Nebraska Cornhuskers 23/24 Preview

[Cali_Nittany]

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Last Season
Nebraska had a pretty strong season in 22/23, going 12-3 in duals. They had a slow start with an upset loss against NDSU and a beatdown at NC State before going 7-1 in the Bigs with their only loss coming to Iowa and with a big win against aOSU. The Huskers had a very nice Big 10 tournament, finishing 3rd behind Penn State and Iowa with one champion and four runnerups. Nebraska qualified 7 wrestlers into the NCAA Tournament.

During the Cael Era, Nebraska has averaged 9th place and 48 points in the NCAA Tournament. Last season, the Huskers beat the average by a bit with an 8th place finish on 54 points. They mostly finished below seed but still had 4 All-Americans (2, 5, 6, 6).

This Season
The Huskers return six of last season’s starters including 2 of their 4 AAs with Liam Cronin (125) and Michael Labriola (174) running out of eligibility. They also return former 2nd place finisher from redshirt, Ridge Lovett (149). Nebraska was busy in the portal getting past national qualifiers Caleb Smith (125) from App State and Owen Pentz (H) from NDSU.

The Cornhuskers are definitely in the mix for the fight for distant 2nd in this season’s tournament. While they lost their top wrestler from last season, they have a lineup that could qualify all 10 wrestlers with 9 of the wrestlers already being former NQs. This is also a young team with 9 of their 10 starters having remaining eligibility for 24/25. An interesting note, none of their projected starters are from the state of Nebraska.

Schedule
Dates aren’t posted yet but the Big Ten opponents are as follows:

Home – Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Purdue

Away – Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, Wisconsin

SATURDAY NOV 4	at North Dakota State	Fargo, N.D.	2:00 PM CDT
FRIDAY NOV 10	vs. Campbell	Lincoln, Neb.	7:00 PM CST
SATURDAY NOV 18	at Navy Classic	Annapolis, Md.	TBA
FRIDAY DEC 1 SATURDAY DEC 2	at Cliff Keen Invitational	Las Vegas, Nev.	TBA
SATURDAY DEC 16	vs. South Dakota State	Lincoln, Neb.	TBA
SATURDAY JAN 6	vs. Wyoming	Lincoln, Neb.	TBA
SATURDAY JAN 6	vs. Northern Iowa	Lincoln, Neb.	TBA
SUNDAY FEB 25	at Arizona State	Tempe, Ariz.	TBA

Starters
(rankings from Intermat)

125 – Caleb Smith (Jr) #14
High Point, NC
Caleb was a 2x NQ at App State. Last season, he was the SoCon champion and secured the 5 seed at the NCAAs where he was upset in the opening round by Killian Cardanale (WVU) and losing again in consis.
He replaces outgoing senior Liam Cronin who went 24-6 and placed 5th at NCAAs last season.
Bonus: 33.3%, RPI: .618

133 – Kyle Burwick (So)
Hettinger, ND
Burwick went 13-10 last season and didn’t qualify for NCAAs. However, he did qualify twice when he was at Wisconsin in 2022 (1-2) and 2021 (0-2).
Bonus: 43.5%, RPI: .545

Or

133 – Jacob Van Dee (Fr) #31
Cathedral Prep, PA
Van Dee went 4-3 against D1 competition at 125 as a redshirt last season. He had a couple of strong wins, going 2-3 against national qualifiers and wrestling Matt Ramos tough in a close loss at the Purdue dual.

141 – Brock Hardy (So) #4
Box Elder, UT
Hardy went 30-8 last season, placing 2nd at the Big Tens after defeating Beau Bartlett in the semis. At the NCAAs, he placed 6th from the 4 seed after being upset by Lachlan McNeil (UNC) in the wrestlebacks.
Bonus: 44.7%, RPI: .674

149 – Ridge Lovett (Jr) #1
Post Falls, ID
Lovett is returning from redshirt after a 2nd place finish to Yianni in 2022. He went 24-4 that season with all of his losses coming to Yianni and Austin Gomez. He replaces Dayne Morton who went 5-15 last season.
Bonus: 25.9%, RPI: .687 (21/22)

