I think what is most frustrating and disappointing is that there does not seem to be progress forward with the program or the wrestlers. In fact, it seems that ISU is going in reverse.
His first year, with what Cael left him, KJ managed to finish 3rd at the NCAA, and completed a very good dual meet season.
What has happened since then? In the last couple of years, the wrestlers (at least to me) do not appear to have much aggresiveness or stamina, and do not appear to be prepared to face their opponents.
KJ is a Olympic Gold medal winner, and a World Champion. Plus, he has a couple of excellent assistants. Maybe I am naive, but it would seem to me he should be able to do pretty well with recruiting, even against the Penn States and the Iowas. Also, there are fewer and fewer colleges with wrestling, which should mean that there is even more likelihood that ISU can get top recruits with less competition.
There are some good recruits.....but when I watched Meeks wrestle at the state championships, and then the other night......it did not look like the same wrestler at all. Yes, he is wrestling on the college level now, but he just did not look as agressive, as prepared, or as strong as he did in high school. How can that happen?
Something has to be done.....soon. This is a too proud and too tradition-laden program to just let it fail like this.