Interesting thread so far. From a different Wisco perspective than most on here, a few things. 1. Bono and his assistants have been the most visible Badger Coaches that I'm aware of in any sport. They attend dual meets, Conf tournaments, Regionals, Sectionals. They are quick to reply if you have a question or a need.
Let's remember a few things, 1. Badger Wrestling has a very unimpressive wrestling room. Most D3 colleges have better digs. It's a factor no matter what your opinion is. 2. Askrens are Mizzou Alum. It's simply insane to think that they are going to begin whole heartedly supporting and pushing for Badger wrestling. 3. Almost immediately upon his arrival, Bono reached out to Ben and offered him the RTC coaching position. I'd say that was a pretty huge olive branch. Egos and opinions of Ben's MMA training and time spent at AWA sites were bigger than the wrestling room. It didn't work out. I know that Bono and assistants have traveled to AWA training sights, and have certainly done what they can to repair the riff, but let's face it, there's zero need or reason for Askrens to support anything UW. So unless they are getting $$, it's nothing to them for the Badger program to go down the toilet and another coach to come in. Who would think otherwise? That would be like me having a great relationship and ties to my college program, and then pushing my kids somewhere else, why would I do that?
Let's look at our neighbor MN. Sam Stol, Patrick Kennedy, Brock Berge, all from Kasson-Mantorville high school all went to Iowa instead of MN. Why? My guess is in large part that their coach wrestled at Iowa and absolutely has no interest in helping the Gophers, and has direct ties with Iowa. Additionally two other Berge's (from K-M), Hall, Glazier, all left the state. Saying that Eggum can't develop talent and that's why those guys left would be dumber than 10 dumb things. Are MN fans peeved that they haven't been in the trophy hunt since J.Rob had teams stacked with MN and N.D. kids? Yeah, but is that Eggum's fault? Not entirely. Had K-M's head coach not been fired for recruiting violations, and his assistant, who wrestled at Iowa took over, then it may have been likely that five K-M guys go to the Gophers, and that might have kept Hall, and then MN is a top tier program which maybe keeps Glazier and perhaps Kirkvliet.
I think that the bottom line is the people calling for Bono to leave are simply AWA disciples. They dream of Ben being the Badgers coach, which, I highly doubt he would ever be interested in doing. Why give up the freedom to do what he is doing? Why take the chance of failure? Why have to follow NCAA rules, guidelines and scheduling? He's a club coach with no interest in UW. I don't see that changing.