157 – Peyton Robb (Sr) #3
Owatonna, MN
Robb is a 4x NQ and 2x AA. Last season he went 28-4 holding the top spot and being undefeated until losing to Levi Haines in a tight match at the Big Ten championship. Robb finished in 6th place from the 3 seed at the NCAAs.
Bonus: 50%, RPI: .700

165 – Bubba Wilson (Jr) #12
Manhattan, KA
Wilson went 17-15 last season and finished 6th at the Big Ten championship, qualifying for the NCAA tournament for the 2nd time as the 25 seed. He upset #8 Matthew Olguin (OrSt) in the first round before losing to Shane Griffith (Stan) in the 2nd round. Wilson’s tournament ended in the round of 16.
Bonus: 9.7%, RPI: .596

174 – Elise Brown Ton (Jr) #20
Allen, TX
Brown Ton went 19-2 last season, mostly in opens. He did have some solid wins, going 2-1 against NQs. He’s taking over for 4x AA (2,7,3,6) Michael Labriola who went 30-2 last season with his only losses coming against CStar.

184 – Lenny Pinto (So) #9
Stroudsburg, PA
Pinto went 24-11 last season as a redshirt freshman, placing 5th at the Big Ten championship. He was a 13 seed at NCAAs and went 1-2. An interesting stat, Pinto had the highest bonus rate of any Nebraska wrestler last season.
Bonus: 54.6%, RPI: .622

197 – Silas Allred (So) #7
Shenadoah, IN
Allred went 28-7 last season as a 3rd year redshirt freshman, winning the Big Ten championship over Max Dean. He was the 8 seed at the NCAAs, defeating Max Dean again in the 2nd round. However, he got defeated by Jacob Warner in a barn burner 1-0 match in the round of 12.
Bonus: 40.6%, RPI: .662

Heavy – Owen Pentz (Jr) #23
Morgan, UT
Pentz was a 3x NQ at 197 from NDSU. He went 18-9 last season and 1-2 from the 16 seed at the NCAAs.
Bonus: 44.4%, RPI: .611

Incoming ranked freshmen:
(rankings from WIN)

125 Alan Koehler (Prior Lake, MN) #9 @ 126

133/141 Kael Lauridson (Bennington, NE) #7 @126

149/157 Weston Dalton (Pueblo East, CO) #10 @152

157/165 Ethan Stiles (Conant, IL) #5 @160

197 Camden McDanel (Teays Valley, OH) #5 @195

 

[El-Jefe]

Nebraska returns 47.0 pts, tied with VT for 5th, 1 pt behind NC State, 2 pts ahead of Michigan.

If Manning wants to finish top 3, he's gonna have to get those bonus rates up.

 

[ss7]

Has there been any indication of Robb's current status? Is the expectation that he'll be able to wrestle this season?

 

[Cali_Nittany]

Has there been any indication of Robb's current status? Is the expectation that he'll be able to wrestle this season?

I haven't seen anything recent. His goal is to wrestle again but this article is from late May <link>

 

[Random4598375]

Has there been any indication of Robb's current status? Is the expectation that he'll be able to wrestle this season?

I was going to ask the same thing. That injury/infection was gruesome.

 

[Random4598375]

I like Nebraska's lineup with Smith (Cardinale was an unfair R1 draw for a 5 seed...), Lovett, Hardy, Robb (if healthy), Pinto, and Allred all serious AA threats. Nebraska will be second in the B1G this year, and possibly the NCAAs as well.

There, I said it.

 

[dbldoofus]

Thanks @Cali_Nittany
The long folkstyle drought is almost over and your Preview posts are like the first Robin of spring.

(As a birder, truth be told, American Robins do not migrate. They wander and look for food and gather in flocks during the winter. So a more accurate analogy would be the first Eastern Phoebe or Palm Warbler of Spring)

Anywho, feel free to send your bird questions to me

 

[Little J]

Dear bird man. On the topics of robins. The past two years there has been a gathering of robins in a section of woods near my house. Several hundred easy. They drive me nuts as I archery hunt that area and the motion they create is maddening.

