If that were true, then anyone who has ever read a single Ironbird post would no longer qualify.
Iowa vs Minnesota
- Thread starter royboy
- Start date
I spoke briefly with Franek's parents a few weeks ago after the Iowa-Penn dual. I asked them, what's the biggest difference between wrestling at Iowa and North Dakota State? They said the environment at Iowa is much more intense, perhaps explaining why Hawkeyes wrestle tight, trying not to lose rather than to win. Hard for many wrestlers to sustain that level of intensity over a full season.
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Okay actual thoughts on the dual (normally wouldn't watch on a Monday but hey, I had the day off!)
125 - Ayala is the real deal, this should surprise nobody. I think he is deserving of #1 right now but obviously would take the field over him in March. He is a high AA lock.
133 - Guessing something is wrong with Teske and they're just pitch counting him and Petersen didn't do anything to convince coaches he should be the guy either. Teske beat him 15-0 at SS for the record. Either way, hard to see this weight scoring points for Iowa.
141 - Woods does a good job winning close matches as well. Something we compliment our wrestlers for. That Minnesota kid was a game opponent and showed how to battle Woods (particularly on bottom) I could see him potentially getting picked off in the semis but wouldn't count on it. He's a lock for 20 + points IMO.
149 - Rathjen is pretty interesting, he can scramble and has a good handfight. Wouldn't pick him to AA right now but I see an upgrade over Voinovich and Ferrari. Candidly, I became a fan of him after he threw the flex back at Fredo.
157 - Franek lives and dies by the sword. Last Friday, he lived by the sword against a semis level opponent. Yesterday, he died by the sword against an opponent he would see in the R16. This is what he is. Could be a finalist or lower AA.
165 - Caliendo with a "workman like" win after getting his eyes nearly poked out, I feel very confident Mesenbrink beats that version of him. 165 is a tough weight but Caliendo is a lock for the podium.
174 - If Kennedy wrestles like this, I think Gabe redshirts. By far the most offensive Iowa wrestler last year and Skillings is pretty solid. Definitely see him contending for middle AA but with a bad draw, he could be R12-R16 again.
184 - Impressive by Riggins to avoid bonus. But they have a non qualifier here since Arnold is adamant this isn't his weight.
197 - Glazier continues to just be fundamentally sound and crisp. Was curious if he would pour it on after the Allred win but Joles is much better defensively. 197 is a pretty deep weight now but he's in the conversion for lower AA.
285 - Kueter is a tremendous talent ... but undersized and in football shape. He will improve for sure over the next 2 months but hard to see him maximizing his potential if he's playing football going forward. You start seasons in January and right after March, you're going into spring football practice. You can practice wrestling in the summer but imagine that's nerve wracking for Ferentz if Kueter is a huge contributor and he's getting his legs twisted in a room before the season starts. Not going to make predictions for him right now.
Iowa as a team is what we thought they were, probably in the Drivers Seat for 2nd with a good tournament but a chance to be 3rd or 4th (which is missing a trophy now) They're projected to be 2nd but with Drake and Woods winning and Franek placing 2nd. Let's be honest, their March results don't show that's likely to happen. Without much bonus, it'll be interesting.
125 - Ayala is the real deal, this should surprise nobody. I think he is deserving of #1 right now but obviously would take the field over him in March. He is a high AA lock.
133 - Guessing something is wrong with Teske and they're just pitch counting him and Petersen didn't do anything to convince coaches he should be the guy either. Teske beat him 15-0 at SS for the record. Either way, hard to see this weight scoring points for Iowa.
141 - Woods does a good job winning close matches as well. Something we compliment our wrestlers for. That Minnesota kid was a game opponent and showed how to battle Woods (particularly on bottom) I could see him potentially getting picked off in the semis but wouldn't count on it. He's a lock for 20 + points IMO.
149 - Rathjen is pretty interesting, he can scramble and has a good handfight. Wouldn't pick him to AA right now but I see an upgrade over Voinovich and Ferrari. Candidly, I became a fan of him after he threw the flex back at Fredo.
