He has had nice wins in Folkstyle but is a zero time AA in 2 tries. In freestyle he is a U23 world champion and made the finals of the US Olympic trials.
And he is filling out to the point where he is looking like a big 97kg guy. Going down to 197 to get Trephan (who has never AA’d and lost to Bradley Hill at NCAA’s last year) in the lineup seems like a bad call. Pat Pop does have some guys pull serious weight though (for example the Hidlay bros).
Makes you wonder how much his lack of folkstyle success is related to making 197. He is very good in freestyle, meaning his neutral skills are good. In folkstyle, he is definitely above average on top. So either he is terrible on bottom or the cut is far too big and he is a shell of himself.
I never said that they were unsuccessful but rather that they had large cuts. Plenty of wrestlers with huge cuts have had success - Jordan Oliver, Alex Dierringer, the Hidlay brothers, etc come to mind.