Where have I ever cried about him being mistreated. I'm not even sure what that means. I defended him as a starter and simply said people are calling his career over when he still has 2 years left and has been wrestling up a weight since Caliendo arrived. He had one bad match at NCAAs otherwise people ould be thinking of him totally differently. Nothing odd, what's odd is you can't understand that not even considering him in the line-up might be short sighted.
New Hawk Angelo Ferrari
- Thread starter Todd Conner
- Start date
Didn’t he come into the program as a top 10 pfp? How many years has he been a Hawk?
Pretty sure he was top 5 pfp. Been in the room for 4 years, had Bull as training partner, then Caliendo, Gabe, Franek last year. I would say he probably isn’t going to be jumping levels again. He may be one of those guys who is better at freestyle, and will have a better senior freestyle career than college career.
F
I don’t think he’s any better at freestyle. He hasn’t been historically, anyway.
If his NCAA brackets were as weak as his U23 bracket he would have been an NCAA champ.
I don’t think he’s any better at freestyle. He hasn’t been historically, anyway.
If his NCAA brackets were as weak as his U23 bracket he would have been an NCAA champ.
If you want to talk about underperformers there are plenty on the team more worthy - start with Ybarra, Schriever, Teske and Robles to start. I done with this debate. Don't be surprised if he's a starter. Time will tell....
Teske was the #34 overall recruit in 2018. 2xR12,R16 and 1-2 is far from underperforming….
That is a bold statement, let's see how it ages come March 2025!!
Robles? Huh? He wasn't even a top 100 recruit.
Where are these many people that say he is washed up?
I think he just needs to open his game up against better wrestlers…
If it's not Gabe >>>>>>> everyone else, Iowa has a big problem. Gabe is the one who is a potential champ, not Brands or PK, who are both fringe AA hopes. If he's failing to live up to it even in the Iowa room, that's not good. I think Gabe takes this spot easily.
If you really think that you haven’t been watching the same Iowa wrestling I’ve been watching last year and the year before.
Plus it was an astoundingly illogical point.
And while Gabe might be a “potential champ” I haven’t seen it yet. Brands beat Plott twice and Plott took care of the freshman version of Gabe rather easily. May the best man win!
First, the point of a redshirt year is to allow a raw recruit sufficient time to develop into his full potential before competing at the NCAA level. In addition to wrestling up at a weight he himself said he is not comfortable during his RS season in that match against Plott last year, Gabe should be significantly better in his RSFR year than he was in his shirt year at whatever weight. In addition, Plott improved significantly between the 23 and 24 years. In 23, not only did he lose twice to Brands (5th at NCAAs and both razor thin matches) but also to such luminaries as DeVos (R12), Foca (R12), Mocco (8th), and Olmos (R16). In 24, his place improved from 6th to RU and he only lost 3X to undefeated champ Keckeisen and once to Pinto, who he split matches with at CKLV early in the season. I think you're putting way too much into one loss by a redshirt wrestling up at an uncomfortable weight against the eventual runner-up whose level appears to have jumped from the prior year (likely after getting out from under a strength-sapping OSU cut).
Of course, may the best man win. They both should and will have a fair shot to win the spot. My point is that if Gabe isn't in a position to win it this year, that is a bad thing for Iowa.
I wasn’t putting all that much into the Plott match; I was merely giving you an example. I don’t think we should put all that pressure on a freshman stating that if he can’t beat Brands or PK then Iowa has failed. Brands and PK have had some bad losses through the years but have also had real good wins. I think it’s anyone’s weight (74) to win.
"Failed" is too drastic of an assessment, but if the elite recruits that they had lined up for this generation of the team were Chittum, Jesuroga, Kueter, and Arnold and three of them either never wrestle for the team or struggle to win a spot, there's no way to sugar coat that.
Sure, but since two have already occurred, it seems patently unfair to lay the overall issue at the feet of either Ben or Gabe. And since Ben has already medaled internationally for the HWC, it would seem irresponsible to lay it solely on Gabe.
Exactly, not to mention 50% of those guys never put the Iowa singlet on so I'd argue that is a coaching failure. Maybe a recruiting failure, but they came up with a solution for 157/165 so I don't consider that a failure either.
Straw man. Nobody would be panicking if PK was the starter. He's just at a weight with a guy who's proved it at NCAAs and a big time recruit who showed a lot of promise AND PK hasn't lived up to top 5 recruit expectations. That's just reality. Nobody is going to be mad if he wins the spot and places high. Most just haven't seen much to predict it.
Plott was much better (and healthier) at 184 last year. And even so, Gabe wrestled him pretty tough.
I'm not trying to lay it on Gabe specifically. It would be bad for the Iowa program to get that little out of that cohort of elite recruits, not that any one person is at fault. If anything, it's on TnT, but really, it's just bad for the program and not really any one person's fault.
Don't forget Kale Petersen and Ryder Block are in that class as well. They are both going to surprise some folks if they can handle the cut and stay healthy.
You mentioned bad for the program twice in your paragraph. Nate Jesuroga was a blue chip that had a change of heart and decided on Military aspirations. That's not Tom Brands fault.
Chittum I will give you. Although he has moved around a lot as a wrestler in general. The others haven't even written their story yet. I feel like you are just looking for things to label as "bad for the Iowa program."
Block could possibly be considered in the elite recruit category. Not quite the pedigree of those other guys, but he's really good.
Random is one of the few psu trolls left. He's being more subtle after seeing what's happened to his trolling buddies.
Completely disagree. There are 80 AAs every year, call it an average of 20 per recruiting class though obviously it doesn't work out that way. By most basic minimal expectations a #34 recruit should AA at least once in 4 years.
Riggins was in that low to mid 30 range. We will see if he can earn a spot in the lineup at ISU first before assuming he will AA. Caliendo was 52, and is killing it. Other than the Spencer Lee type guys, recruiting is a crap shoot
Not really. A #34 is prolly 3-4 at their weight in their class. Four years of classes would make them at #12-16 at their weight in any given year. Even if you decide they will be better than the freshman as seniors, that still is only #8-12. No guarantees there, imo.