157 - Franek lives and dies by the sword. Last Friday, he lived by the sword against a semis level opponent. Yesterday, he died by the sword against an opponent he would see in the R16. This is what he is. Could be a finalist or lower AA.
165 - Caliendo with a "workman like" win after getting his eyes nearly poked out, I feel very confident Mesenbrink beats that version of him. 165 is a tough weight but Caliendo is a lock for the podium.
174 - If Kennedy wrestles like this, I think Gabe redshirts. By far the most offensive Iowa wrestler last year and Skillings is pretty solid. Definitely see him contending for middle AA but with a bad draw, he could be R12-R16 again.
184 - Impressive by Riggins to avoid bonus. But they have a non qualifier here since Arnold is adamant this isn't his weight.
197 - Glazier continues to just be fundamentally sound and crisp. Was curious if he would pour it on after the Allred win but Joles is much better defensively. 197 is a pretty deep weight now but he's in the conversion for lower AA.
285 - Kueter is a tremendous talent ... but undersized and in football shape. He will improve for sure over the next 2 months but hard to see him maximizing his potential if he's playing football going forward. You start seasons in January and right after March, you're going into spring football practice. You can practice wrestling in the summer but imagine that's nerve wracking for Ferentz if Kueter is a huge contributor and he's getting his legs twisted in a room before the season starts. Not going to make predictions for him right now.
Iowa as a team is what we thought they were, probably in the Drivers Seat for 2nd with a good tournament but a chance to be 3rd or 4th (which is missing a trophy now) They're projected to be 2nd but with Drake and Woods winning and Franek placing 2nd. Let's be honest, their March results don't show that's likely to happen. Without much bonus, it'll be interesting.
If you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen. I bleed blue and white and will stack my PSU wrestling fan resume up against anyone, but every single year in March, you can count on me to completely freak out in the first 2 or 3 rounds of the B1G s AND the NCAAs, and then I will take a mind blowing-gang style-multi member beating on this board of epic proportions.
So, for the ironbirds and so on...take a lesson from me
I will continue to post, and in April we completely start over again.
That's how it's done...son.
So, for the ironbirds and so on...take a lesson from me
I will continue to post, and in April we completely start over again.
That's how it's done...son.
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Very fair. I agree with much of what you said here. Brands/Assad would have been an improvement on 174/184 and Cassioppi certainly at Heavyweight. Iowa is still competitive without them with everyone except Penn State. I will take that this year.
Yes they do, however they spend so much time with Terry on a daily basis, it is difficult for wrestlers to get a time slot.
Is he though?
Aside from 125 being a dumpster fire: he has a number of good wins, so he has a good chance, maybe as good as anyone.
OTOH he lost to Kaylor. So we can't rule out him getting upset in the first 2 rounds.
And he has yet to bonus a potential NCAA qualifier, even with the new T3. Guys like this are susceptible to upset. Which is what happened to him in 2022 -- no bonus against qualifiers, got upset in Round 1, went 1-2.
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I'll bite. I think you are a good poster, but every once in a while you decide it's your moral responsibility to come here and scold us for how we talk about wrestling on our board, and just Will. Not.Stop. beating the horse.
You claim to want good wrestling discussion, but you really just want us be a neutral site (or, even better, a sane Iowa board).
Talk wrestling, take the "woe is me they talk bad about Iowa" to a text message somewhere.
If they play Dodgeball in practice to be less intense, they definitely are using wrenches.
Your resume on this board goes clear back to 2021. Im guessing there are PSU fans on here that put your resume to shame.
I was talking about being a fan, not a message board. In addition to everything else you are an idiot too.
Seems to me Teske just is not the wrestler he hoped to be when he left HS. He is now at school #3 and while he was the big dog at stop 2, he didn’t look like “the guy” at PSU and looks pretty much the same at Iowa. Could be lots going on. Sometimes has looked distracted in matches to me.
Cassar wasn’t exactly short and stocky.
Well yes, generally 6-1 isn't considered short.
