Iowa vs Penn State
- Thread starter smitty
- Start date
0-7 while wrestling (1999-2002, not counting redshirt year) -- ISU and Iowa met 3 times in Nat'l Duals, in addition to 4 regularly-scheduled duals
1-0 as ISU assistant coach (2005) -- 19-16 win in Iowa City
0-1 as ISU assistant head coach (2006)
0-3 as ISU head coach (2007-09)
0-2 as PSU head coach (2010-11)
TOTAL: 1-13
Yup, they wrestled lights out. Before the dual started, one of the announcers said something like "On paper, it will be nearly impossible for Iowa to beat Penn State". As soon as I heard that, I figured Iowa would win. Brands is a crazy-***, but he can sure motivate his kids. Penn State missed out on a couple chances to get bonus points in matches they dominated, and Iowa pulled off a couple upsets.
I know ISU is hurting this year, but this dual made me feel a bit better about Cael leaving, I think he has troubles getting his wrestlers really fired up the way Iowa does. Not saying KJ can do that, but I just don't think Cael can. I do, however, think Cael will have NC teams coming up, as talented as his young guys are.
This is one rare time I was rooting for the Hawks. Cael bailed on us so any team playing PSU I will be cheering for.
I really hope that KJ can get our guys up for tourneys instead of duals (both would be best, but one of those two tends to win out anyway). It would be great if we could field a team that maybe didn't look good on paper, but still does good in tourneys anyway.
I was at the MVC super meet this weekend, and even though City West's coach is a pile of apathy, his kids are always competing at high levels. On the same note, I'm surprised at how some schools fared because of their overall records (ie: CRX being in the top 5 going into the finals even though they've only won a few duals, and don't even have a full team)
We're a much better tourney team than dual team this year. We've got one guy who should be in the finals (Reader), two guys who should at least make a run at AA (Drouin, Sorenson) and two more who should at least win a match or two, more if they get hot (Ward, Simonson). 5 solid guys aren't going to win you a lot of duals, but they can place you pretty high in March.
Shafer and Carr/Mayfield have the ability to win a few matches at nationals as well if they get a good draw. I wouldn't count on Weatherman qualifying, but anything is possible. I don't expect Cash or Jones to qualify.
I'm guessing we qualify 7, have three guys in the round of 12, two AAs, and one finalist.
Last edited:
That's what I was getting at. I would much rather have a better tourney team than a dual team, since even decimated teams can fare extremely well in tourneys (which was where my example came from).
