What should I watch for this Saturday?

[Colorado_Hawk]

This is a question for the die hard fans. I like many others will be attending my first wrestling meet this Saturday. I watch us on TV whenever they show it (which isn't often enough) and understand all the rules. What I am wondering is what to be looking for in the individual matches. I believe OSU is ranked #1 overall and we are #4. It also look to be pretty even on paper in terms of favorites in each match, so it should be close. It looked like we have some really good guys in the lower weights, so perhaps we need to go up early to have a chance at the end. I am also wondering what people would consider to be the can't miss matchups and who I should be excited to watch as a Hawk fan. Like who am I going to like as much as I liked Mike Evans? Who are our tips guys, potential champions, new highly recruited rookies to watch?

If anyone feels like setting the stage for me for Saturday I greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Sandor45]

For me, it's 74 and 84. I'd look for Brooks to make a statement win (think tech or pin even)

 

[LaxHawk174]

I'd say our studs at this point in time would be
125 Gilman, 133 Clark, 149 Sorensen, 174 Meyer, 184 Brooks, and 197 Burak. I expect all of them to be All Americans this year, and nearly all of them, if not all, to be in the hunt for the NCAA title in their individual weight classes. So look for big things from these guys in the dual.
The other 4 weights will be completely new faces to the lineup. In order of expectations, I would expect Hwt, and 157 to fare the best, and 141 we will see how competitive Ryan is with Heil and how much he closed the gap. Heil beat him 8-1 last year in an open. Don't be surprised at 165 as Okie state has the #1 p4p college wrestler and 2x NCAA champ at that weight, and it will likely be a lopsided victory by him.

 

[Chickenman Testa]

As a neutral, the willingness of the Hawkeyes not named Clark to get after their offense early - not to hand fight for long stretches and, thus, shorten matches.

This aggressiveness hasn't been a calling card of recent Iowa teams.

 

[Azchief32]

A beautiful big-breasted girl drinking beer with a t-shirt that says "Dan Gable is my Homeboy." Ask her on a date with plans on marrying her and procreating. If such a girl is not there or you are already married, look for how the weights at 157 and 165 are looking for the Hawks...they both have tough matches on Sat but I think that will determine how far we will go this year.

 

[86_90]

New season with new expectations and hopefully a NEW ATTITUDE.

As said in a prior post this year's team needs to make statements at 10 weights. AGGRESSION at all costs. Win or lose, aggression from neutral is the KEY. There is no need what so-ever for tactical victories early in the season. Tactical dual victories have gotten this team squat for 5 years. Get take-downs and then repeat. Then work for the Fall, if it's not going to happen, release and continue the hunt. Stalk and attack. Repeat.

New year, clean slate, great opportunity to reassert Iowa Wrestling as still the Style to beat.

To answer your question, try counting take-downs per team as an interesting alternative to conventional scoring. If Iowa is well ahead in this count, we are in for a fun season. If we are behind at day's end, well then you can rest assured there is hard work ahead and it will be up a steep road of hate.