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losing is contagious

CycloneOmaha

CycloneOmaha

Member
Feb 5, 2009
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(understand this post is made out of frustration)
I know winning the NCAA's is the ultimate goal, but lets keep winning along the way. I keep hearing 'its ok they will get it turned around', but still I see us not dominating the opponents with the talent available.

Certainly spotting 6 points for the last 4 meets is getting a little old, but the middle is just not stepping up. It seems if both Gallick and Reader lose, it's almost a sure loss for the team (ala Midlands and Iowa).

I know there is no 133 available, and apparently a 141 cannot drop down. Is there a 125 that can wrestle up to at least compete? What if Clark goes down to injury, who steps in for him?

With all that, I am 100% behind this team and am eagerly awaiting their resurgance down the stretch!!! These recent losses could be good in a way to get them refocused. Any comments are appreciated.
 
There are 2 True freshman at 125 that could step in to take clarks spot but they would have to burn their redshirt. There is also one true freshman at 133. I do not think that they want to burn any of their redshirts just to fill in for a few weeks. We just need to be patient while fanny gets better and also so we dont use up any of our freshmans eligibility.
 
CycloneOmaha said:
(understand this post is made out of frustration)
I know winning the NCAA's is the ultimate goal, but lets keep winning along the way. I keep hearing 'its ok they will get it turned around', but still I see us not dominating the opponents with the talent available.

Certainly spotting 6 points for the last 4 meets is getting a little old, but the middle is just not stepping up. It seems if both Gallick and Reader lose, it's almost a sure loss for the team (ala Midlands and Iowa).

I know there is no 133 available, and apparently a 141 cannot drop down. Is there a 125 that can wrestle up to at least compete? What if Clark goes down to injury, who steps in for him?

With all that, I am 100% behind this team and am eagerly awaiting their resurgance down the stretch!!! These recent losses could be good in a way to get them refocused. Any comments are appreciated.
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To be honest, I'm more concerned about the passiveness our lightweights have than losing a dual meet. They just don't push the tempo of the match like they should.
 
Sounds like physically, if we wrestle our best, we have a shot at winning a NC, but mentally we are weak at times.
 
It appears the team is in another lull. Cael has shown that he has the ability to get the team to peak for the Big 12 tourney and Nationals. He's only got a short while to turn things around and fix some of the deficiencies though.

Clark isn't wrestling close to what he was at the start of the year. Fanthorpe needs to be 100% healthy and he may also have some rust. Gallick is an enigma. Mueller seems to be wrestling his best now and hopefully that continues. Sanderson isn't wrestling as well as he was earlier. Reader has been very inconsistent and not near the offensive beast he was last year. Burk is a wildcard. Possible all-american but who really knows. Ward is a physical specimen but has not shown much of an offense. Varner and Zabriskie have been the brightest of bright spots this year. Varner needs to push for bonus points all the time and Zabriskie just needs to keep winning those close matches.
 
leg4cy said:
It appears the team is in another lull. Cael has shown that he has the ability to get the team to peak for the Big 12 tourney and Nationals. He's only got a short while to turn things around and fix some of the deficiencies though.

Clark isn't wrestling close to what he was at the start of the year. Fanthorpe needs to be 100% healthy and he may also have some rust. Gallick is an enigma. Mueller seems to be wrestling his best now and hopefully that continues. Sanderson isn't wrestling as well as he was earlier. Reader has been very inconsistent and not near the offensive beast he was last year. Burk is a wildcard. Possible all-american but who really knows. Ward is a physical specimen but has not shown much of an offense. Varner and Zabriskie have been the brightest of bright spots this year. Varner needs to push for bonus points all the time and Zabriskie just needs to keep winning those close matches.
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I don't get it. Up and down the lineup, we have tons of talent (at least coming out of high school) that matches Iowa. We should be fighting neck and neck with them for the top spot. Something's wrong.
 
leg4cy said:
It appears the team is in another lull. Cael has shown that he has the ability to get the team to peak for the Big 12 tourney and Nationals. He's only got a short while to turn things around and fix some of the deficiencies though.

Clark isn't wrestling close to what he was at the start of the year. Fanthorpe needs to be 100% healthy and he may also have some rust. Gallick is an enigma. Mueller seems to be wrestling his best now and hopefully that continues. Sanderson isn't wrestling as well as he was earlier. Reader has been very inconsistent and not near the offensive beast he was last year. Burk is a wildcard. Possible all-american but who really knows. Ward is a physical specimen but has not shown much of an offense. Varner and Zabriskie have been the brightest of bright spots this year. Varner needs to push for bonus points all the time and Zabriskie just needs to keep winning those close matches.
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This eerily sounds similar to our bball talk the last two years.
 