Anyway they seem to be transient and will vacate the area eventually. Have they stopped off for a respite during their moving south for food? Please enlighten me.

 

[KCLion]

I like Nebraska's lineup with Smith (Cardinale was an unfair R1 draw for a 5 seed...), Lovett, Hardy, Robb (if healthy), Pinto, and Allred all serious AA threats. Nebraska will be second in the B1G this year, and possibly the NCAAs as well.

There, I said it.

It sure isn’t going to be Iowa.

 

[Cali_Nittany]

It sure isn’t going to be Iowa.

I can't resist...

 

[dbldoofus]

Dear bird man. On the topics of robins. The past two years there has been a gathering of robins in a section of woods near my house. Several hundred easy. They drive me nuts as I archery hunt that area and the motion they create is maddening.

Anyway they seem to be transient and will vacate the area eventually. Have they stopped off for a respite during their moving south for food? Please enlighten me.

Look for trees with berries, or poison ivy vines. They likely found a food source.
In the winter, it's almost all or nothing with robins, Huge flocks or none. In the spring the spread out and look for mates.

 

[Bosox2004]

I was going to ask the same thing. That injury/infection was gruesome.

Levi is without a doubt the penn state wrestler I most want to see win the championship but it’s hard to go against Robb. Seems like a class act from what I know and was a well respected kid in high school.

This is an old link and perhaps every one has already seen it , if not it’s worth a watch

My guess is he makes it back but it’s just a guess. The worrisome part for me is the mobility loss in the ankle he mentions . He also mentions the strength loss but I think he clearly has time for that to come all the way back.

 

[crockster]

RSFR Jake Van Dee, from Erie Cathedral,is at 133. Beat Burwick solidly for 3 weeks. He has earned 133. An AAA PA state champ and 2X runner-up. We will be solid 133lber for the Huskers. Always hoped PS would have recruited him, but Huskers made a strong push and it looks like it paying off for them.

 

[baccafarmer]

Thanks @Cali_Nittany
The long folkstyle drought is almost over and your Preview posts are like the first Robin of spring.

(As a birder, truth be told, American Robins do not migrate. They wander and look for food and gather in flocks during the winter. So a more accurate analogy would be the first Eastern Phoebe or Palm Warbler of Spring)

Anywho, feel free to send your bird questions to me

Yes - the great Robin of Maryland sticks around all winter.

 

[dicemen99]

Conceivably, Nebraska could win 5 matches against us:

I would call them the betting favorites in three matches:
125 - solidly Nebraska
141 - Last time they met Hardy sure had Beau's number
149 - Remains to be seen, but Lovett is #1

And there are a couple of other matches which could be scary:
165 - Wilson has upset a lot of guys in his career. If it were Facundo I would say it's 50/50, (maybe so with Mesenbrink RIGHT NOW, but on February 18th it will likely be different).
184 - Pinto is very dangerous and Bernie is not untouchable

I don't think Robb will threaten Levi anymore, but he will keep it in striking distance.

I wonder if there is any other team in the country that matches up with us as well as they do. At the end of the day, it's probably 7-3 at worst, but they do make it interesting on paper.

 

[crockster]

Conceivably, Nebraska could win 5 matches against us:

I would call them the betting favorites in three matches:
125 - solidly Nebraska
141 - Last time they met Hardy sure had Beau's number
149 - Remains to be seen, but Lovett is #1

And there are a couple of other matches which could be scary:
165 - Wilson has upset a lot of guys in his career. If it were Facundo I would say it's 50/50, (maybe so with Mesenbrink RIGHT NOW, but on February 18th it will likely be different).
184 - Pinto is very dangerous and Bernie is not untouchable

I don't think Robb will threaten Levi anymore, but he will keep it in striking distance.

I wonder if there is any other team in the country that matches up with us as well as they do. At the end of the day, it's probably 7-3 at worst, but they do make it interesting on paper.

