Hadn’t watched Penn State wrestle all season. They looked (albeit it was Michigan State) damn good. It got me thinking about January 31 in Happy Valley and the possible outcome. Assuming Teemer is still out, I had it at Penn State 27 Iowa 7. Anybody got any individual matchup predictions?
Penn State vs Iowa
- Thread starter IChawkeye45
- Start date
We will be probably favored at 133 and 197 but they are not gimmies.
Yep, they've got 10 AA type guys, most in the top 1-4. That's where we need to get to, and hopefully with Taylor taking over at Okie State it will level it just a little bit, but we still have to do our part. Until we get to where we're recruiting one Angelo Ferrari along with a couple more top 15 P4P guys every year we're just not going to get there. Look at the 2025 top P4P HS guys ranked by FLO; PSU has 3 of the top 7 and Okie 4 of the top 15. Iowa has 18 and 20. At least we have a couple guys on the P4P list, but we need those guys plus a top 3 hammer every year if we want to complete. That's Penn State's recipe...and clearly going forward it's David Taylor's as well. We need to get there. Sure we can play the blame game and talk about who's cheating (which of course is a joke), but in the end we're being outrecruited most every year. Like you, MVP, I'm thinking every weight will be a challenge with absolutely no gimmies.
Why would you assume Teemer is out?
I saw Penn State and some of their representatives wrestled twice this year, at the All-Star classic in November and the match last night. Well they look rather good, it's hard to really get a whole lot of information from this Michigan State match. My friend told me prior to the match that Michigan state highest ranked wrestler was ranked at 33 in his weight class I believe.
I laughed and I said I expect a score in the 50s by Penn State, shut out and probably will win four to one in overtime and we laughed. He said no it'll probably be a major and it turned out to be a major by Barlett. They just dominated at a ridiculous level but Michigan state is in that's all this year.
From what I've seen now, Davis and Barr looked very good at their respective weight classes. The other guys look potentially even better other than Bartlett, but Bartlett was in the finals last year. Defensive wrestlers like him just hard for me to really judge.
The rest just did what they want, the big test for them in my opinion will be when they wrestle Nebraska next weekend. That might give some insight into at what level these guys are actually at.
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Probably the best PSU team ever and possibly the best college wrestling team ever. The 97 pounder will continue to move up the rankings, the 25 pounder is probably a finalist, and I don't know if they have one guy that, barring injury, will finish outside the top 5. I want to throw up.......
I agree Probably the best team psu team, but why do you think their 25 lber is a finalist. Im not saying he wont be but whats making you say this right now.
He has a high ceiling and could improve a lot from not to march and 125 isn’t very strong again. So I tend to agree. But could also see him not AA ing
Because he's really, really good and 125 appears to be wide open again this year.
Honestly, no one sees him not AA'ing. Not saying he wins or even gets into the finals, but he will be an AA and easily at that.
Oh I agree I’m just saying don’t be super surprised if he doesn’t. It’s the ncaas crazy things happen ever year.
Without the NIL transfers, Iowa scores the same amount of points as Michigan st.
Davis had the #1 seed last year and didn’t AA so who knows. There’s always an off chance the 125 curse strikes again.. many PSU fans had Luke as a preseason champ pick but I personally don’t see it.. he’s a superior freestyle wrestler and hasn’t looked unbeatable this season so far..
I think 9 AA is very possible for PSU. 10 is not out of the question. 125, 133, 141, and 157 are their "weakest" weights and that is depressing as they are all very good. 149, 165, 174, 184, 197, and 285 are all top 4 at worst imo. Lets move on from the look how great we are PSU circle jerk to our own guys. Iowa needs to win heads up at 133, 149, 157, 165, and 197. While I'm not saying it will happen, it needs to to knock them off their pedestal. If we can't win heads up Iowa can't beat them as a team.
So is Kueter, and he’s not lighting it up either.
A returning runner-up and 3rd place winner are weak? PSU may be unproven at 25, 33 and 97 but they are not weak at 41 or 57.
I said their "weakest" weights. Bartlett is no offensive dyno which makes him susceptible to any of the top guys at 141 and Kasak was 3rd at 149, not 157. They are both likely mid to high AA, but no where near the juggernauts they have at 149, 165, 174, 184, and 285. Weakest is used very loosely when talking about their lineup this year. They have no holes currently this year. I'm out on this subject as I have no interest in arguing about how good Penn State is this year.
Everything is relative. Coach is right- I would go 133, 125, 141 and 157 the least likely to AA, in that order. There are no holes.
