot cleared his feet, and ended up on his back.
Lemley was well coached and our response is, “you have to finish.” I have no idea how Woods ended up there.
Maybe the guys on here like Tarp and those who have wrestled in the last 15-20 years can explain?
There are a lot of complaints and general comments like the coaches need to go and we need to recruit better. We don’t wrestle todays style, which I agree with.

 

[PD4thespawn]

Good post. Stalling calls are a complete mystery as to how and why they are being called. Stalling won’t be called if opponents do what you mentioned.
When I look at PSU in tough matches (last night at 125, watch the Davis TD. RBY vs ADS, Kem Dawg final vs. Star). They take one high quality shot and convert quickly because the opponent is immediately off balance, other than that they didn’t do a damn thing.
It’s like football, the block is made after contact is made, you have to finish quicker, which is based off the quality of the shot. Opponents wait for us to shoot and drape us, working into scramble positions because they know we are highly inefficient when scrambling.
For example, becoming better at instantly shelving on low singles and working up, not allowing guys to drape. Clear your damn feet when guys drape. It was really disappointing when Woods had his shot cleared his feet, and ended up on his back.
Lemley was well coached and our response is, “you have to finish.” I have no idea how Woods ended up there.
Maybe the guys on here like Tarp and those who have wrestled in the last 15-20 years can explain?
There are a lot of complaints and general comments like the coaches need to go and we need to recruit better. We don’t wrestle todays style, which I agree with.

Ya think?

 

[Scruddy]

If this is true then give brands an F too. He deserved one already, but this is some weak shit if true.

 

[texas twister]

View embedded media

If this is true then give brands an F too. He deserved one already, but this is some weak shit if true.

Brands already gets an "F" for this meet. Worst performance by higher ranked guys that I can recall.

 

[Illinois-hawk1]

View embedded media

If this is true then give brands an F too. He deserved one already, but this is some weak shit if true.

Weak shit? Where were all the supporters when Jaden cox weighed in late? You think any coach would let any of iowas former AA’s weigh in late? Gtfoh. And if you think targeting people illegally is the same as following rules you’re 🖕

 

[Inthecircle]

Ya think?

Absolutely it’s why I wrote it

 

[USPMAN]

Did you watch PSU last night; they did struggle with that kind of stuff. They won but nobody outside of Kerk and Brooks looked all that impressive. And Beau Bartlett should have definitely lost...not sure how he won to be honest. We've been the recipient of one or two of those gimme calls in the past so I know it happens but Mendez beat him in regulation.

Please explain how Bartlett “should have lost”

 

[rossel 33]

this (recruit better)

Yes, it's like a broken record, but nonetheless true... RECRUITING!

You get a stable of elite HS recruits every year, #1 in their weight class, virtually all of them top 10 to 15 p4p, and a number who are world medalists in FS .... and, voila! ... you end up with a top team.

Cael has been able to have that kind of recruiting success. Brands and really everyone else gets nowhere near that number of elite recruits consistently. Give Brands two Spencer Lee type recruits every year, and watch what a great coach he can be.

 

[MVPFAN]

I'm thinking that if we don't do something pretty respectable against PSU the guys on this board are going to absolutely lose their shit! PSU looked very human at most weights so we should be able to compete if we bring the best versions of ourselves. If we bring last night's version it's going to be a bloodbath (0-10). The guys who won last night can't win wrestling like they did against PSU. Guys like Caliendo need to really perform. He was keeping the match close last night when there was no need to do so (it's like he fell into Franek mode instead of doing what he's been doing). When he finally got a little pissed he had no problem getting a TD to put the match out of reach in the 3rd; he needs to do that shit the entire time against Mes. Same goes for Ayala, Woods, Franek and Kennedy. There is no reason we can't win those five matches, especially at home. TnT need to game plan for these guys' opponents and make things happen. I'm still in shock over the embarrasing performance last night. It was like everyone except Glazier were wrestling to survive until the third, with the plan being to what? Wear them down? We need to assume we can't wear anyone down...and we need to start scoring in the first two periods. Check that. Most of the guys were trying to make it to the 3rd; a couple of our high performing guys were shit by the middle of the 2nd and hoping not to be TF'd.