I suppose I didn't make my point well. When Parris wrestled Cassar as a freshman (I understand the language police sucking down tuition money have banned the word, but I don't give a flying beep) he was a multisport athlete with obvious ability, but he was a boy wrestling a man.
Kueter might be a better wrestler at this point in his life, but he's less physically developed than Parris was then. Now take that 225 pound boy and put him on the mat with Kerk (who is past the skinny teenager phase) and is bigger than Cassar.
And no, Hill isn't going to fair well against Kerk either.
There are a lot of old timers on this board. I'm curious to see your fan resume. How far does it go back?
Iowa's version of her is a slap across the face from Terry Brands right before you take the mat.
Teske has been in two of best college rooms to train in and Penn State. No excuses for losses like he had against Nebraska. Time is running out for it to "click" for him.
Perennial preseason top 3 Missouri that finishes top 10 almost every year being on that list does not surprise me. They get some great wrestlers but top to bottom don't get it done.
I don't owe you a single speck of my history, but I attended my first NCAA tournament as a child, in Arizona. Here's a hint for you, Dan Gable was not the head coach for Iowa. I was there though to see him as a first year head coach the next year in Oklahoma City.
Ever hear of Wade Schalles? He was close friends with my father and my father's friends, and he spent many a fun night with many many others at my Fathers house parties.
My all time favorite wrestler ever is the Gentle Giant Chris Taylor...the nicest, kindest person I ever knew, who signed an autograph for me in the early 70s.
I can go on, and on, and on, but then again so can everyone else on this board, because Pennsylvania is the mecca of wrestling in this nation, not Iowa, and everyone knows this. The jealousy of the Iowa fans constantly referencing 2011, is ignorant, and everyone in this sport will tell you that the only reason Penn State didn't become Penn State until then, was the failure of the University to hire the right coach. When the greatest wrestler AND coach who has ever been, chose Penn State, the world of wrestling already knew tjis would happen.
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I'll chime in, because jeez we all have to, right? I'm old enough to remember as a young fan going into a dual vs Iowa with hope and fear. We did win on occasion, but you just knew someone you loved following was going to have a bad day. Y'all were the standard, and we loved to hate you for it. So it's just vanilla schadenfreude to have the tables turned, and turned so completely. I do indulge in it--quite lightly by the standards of hivemind of this board--but it's still fun. Add into it the fact that Brands is one of the least flexible coaches out there, and it can be quite entertaining to see him smashing his head into a brick wall over and over and over . . .
I do entertain the notion that Iowa fans are the worst--that was supported a lot by their reaction to football injuries, and some of the recent stories out of carver. But it's a fool's errand to try and rank fan bases--we all have complete aholes and loons aplenty we can point to.
That all said, I consider Ohio State my most hated wrestling rival. Football probably informs that some, but it's also adjacency, memory of having lived in that state for a hot and terrible second, and the fact that at least on paper, they are usually set up to be PSU's top rival these days. They have their own brick walls they like to smash into too, so there's that.
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I always liked you Madden. You and js tend to have credible and insightful thoughts about wrestling in general and I enjoy that. I think some don't take your sarcasm very well or miss it altogether as you definitely have mastered it lol. In any event, speaking for myself I enjoy this board and all who come and join in on the fun of talking about wrestling. Of course there will be disagreements with Iowa fans as their perspective on wrestling is altogether different then how a PSU fan views wrestling and that's okay a little banter back and forth in good fun is harmless. If it doesn't apply let it fly I say
To me, the contrast is one between toughness and resilience. Resilience can look all the world like toughness, but it is a skill that evades the brittleness of the "Gable Tough" approach to competing and if you master it, you have grabbed a key to success in anything you'll do in life--wrestling included.
First of all, I don't have any particular bone to pick with any of the Hawk fans posting here. That being said, when someone leaves a good opening, it's hard to resist taking the shot.
