Random wrestling thoughts

Brooks is technically this year's class - I agree, I think he is PSU bound. I would flip sh*t over him though, he is going to be ELITE in college. I've heard good things about Cashman yet for this year's class, keeping my fingers crossed.
 
I just looked at the roster on cyclones.com, 34 wrestlers.
How many of them receive a piece of the 9.9?
 
Supposedly Spencer Lee will get his redshirt pulled by Iowa this weekend. I can only assume that means Downey will be eligible soon also.

Gfeller, a true frosh at Ok State beat Storr in Vega & has now won The Scuffle also. He pinned Nick Lee of Penn State, also a true frosh at Penn State.

DeSanto got hurt at Scuffle

UNI got 2nd at the Scuffle and has no senior starters. I can not figure out why they are redshirting Steiert. It seems their 2 best teams are going to be this year and next. Schwarm, Yates, Alber, Thomsen, ????, Steiert, Lugan, Foster, Holcslag, Isley.

Fix did not wrestle at Scuffle but was entered, not sure what happen.
I heard it was the flu for Fix.
 
Are we seriously even seeing any better wrestling this season with the new coaching staff? And no, I'm not talking about just wins. I'm talking about more aggressiveness in taking shots, better toughness, better ability on getting out from the bottom position, better fitness level, etc, etc.

I'd just like to hear someone with a bit of knowledge on this say that they see some drastic improvements on the mat this season.... even if it hasn't led to many wins yet.

Short answer, no. The only guy I see with real improvement from a year ago is Harrington and that may be due to him not cutting weight. What's troubling to me is that none of the sophomores that saw time in the lineup last year, Simmons, Straw and DiBlasi have improved at all.

And next fall's incoming recruiting class is decent enough but I thought we'd do better. I see people commenting that we need to step up to compete with PSU, Ohio St, OK ST, etc. I think the first step is getting back to where we were 2-5 years ago i.e always beating mid-level D1 teams and most bottom Top 20 teams and getting a couple of AAs every year. If we can get there by 2020 or 2021, only then we can hope to get back to where we were for so many glorious decades before it fell apart.
 
Short answer, no. The only guy I see with real improvement from a year ago is Harrington and that may be due to him not cutting weight. What's troubling to me is that none of the sophomores that saw time in the lineup last year, Simmons, Straw and DiBlasi have improved at all.

And a lot of those guys were wrestling really well first semester last season before everything fell apart in the second semester. And so far this year they're wrestling more like they were at the end of last season. I'd expected to see them at least return to that early season form this year and they really haven't. Hopefully we start to see improvement, or at least a return to their baseline, in the coming weeks.
 
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Overall, I think you are seeing flashes of better things, and then moments of the stuff we saw last year. I think the expectations for this season were WAY too high from some people. There is some talent in some spots on the rosters, but this line-up overall is just not good. People already showing a lack of confidence in the coaching staff need to take a step back and realize where the program is. You don't make a program top 10 in 1-2 years when the talent in the room is that of a 30-35 team. I am 100% in with this staff -- they have proven to build/re-build programs and develop talent in multiple places (VT and Iowa). Next year's lineup could add Gomez and Carr (and Coleman). Perfect. Let's get 2 more top talents for the next year to add. That's how this team will become top 5-10 again in 3-4 years. If this team was top 5-10, the starters would need to be vastly improved talent wise in about 8 different spots.

Iowa is going to have a good season. Adding Lee and Downey will be big point scorers for them, and add some some excitement to their lineup.

The team battle between tOSU and PSU is going to be fantastic. Watching PSU at the Scuffle was impressive. I know the talent pool was down a bit, but the way their guys scored bonus in the finals (compare to Iowa in Midlands finals) is what makes them dangerous. tOSU has a better lineup top to bottom, but can their top dogs stick close enough to PSU in bonus?
 
You don't make a program top 10 in 1-2 years when the talent in the room is that of a 30-35 team.

I'm in support of this staff but we absolutely have more talent in the room than a 30-35 ranked team. We lost those duals in the fall because we had guys lose matches they were supposed to win. I'm disappointed because I expected that we'd be able to coach up the guys who are here. Instead we saw them hold steady or regress. I'm not worried about it (yet) because I think the coaches were more interested in other things than wins and losses last fall. But take a look at where the guys currently in the program were in December 2016 and tell me there's no talent in the room. To take on Penn State or Ohio State? Hell no. But to win against Drexel and Wyoming? To be a top 20 team? Absolutely.
 