We could absolutely get skunked next week but I think we win 2 maybe 3 but won't be favored to win any. Calliendo will still be favored on paper but Mesenbrink obviously the real deal. 125, 141 (if the real Real is available) and 149 would be my picks for best chances for a win. Carl will no doubt be pumped to drop an embarrassing home goose egg on us.

 

[MVPFAN]

Yes, it's like a broken record, but nonetheless true... RECRUITING!

You get a stable of elite HS recruits every year, #1 in their weight class, virtually all of them top 10 to 15 p4p, and a number who are world medalists in FS .... and, voila! ... you end up with a top team.

Cael has been able to have that kind of recruiting success. Brands and really everyone else gets nowhere near that number of elite recruits consistently. Give Brands two Spencer Lee type recruits every year, and watch what a great coach he can be.

Nobody else getting as many and now that the monster has grown unchecked not likely to however we should be getting a lot more than we have been and others besides PSU are doing better than us.

 

[wahlberg]

Anyone think that maybe Brands has lost the room? I mean we see it all the time with coaches. You can have talent and the talent doesn’t translate because they don’t care for the coaches? IDK but we have seen this same song and dance for 10 years now. It’s actually quite sad see how far we going backwards this year. This squad is honestly not good. I said it after dual one this year. We are supposed to be a light weight school and our light weights go 0-5 when favored in what 3 of them? Idk. Just sad times and honestly heartbreaking to see what’s happening. The past two duals against FAAAAR less talent hid a lot Of the teams problems. Our mid level team may not have more than 4 AAs on the squad. I think we can count 141 157 165 and sure fire AA. fringe at 125 74 97. Huge holes elsewhere. I don’t mean that as a knock on Riggins either because that dude a dawg.

The only three wrestlers I believe care enough and show it on the mat are Caliendo Riggins Glazer. Everyone else seems to be going through the motions.

It's all of the above. Recruiting is substandard, techniques are bland and they have as much as bragged about not game planning for what the opponents do.

Recruiting is fine. Practice structure is a major issue. Grinding for thirty-plus minute live goes may build mental toughness, but it is terrible for promoting dynamic wrestling. If you go really hard and take lots of risks for the first five minutes, your reward is 25+ minutes of holding on for dear life via shear toughness. This method incentivizes what we see on the mat - solid position, block off, pressure forward, & occasional straight on shots or snap attempts. Dynamic movement and creativity are not incentivized. Neither are scrambling ability or even technical improvement really, as you end up spending so much time in the same few positions that you’re comfortable in. With practices that mentally and physically draining on such a frequent basis, coupled with coaches constantly just preaching toughness, guys mostly are just trying to either survive practice or prove their toughness in the room with dominant pressure, rather than focusing on technical improvement or positional mastery in as many positions as possible. To top it all off, it leads to lots of injuries - if not in the first year, then certainly by year four or five in that training environment.

 

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

Yes. You’re a pretty fair poster and that’s why I responded to you. Watch Beau match again and let me know what you think. I thought it went exactly how it would. One takedown match.

My bad...it was close but not that close. Thanks for pointing it out. It was a hard day for a Hawks fan. LOL!

 

[Inthecircle]

Nobody else getting as many and now that the monster has grown unchecked not likely to however we should be getting a lot more than we have been and others besides PSU are doing better than us.

Why does Ohio State land top light weight recruits, namely Mendez and Bouzakis not getting one of those two really hurt. Is it Stieber and Jagger? One could argue this is why? Is Tom Ryan and his staff better than Brands and ours? I haven’t researched their NCAA Champions in recent years, however they haven’t had any lower weight Champs since Steiber. So what is the allure? Off the top of my head aren’t we as good or better as a team and # of All Americans ?
Cornell seems to be right there as well, yet we compare well in team finish and AA, not in National Champs and World level success.
Would we be any better off with their staffs?

Is it catching Penn St and not producing National Champs the reason you’re consistently down on the Hawks and the staff? I don’t see any team catching Penn State. As far as the rest of college wrestling teams results no team has dominated us.
My contention for improving is better scrambling and finishing. We need to be as good as PSU in strength , balance and quickness (explosiveness). I don’t see another team close to their level in those three areas as a whole team.
I’ll always be a die hard Hawk fan and hope we improve. I see the deficiencies like everybody else, however I am not gonna bitch about it, just not built that way.
Its crucial to show growth this year and next.