Bernie has placed 4th at NCAAs 3 years run row, Extremely impressive, very consistent, I dont think Lenny Pinto is a threat to beat him. Though he is a good wrestler, consistency is not his strong point at this point in his career. His best finish was 5 at Big 10s and qualified fro NCAAs, . . Bernie is a fairly known quantity with a consistent high performing record. This one goes to Bernie IMO

 

[El-Jefe]

Bernie has placed 4th at NCAAs 3 years run row, Extremely impressive, very consistent, I dont think Lenny Pinto is a threat to beat him. Though he is a good wrestler, consistency is not his strong point at this point in his career. His best finish was 5 at Big 10s and qualified fro NCAAs, . . Bernie is a fairly known quantity with a consistent high performing record. This one goes to Bernie IMO

I read Dice's comment as Pinto has the same puncher's chance as Andonian and Soldano -- neither of whom are as good as Levi or Aaron, but those guys make weird things happen.

 

[wrestlingfan22]

Conceivably, Nebraska could win 5 matches against us:

I would call them the betting favorites in three matches:
125 - solidly Nebraska
141 - Last time they met Hardy sure had Beau's number
149 - Remains to be seen, but Lovett is #1

And there are a couple of other matches which could be scary:
165 - Wilson has upset a lot of guys in his career. If it were Facundo I would say it's 50/50, (maybe so with Mesenbrink RIGHT NOW, but on February 18th it will likely be different).
184 - Pinto is very dangerous and Bernie is not untouchable

I don't think Robb will threaten Levi anymore, but he will keep it in striking distance.

I wonder if there is any other team in the country that matches up with us as well as they do. At the end of the day, it's probably 7-3 at worst, but they do make it interesting on paper.

Added note- as of now Antrell Taylor is Nebraska’s 165 after besting Wilson in wrestleoffs. He looks to be around that level of a top 20 guy right now

 

[dicemen99]

I read Dice's comment as Pinto has the same puncher's chance as Andonian and Soldano -- neither of whom are as good as Levi or Aaron, but those guys make weird things happen.

Yes, that's more about Pinto than Bernie. Pinto is inconsistent but his style can lead to weird results.

Again, this is just commentary on the uniqueness of Nebraska's matchup with us. They may be the only team in the country that would be favored to win three out of the first five matches with us, PLUS they have a couple of wild card upset type of guys at the two weights up top where we are not invulnerable at.

Kind of a unique situation. Maybe I'm saying that if I've got $100,000 bet on PSU to win a dual and I'm allowed to eliminate one possible opponent, I may be picking. They match up as well as you can. I'm still banking my $100,000 though.

Noted @wrestlingfan22 about Taylor winning the wrestleoff. Not that that changes the situation - that guy has some talent.

 

[Bosox2004]

Yes, that's more about Pinto than Bernie. Pinto is inconsistent but his style can lead to weird results.

Again, this is just commentary on the uniqueness of Nebraska's matchup with us. They may be the only team in the country that would be favored to win three out of the first five matches with us, PLUS they have a couple of wild card upset type of guys at the two weights up top where we are not invulnerable at.

Kind of a unique situation. Maybe I'm saying that if I've got $100,000 bet on PSU to win a dual and I'm allowed to eliminate one possible opponent, I may be picking. They match up as well as you can. I'm still banking my $100,000 though.

Noted @wrestlingfan22 about Taylor winning the wrestleoff. Not that that changes the situation - that guy has some talent.

Given those circumstances and i am the sports book or bookie taking your bet then you must take Cornell as the opponent.

I’d demand odds as well… lol

 

[Shifty15]

Look for trees with berries, or poison ivy vines. They likely found a food source.
In the winter, it's almost all or nothing with robins, Huge flocks or none. In the spring the spread out and look for mates.

So they go back to college in the spring? 😂🤣

 

[crockster]

I read Dice's comment as Pinto has the same puncher's chance as Andonian and Soldano -- neither of whom are as good as Levi or Aaron, but those guys make weird things happen.

I read it there same way. Yes anything can happen. Great wrestlers get beat by lesser wrestlers. Just don't think Pinto is on the same level or has proven much at this point. Bernie is new to PS and just recognizing who he is as a wrestler