Interviewed_at_Weehawken

Mookie Betts= phenomenal bowler

and I agree.

I think the problem with that is: there are way more high school coaches who do not understand the rules or interpretations. Many high school coaches thought that it was 3 swipes for a 2 point nearfall in recent years!

We will never know. Alirez went on record that Woods was a lot better at Iowa, despite losing to him at Stanford and beating him at Iowa in the finals.

But then NC State has been getting outperformed by Vtech at nationals. So I'm guessing it is not just the unilateral domination over a weak conference that we saw with Mizzou in the MAC.

I don't think anyone that wrestled under Gable could be called a Cael clone, or even a Gable clone. However, between Brands, Zalesky, and Tom Ryan, the Gable proteges have done ok. I would imagine that Taylor would do a lot of the same stuff Cael does. He will likely have a lot more patience than Smith, as he has shown that he is successful working with youth level kids. For M2, he has said he is somewhere in between his high school experience (almost no drilling during the season and just banging heads for 2+ hours) and PSU (lots of drilling and sparring, the drilling is probably very active). I would think that he would be more Cael-like for the college studs he will have.

Real Woods was way better at Iowa than Stanford.

Yes. Absolute dogfight, but why lose and lose that year of eligibility? Get in the lineup a couple of times, then lose your spot, lose a year.

It was pretty bad.

Obviously the two guys I'm about to bring up aren't proven at that level, but Jody Strittmatter talks about the differences between Spencer Lee and Jason Nolf while they were in his club. Lee would be tremendously upset for hours if he gave up a takedown even to a full grown d1 all-American. Nolf would try to experiment with techniques and would give up takedowns to kids 5-10 years younger. Two different approaches that were both successful for these two 3x NCAA champs. I think even the greatest winners can step out of "killer" territory while coaching if it benefits their athletes.

I believe 26. Let's not exaggerate!

Two time D1 All-American Ganbayar Sanjaa (4th, 6th for American) at 149 and/or three time World/Olympic bronze Bekzod Abdurakmanov at 157. I don't think it was a given that TJ Hepburn was going to be a starter.

Started his college career with a prototypical Iowa style coach, so he is probably used to it. Probably safer in the Iowa room than PSU these days. I saw more braces on PSU wrestlers at nationals than the Hawks, and that doesn't even take into account SVN or the worn out Nagao.

Good relationship with Kennedy too. Kennedy's departure from Northwestern was rumored to be at least partially responsible for Young leaving.

Yes, very very helpful to be tall and long. Also had an amazing gas tank. His 1999 run through pan ams and worlds included a ton of come from behind wins, many of which were high scoring. Was actually on the smaller size coming into college. Maybe a sucked out 189 his senior year of high school. Very good all around athlete in high school. I think he may have been on the tennis team, for instance.

Great wrestler, but he may not have been able to be a starter his sophomore year at Colby CC. He believe he attended school his second year at Colby. Maybe a starter, but not a given. Also, don't forget he beat James Green.

Yes. He's super quick in small spaces, but can he fly in an open field? He's going to be able to use his hands to keep guys off of him, but could get faked out every play or line up incorrectly. Gable is certainly unreal. I would also argue that Stephen Neal was pretty athletic and had the size, but just misses this millenium! (2000 OTT)

Yianni has grown into the 70 kg weight. That was part of his problem at OTT. Brutal weight cut.

I like how Brands is playing into "the Gambler" gimmick. I was all for him serving the prescribed NCAA punishment for gambling. He was stupid; he was caught. He paid his price, he deserves to be able to wrestle. As far as his 2022-2023 season, don't forget that he was already coming off UCL surgery and then got into a motorcycle accident just before the season. Broke his collarbone and probably some other shoulder damage. Makes sense that he wasn't scoring a ton. He opened it up a bit more at nationals and beat some good guys. I'm not sure when victories over Peyton Mocco, Edmond Ruth, Ethan Smith and Dustin Plott became anything to sneeze at. Guys are all solid.

My coach spoke glowingly of Polish technique during the late 80s, so communism...

I agree with a bunch of this stuff. Some pretty athletic TE out there these days and blocking is part of the game. I can't imagine him blocking a decent DE nor running good routes, so TE is prob out. His lack of any football experience and his relatively short stature are both going to work against him.

True enough. Cael hasn't exactly had a challenging non-conference schedule in years. ("but they are in the big 10!", "but the competition in the room is tougher than anything any college can bring!", "but the formula is working!") It seems to be working for his guys, but definitely not what is best for the sport.

It makes sense. Not sure if it is "easier" for anyone--- fans, refs, or coaches. "Did he swipe 3 times or ony 2?" "Your swipes are too slow!" etc. Yes, you have some of these questions now but they will be exacerbated by having two, three, and four point near falls. The difference between 2 and 4 is only two seconds.

And in April. Crazy... but then you move the meet inside. You do it for a football pre-game. Ticket refunds prob not necessary. Plenty of creative solutions for any number of problems. Trust in The Cael.

https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/wrestling/2015/11/14/hawkeyes-beat-oklahoma-state-tom-brands-sammy-brooks-john-smith/75786010/