 

[Inthecircle]

Recruiting is fine. Practice structure is a major issue. Grinding for thirty-plus minute live goes may build mental toughness, but it is terrible for promoting dynamic wrestling. If you go really hard and take lots of risks for the first five minutes, your reward is 25+ minutes of holding on for dear life via shear toughness. This method incentivizes what we see on the mat - solid position, block off, pressure forward, & occasional straight on shots or snap attempts. Dynamic movement and creativity are not incentivized. Neither are scrambling ability or even technical improvement really, as you end up spending so much time in the same few positions that you’re comfortable in. With practices that mentally and physically draining on such a frequent basis, coupled with coaches constantly just preaching toughness, guys mostly are just trying to either survive practice or prove their toughness in the room with dominant pressure, rather than focusing on technical improvement or positional mastery in as many positions as possible. To top it all off, it leads to lots of injuries - if not in the first year, then certainly by year four or five in that training environment.

This was a refreshing post with reasoning
as to what you feel needs to be changed to improve.
My understanding is the coaches do have one on one time with guys, as well as the conditioning practices?

 

[wahlberg]

This was a refreshing post with reasoning
as to what you feel needs to be changed to improve.
My understanding is the coaches do have one on one time with guys, as well as the conditioning practices?

It’s been a bit since I was there so things may have changed some, but I doubt it’s drastically different nowadays given the fact we’re still seeing the same old offensive struggles from the team. When I was around, there was some one on one time, usually hard drilling sessions early in the morning before class early in the season. During those, the coaches would work with you on certain technique areas and have you drill them hard over and over. Usually about 45 minute sessions, but probably only 5-6 of these in the entire season per wrestler.

Other than that, one on ones usually only occurred leading into Big Tens and Nationals. The VAST majority of the wrestling workouts throughout our pre-season and regular season were team workouts. These were either pretty grueling with a combination of long live goes, tons of situational shorter live goes back-to-back-to-back, hard (high-paced, organized) drilling, hard hand fighting, and conditioning, albeit with occasional short technique work thrown in, or else they were pre-dual practices (day before) where you’d do a shorter practice that consisted primarily of (organized, high-paced) hard drilling.

I think there’s a time and place for grueling practices with long live goes, hard drilling, and (intense, try to break your opponent) hand fighting. However, doing these as the bulk of your training in an intense environment where mental and physical toughness are considered premium (via the way the coaches talk and interact, on and off the mat, whether in practice or otherwise as well as via the practice structure itself) is actually counter-productive if the goal is to create offensive dynamism, maintain healthy athletes long-term, and promote mental/technical mastery in as many positions as possible.

 

[west2east]

Recruiting is fine. Practice structure is a major issue. Grinding for thirty-plus minute live goes may build mental toughness, but it is terrible for promoting dynamic wrestling. If you go really hard and take lots of risks for the first five minutes, your reward is 25+ minutes of holding on for dear life via shear toughness. This method incentivizes what we see on the mat - solid position, block off, pressure forward, & occasional straight on shots or snap attempts. Dynamic movement and creativity are not incentivized. Neither are scrambling ability or even technical improvement really, as you end up spending so much time in the same few positions that you’re comfortable in. With practices that mentally and physically draining on such a frequent basis, coupled with coaches constantly just preaching toughness, guys mostly are just trying to either survive practice or prove their toughness in the room with dominant pressure, rather than focusing on technical improvement or positional mastery in as many positions as possible. To top it all off, it leads to lots of injuries - if not in the first year, then certainly by year four or five in that training environment.

How often are you at practice? Sounds like it's been years. How many 30 min goes a week does Iowa do? Iowa has individual practices at least twice a week . FYI the grind matches daily and running the stairs at Carver don't happen like you think

 

[Flying_Tiger]

We could absolutely get skunked next week but I think we win 2 maybe 3 but won't be favored to win any. Calliendo will still be favored on paper but Mesenbrink obviously the real deal. 125, 141 (if the real Real is available) and 149 would be my picks for best chances for a win. Carl will no doubt be pumped to drop an embarrassing home goose egg on us.

I wonder how Brands is going to handle the Michigan loss this week. If he overreacts and grinds the guys by punishment training , I guess it's possible we see another bad performance however I just can't imagine a shut out, especially in Carver. My expectations are to see a much better performance from Iowa on Friday.