It wouldn't be that bad, but it would definitely suck worse than it's going to...
Love Caliendo, but there's absolutely zero chance barring an injury. I think the other 4 weights will be real dogfights if all 8 wrestlers (4 from each team) bring their A games, and I give our guys a 60/40 chance of winning all four, but if we don't bring our A games I can also see us getting our asses kicked. As Tom says, these guys have to be ready to go. Also, I want to see how much BK has improved by the tOSU meet and if he's able to take out Feldman. If he can do that (I know it's a big ask), then he should be able to give Kerk a good match. Also, and I know this is a big ask, I want Gabe to go at 74 and Angelo at 84. I want to see what they can do against Levi and Star...kind of a potential glance into our future. In the end, I would like to do what we did against Iowa State last year; I want Tom to change things up, throw a wrench in the mix just to see if it makes a difference. We have nothing to lose.
Do better, sure we would be far worse off but, come on. Without NIL transfers our line up would look like this.
125 Petersen
133 Ayala
141 Block
149 Rathjen
157 Siebrect
165 Kennedy
174 Brands
184 Arnold(Ferrari)
197 Glazier
285 Kueter
That team still scores 50-60 points
Michigan st scores 0-5 points
It’s just a silly argument. Every team has had Nil availability and if it wasn’t an option Iowa would Have made other recruiting decisions
I think going into last years ncaa you would say the same about Davis, im fairly certain he will aa just would not make him a finalist based on his college matches to date.
I think we agree on LL.
Davis not AA’ing last year was both surprising and unsurprising. He wrestled well most times but then would throw in a head scratcher. The #1 seed played mind games with him to a degree and he got in his own way. Stuff happens.
Hi Grip, like WEH8ST8HAWK, I too want to puke because of the team PSU has this year. And I guess he, like many of us, think Luke Lilledahl's got a really good chance of being a finalist based on his credentials coming into this year. That said, he really hasn't lit up the scoreboard like others, say Barr, who's been pretty much taking it to the competition except for his close match with the kid from Little Like last year, 125 is wide open so anything could happen.
Teemer would be a slight favorite if back but Van Ness handled Parco at the all star meet in 2023 and has been murdering people this year since coming back. I love the effort from Caliendo but he was not even in the conversation for getting a win vs Mesenbrink last year and we don't have a good history of gaining ground vs them.
That’s not what he was saying. He was saying the lineup you posted gets shut out against PSU. Personally I think Ayala wins until I see otherwise.
You might be right. I was wrong in my post, I saw the Lehigh match along with the MSU, All Star classic matches. I'm going to Iowa also. I don't get to go to a lot of matches, i saw Lehigh in 2017, one last year at PSU along with the big Tens and Michigan the year prior I think. They won the title in all of those years, but they look so much better this year. They lost two individual matches total this year to date.
It's pretty silly.
There are and you do not think you're going to win say ten NCAA titles, but there starters will be in every match against everyone.
Given the way the rankings fluctuated at 125 last year, there was little certainty at that weight. The bracket was full of land mines (see 165 for PK two years ago) and Davis isn't your typical elite PSU wrestler who techs his way through brackets. He wins a lot of tight matches, which means he's often 1 TD away from losing.
There is a lot of season left and Lilledahl has plenty of time to show what he can do. He's an elite recruit, so I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him as a top 5 seed come March, and a threat to win it all.
uh NO!!! Time to PUMP the breaks!!! Certainly good, now lets see how a few fair against better competition???
LillyLiver I would bet has a better shot at NOT AAing then winning it!!!
133- see above!!!
who is at 41 pepeLaBue AKA the Stall guy? He will likely AA but more then likely will NOT be in the finals again!
149 VanMess kid looks pretty good but there are better!!! Watch and see
157 KoJack aint doing JACK!!!low AA at best
who is at 165 now?MessAsmittyyiodt??? He is good I will give you that.
174The Jeans kid is tuff but another stall rider and it will cost him
184 will be sorry he came back when he loses!!!
197 another wait and see but LOW AA i would guess
Heavy KerKIN feels terrible because GABLE is back!!!
The difference this year is that there are hammers at every weight. On the past teams, there were always a couple weights that clearly weren’t NQ quality or at least a struggle to qualify and wouldn’t AA, no matter how many potential champs they had (most years it was 125, LOL). This year’s team’s “weak links” are still AA contenders.
125 last year was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. You could pick names out of a hat for the top 20 in any match.
Depends on his seed come March. Only the top three seeds have a better chance of winning than not AAing.
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