I go back far enough to remember Dan Gable winning his first NCAA title at Rec Hall! (of all places) I also actually talked to him about 45 minutes before he went out and beat the Russian for the gold medal in Munich. I'll say that wrestling has changed a lot since I was in school. A lot of it is for the better, but I still like the freestyle rules that were in place when I was in school. A lot more mat skills involved. Much of our folkstyle technique translated over directly to freestyle, but don't think the Russians and other strictly freestyle countries didn't know the mat stuff too. I agree with PSUbiomed that Penn State just needed to hire the right coach to get us to the top in the college world.
The feeling about Iowa is different for everyone, but personally, there are two things that I feel need to end: The constant references to wrestling starting in 2011, and the Sandusky card. Take those two out and personally I'm good.
That’s fair but the poster I responded to lumped me in with 98% of the GIA posters which I disagree with.
I remember right after Jerry White had taken 3rd on the podium to become an All American. White had a real shot at the championship, with only Mark Johnson of Michigan who he tied earlier that year, and then Chris Campbell of Iowa who he had taken to OT in the previous NCAA, losing on a controversial call.
Jerry lost to Johnson 6-2 in a match in which clearly, he could have benefitted from a coaches strategy. After the match a few of my parents friends asked Bill Koll what happened and Koll replied "he wrestled as well as he could".
Years later after I learned more about the sport, I still remembered that, and felt that just wasn't the kind of thing that I wanted to hear from what I wanted in a coach. I wanted something more, and for me, that was the entire problem with our coaches pre Cael. They were good, decent coaches, but they were not deserving of the mantle that they held.
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Not only that, but he gassed badly in that match - barely hung on against a nobody (all the Minny HW had to do was pull his head out from between Kueter's legs as he already had him in a control position except for clearing his head). He is not in condition for an NCAA match against a top-20 opponent - he gasses like that after the first period against a decent opponent, he probably gets pinned. No way he should have gotten OW of the Dual for that win.
The distance between 1 and 2 is massive - whereas Iowa is in a pack for 2, 3, 4.
Iowa = tallest midget. Tried to get taller by importing some Italian platform shoes. They still look dated, circa 1975.
Gibbons mentioned that Kueter was in football condition and not wrestling condition. Another month dedicated to wrestling should help the gas tank issue. Kid is definitely a great athlete from what he's accomplished on the world wrestling stage.
I don't know man. A gas tank problem is a gas tank problem. No need to back the car up any further than last year, when every Hawk from a to z was telling us in December that Spencer's tank would be just fine in March, and it wasn't just fine in March...
Gas tanks don't get fixed. Ya got em, or ya don't. Please don't force me to use the A word on this fact.
Probably has something to do with the way the Iowa wrestling program (coaches/wrestlers/fans) treated the rest of the sport for the last 40 years. Most people don't like bullies.
What I don't like is being called a newcomer to wrestling in 2011 when every single person I knew growing up knew more about the history of the sport than any other fan base.
Exactly. I followed Bloomsburg (Ricky & Rocky) and East Stroudsburg (Cuvo) and Clarion (Angle) and Edinboro (O’Day) and many others. PSU was one of many PA teams I followed. Until they took over the multi-verse. I’m as big or bigger fan of PA wrestling. Go F&M!
How about Shorty Hitchcock? How about Gary Barton at Clarion? How about Mike Frick and the Liebermans at Lehigh? This was all PENNSYLVANIA. How about a State that was so tough just to make it to, that an Olympic bronze medalist actually got beat in the REGIONALS when Huntingtons Henry Green beat Jimmy Carr from Erie East?
When these Iowa fans insult us with that 2011 garbage, they are not just insulting Penn State, they are insulting the entire state of Pennsylvania, and it's flat out, point blank, incorrect and honestly, it's ignorant to the point of embarrassment. On their part.
The story line has a false narrative that somehow the PIAA championships being the toughest tournament(pre super tournaments that took over 4 years back or so), and having that as a recent thing, is just that: false.
The PIAA tournament, as far back as the 1960s, made the Iowa State tournament look like a secondary event by comparison.
I can't even remember all the upsets through the years. Too many to count.
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