 

[drunkengoat]

Good post. Stalling calls are a complete mystery as to how and why they are being called. Stalling won’t be called if opponents do what you mentioned.
When I look at PSU in tough matches (last night at 125, watch the Davis TD. RBY vs ADS, Kem Dawg final vs. Star). They take one high quality shot and convert quickly because the opponent is immediately off balance, other than that they didn’t do a damn thing.
It’s like football, the block is made after contact is made, you have to finish quicker, which is based off the quality of the shot. Opponents wait for us to shoot and drape us, working into scramble positions because they know we are highly inefficient when scrambling.
For example, becoming better at instantly shelving on low singles and working up, not allowing guys to drape. Clear your damn feet when guys drape. It was really disappointing when Woods had his shot cleared his feet, and ended up on his back.
Lemley was well coached and our response is, “you have to finish.” I have no idea how Woods ended up there.
Maybe the guys on here like Tarp and those who have wrestled in the last 15-20 years can explain?
There are a lot of complaints and general comments like the coaches need to go and we need to recruit better. We don’t wrestle today’s style, which I agree with.

Stalling isn’t called properly. But, the fact that we have to rely on it being called for our wrestler to win….

 

[MAGAman]

How often are you at practice? Sounds like it's been years. How many 30 min goes a week does Iowa do? Iowa has individual practices at least twice a week . FYI the grind matches daily and running the stairs at Carver don't happen like you think

Well it was in 2016-20.

 

[HikeNatParks]

Punishment solves nothing. Put Mich in the rear-view. The TBs were razor-thin losses, one to funky-but-effective Cat Stevens, the other to the King of Blah who also nearly beat Levi. Not sure what’s up with Woods, but Lemley’s legit and similarly nearly beat Bartlett. By the time this Friday comes, the last will be forgotten, and the year’s most exciting dual will be here. Even without asthma, I may need an inhaler.

 

[Random4598375]

Yes, it's like a broken record, but nonetheless true... RECRUITING!

You get a stable of elite HS recruits every year, #1 in their weight class, virtually all of them top 10 to 15 p4p, and a number who are world medalists in FS .... and, voila! ... you end up with a top team.

Cael has been able to have that kind of recruiting success. Brands and really everyone else gets nowhere near that number of elite recruits consistently. Give Brands two Spencer Lee type recruits every year, and watch what a great coach he can be.

It’s more than recruiting. Ohio St seems to have the #1 recruiting class every other year, and they aren’t any closer to Penn State than Iowa is. Their last #1 class was 2022 where they got all three of the top 3 pfp recruits in Bouzakis, Mendez, and Feldman plus Shumate & Geog. PSU had one recruit that year, Levi Haines, who was a top 15-20 recruit, not top 3, but he looks significantly better than any of the OSU kids already. Starocci was also top 15-20 and he’s on the verge of being a 4-timer. Davis was barely top 50, and he’s ranked 3rd as a true freshman. Whether it’s coaching, training style, partners, or whatever, the wrestlers do better and show more improvement at Penn State than other places. They’ve obviously done great at recruiting, but that’s not even close to the whole story.

 

[The-Dude-Abides]

It’s more than recruiting. Ohio St seems to have the #1 recruiting class every other year, and they aren’t any closer to Penn State than Iowa is. Their last #1 class was 2022 where they got all three of the top 3 pfp recruits in Bouzakis, Mendez, and Feldman plus Shumate & Geog. PSU had one recruit that year, Levi Haines, who was a top 15-20 recruit, not top 3, but he looks significantly better than any of the OSU kids already. Starocci was also top 15-20 and he’s on the verge of being a 4-timer. Davis was barely top 50, and he’s ranked 3rd as a true freshman. Whether it’s coaching, training style, partners, or whatever, the wrestlers do better and show more improvement at Penn State than other places. They’ve obviously done great at recruiting, but that’s not even close to the whole story.

I was thinking something similar during the tOSU vs. Michigan dual and had to go back to look up tOSU's recruiting stats. We Iowa fans would be pissed with some of those recruiting hauls and the resulting finishes at NCAAs. I'd say recruiting these types of athletes is a necessary but not sufficient condition, especially with HS guys coming in so ready to compete at the highest level. I definitely don't like it, but PSU absolutely has the best coaching going, and now is benefitting from the snowball effect of so many top guys in the room.