JeanGuy

I didn't think I was going to make it back to State College Monday night coming back from Coudersport. Super dicey. Only car on the road. no tire tracks until I got behind the plow at Quehanna.

Concussions are a difficult thing. You have athletes trying to game the system to trick the evaluator and you have some that are super honest. The super honest ones are tough to ever get cleared but one of the things is to be 100% symptom free. We had a kid when I coached Ice Hockey that would have been the all-time leading scorer but his senior year he got a concussion and wouldn't clear week after week. At the end of the season he had missed about 20 of our 35 games. It happened to Sidney Crosby as well. I would rather that they error in favor of the athletes health than the athletes athletic goals. With the way the Dolphins screwed up with Tua this year it is only going to get worse and worse.

This whole thing is crazy. I thought the whole Steveson victory lap last year was weird. It wasn't this longtime great capping off a tremendous career. This was a college kid saying I am not coming back and taking the money. All that is fine but it certainly doesn't need to celebrated. As to Lee, I was at the dual and it never even occurred to me to give a standing ovation. He is a super senior finishing his college wrestling career in a few months. Should Penn State have provided a gift like cities did during the Kareem retirement tour?

It is hard. The bigger the match the tighter the wrestling. Even great offensive wrestlers tighten up. Watch Taylor v Dake. Taylor did not wrestle like Taylor in those matches. I was at the dual and it was exciting in person because you know any takedown could be mean the match, so you have the anticipation. I wish every wrestler was Jason Nolf but very few are so we get tough, physical hand fighting.

I just hope that everyone who should wrestle does wrestle. It is what is good for wrestling. I really want to see SVN v Murin and Facundo v Kennedy. While they won't likely be high scoring I think they will be tough matches.

For me is this match-up would happen it would be for a one-day fan appreciation moment. It would say nothing about either wrestler's legacy. This would be for the fans. It wouldn't be for the team or the individual. It would be fun, but it isn't happening in today's NCAA where it is hard enough to get two great guys at the same weight to even face off against each other.

It is always hard to know who doesn't mind getting punched in the face.

A believe the Scuffle was only allowing teams this year. No unattached guys wrestling. It seems a lot of tradition is dying. Wrestling is a niche sport, and the traditions are things to hold onto not push aside.

I don't think you can ever have a real log jam. Between competition, injury and normal attrition it always takes care of itself.

What it shows is that 159-0 will likely never be duplicated. One reason is you likely won't ever see a guy wrestle 159 NCAA matches again. The other is it is almost impossible to not have an off day, get caught by something, or someone just being better that day. Most would agree that Spencer Lee has been one of if not the most dominant wrestler in recent years and he has 5 losses. It is truly amazing to go your entire career without losing. It is hard enough to do it for a season.

I would guess as long as he is enrolled on January 17, he should be good to go. Not sure how his WWE deal works with NCAA because I don't understand eligibility at all now.

My worry for Dean is the same for all older wrestlers, Life. You can only be a kid so long. Once life starts happening focus becomes more difficult for some.

I really hate the pushing. In the Woods match yesterday there was some pretty good action and then they got to their feet and Woods drove him straight out of bounds. Stall called on Swiderski. It didn't seem like any call needed to made in that instance. One of the issues with stalling is a good referee should be able to feel in a match when it is stalling but most can't, so you need hard and fast rules. You should be able to tell if a guy is driving a guy off the mat or if the guy is just letting himself to be pushed off.

I'm not sure what 100% healthy even is for him at this point. I expect him to wrestle limited in NCAA dual season. I really think he is all in on Iowa and his teammates. As an elite guy you never think too much about the possibility of getting injured. You just go out and compete. Hopefully for him the Olympics are in his future but you never know.