Any hints as to whom the potential transfer is? Is it a current D1 kid or Juco?

Was told it is not a done deal yet. If somebody goes to the premeet greet today, I am curious if Dresser gives a hint. Also maybe a high school 125 pounder looking at Iowa State.

Hope these 2 kids follow through and provide options at 125.

Sorry don't want to ruin a deal that isn't done yet.
 
I'm in support of this staff but we absolutely have more talent in the room than a 30-35 ranked team. We lost those duals in the fall because we had guys lose matches they were supposed to win. I'm disappointed because I expected that we'd be able to coach up the guys who are here. Instead we saw them hold steady or regress. I'm not worried about it (yet) because I think the coaches were more interested in other things than wins and losses last fall. But take a look at where the guys currently in the program were in December 2016 and tell me there's no talent in the room. To take on Penn State or Ohio State? Hell no. But to win against Drexel and Wyoming? To be a top 20 team? Absolutely.

I guess I don't see it the same way you do right now, which is fine. Differing opinions happen. Agree with you in saying we lost some duals because guys lost matches they shouldn't have. Wyoming is better team than ISU right now, by a lot. Did you watch their dual against OSU? They have some tough guys. But its tough because there are 3-5 weights this year this team isn't going to win (depending on level of competitor), leaving minimal room for error against MANY teams. We have a log jam from 133-149 right now, and I wish that talent could spread out, but it can't. Having 5 capable guys in those weights doesn't increase the line-up's talent level if they all can't wrestle. Now if we are sitting here in 3 years and the lineup still isn't consistently beating non top 15 teams, then a little worry could happen, IMO (which means little to nothing).
 
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Here is why we need patience (developing guys takes time)

Ty Walz (#111 ranked high school senior)
12-13 Redshirt
13-14 27-14
14-15 28-9 7th in NCAA
15-16 28-3 4th in NCAA
16-17 26-4 4th in NCAA

J Haught (#93 ranked in high school)
13-14 Redshirt
14-15 16-18
15-16 23-10 6th in NCAA
16-17 28-4 4th in NCAA
17-18 13-2 Ranked 3rd by Intermat currently
 
Just in today's society, everything is show me results now. I also understand why Iowa State supporters have lost patience after the slow demise under the Jackson regime. I hate to preach patience but there are some positives so far. Really excited to see the dual meets this weekend to see what a month did for the wrestlers.
 
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I'm in support of this staff but we absolutely have more talent in the room than a 30-35 ranked team. We lost those duals in the fall because we had guys lose matches they were supposed to win. I'm disappointed because I expected that we'd be able to coach up the guys who are here. Instead we saw them hold steady or regress. I'm not worried about it (yet) because I think the coaches were more interested in other things than wins and losses last fall. But take a look at where the guys currently in the program were in December 2016 and tell me there's no talent in the room. To take on Penn State or Ohio State? Hell no. But to win against Drexel and Wyoming? To be a top 20 team? Absolutely.

I think part of what we are seeing is parity in the sport (PSU and tOSU aside). After those two you have a whole bunch of teams with some talent. My daughter goes to Drexel, so I follow Matt Avezedo's squad pretty closely. They tied #4Lehigh in a dual (lost on criteria) and they get a couple starters back 2nd semester. I think they took 4th or 5th at the Southern Scuffle. Wyoming took OkState to the wire. Yes, we have some talent in the room, but so does everyone else. In addition a lot of our talent is bunched at certain weights so we don't match up well in duals. It's going to take a few recruiting cycles to get this straightened out.
 
125 is a must for obvious reasons..if Allison gets hurt, we'll forfeit the weight which is just absolutely disgusting to think about at a place like ISU..

But yeah after 125 it is best available..IMO, we have no proven top shelf guys on campus. I think Carr will be when he arrives...I think Gomez should be..but in reality we have no proven hammers in the room (at the college level). We should take best talent available for the next 2-3 years as long as its not taking 3 guys at one weight or something
I don't know if he is ready to fill the spot as a true freshman or not...but I have a feeling that Aaron Cashman could end up in cardinal and gold.. good feeling... ;)
Cashman??? You sure because he trains at the OTC full time under.....KJ And so will Brooks and a handful of other elite guys after this HS season...soooo I wouldn’t be hanging my hat on KJ Sending positive vibes to his wrestlers for them to end up at isu....just say’n