Tornado man said:
I don't get it. Up and down the lineup, we have tons of talent (at least coming out of high school) that matches Iowa. We should be fighting neck and neck with them for the top spot. Something's wrong.
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There just appears to be a lack of intensity or sense of urgency on the part of many of the wrestlers. In fact, one of Cael's quotes after the meet was "it's just a dual." Therein lies the problem. Iowa wants to win every match regardless of who it is, where it is, or when it is, and they normally wrestle like their hair is on fire. I think that the Iowa kids are coached to take more risks to score whereas our guys are coached to keep solid position.

This is totally my own opinion, but I think Cael's coaching philosophy is entirely different from the way he wrestled. Part of that may be due to his experience in international competition and freestyle where getting out of position once gets you beat. Folkstyle is different and risks can get rewarded big time.
 
cjbogler said:
There are 2 True freshman at 125 that could step in to take clarks spot but they would have to burn their redshirt. There is also one true freshman at 133. I do not think that they want to burn any of their redshirts just to fill in for a few weeks. We just need to be patient while fanny gets better and also so we dont use up any of our freshmans eligibility.
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Clark is a sophmore. we have 2 red shirts at 125 with 4 years left. They all cant wrestle 125. the next 2 years . So why is it so imprtant to keep them red shirted that we loss meets. This why we have back ups to win. If they cant cut it then we have the wrong recruits. Craig
 
Maybe they are not physically ready. They might just go out on the mat to get pinned and we still give up 6. No sense in wasting their eligibility for that. All of our lower weights except Clark are Juniors and will be seniors next year. By keeping them with their redshirt they will be 3rd year sophmores when they all graduate instead of 3rd year juniors. I believe he is looking at this future of the program by not wrestling the young guys and realizes that march is when it counts.

And just because we have 3 guys at 125 does not mean they can not push the guy in front of them and possibly break the line up. We need depth, look how Joey Slaten started out ranked #1 at 133 this year. He's not even in the line up and Daniel Dennis is ranked #1 at 133 and they are on the same team. Everyone will thank cael for not wasting these guys redshirts when they have 3 years to kick butt instead of two.
 
leg4cy said:
There just appears to be a lack of intensity or sense of urgency on the part of many of the wrestlers. In fact, one of Cael's quotes after the meet was "it's just a dual." Therein lies the problem. Iowa wants to win every match regardless of who it is, where it is, or when it is, and they normally wrestle like their hair is on fire. I think that the Iowa kids are coached to take more risks to score whereas our guys are coached to keep solid position.

This is totally my own opinion, but I think Cael's coaching philosophy is entirely different from the way he wrestled. Part of that may be due to his experience in international competition and freestyle where getting out of position once gets you beat. Folkstyle is different and risks can get rewarded big time.
Click to expand...

You nailed it. The one thing I respect about Iowa is they relish the opportunity to beat you. They love beating teams. Doesn't matter if it's a highly rated opponent, a dual meet, a tournament... they just flat out want to beat you. Even close matches anger them... like ruthless warriors. More the beating then winning.

I think we have the talent, the coaching... but lack the mental hunger to "want to beat up" our opponents. We need an anger streak. I think that is where Brands excels. Not sure the answer... I guess it starts with Cael since he's the coach. He needs to demand intensity and many even act animalish like Brands to get his wrestlers to "fight" like each match is all that matters. I suppose this is out of his comfort zone as Cael was more about control, not out of control as was Brands. Whatever the method, a fire needs to be lit in many of the ISU wrestlers.
 
Balls said:
You nailed it. The one thing I respect about Iowa is they relish the opportunity to beat you. They love beating teams. Doesn't matter if it's a highly rated opponent, a dual meet, a tournament... they just flat out want to beat you. Even close matches anger them... like ruthless warriors. More the beating then winning.

I think we have the talent, the coaching... but lack the mental hunger to "want to beat up" our opponents. We need an anger streak. I think that is where Brands excels. Not sure the answer... I guess it starts with Cael since he's the coach. He needs to demand intensity and many even act animalish like Brands to get his wrestlers to "fight" like each match is all that matters. I suppose this is out of his comfort zone as Cael was more about control, not out of control as was Brands. Whatever the method, a fire needs to be lit in many of the ISU wrestlers.
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I agree completely. We settle with the 7 point decision or the 13 point major way too much.
 
You do realize we had won 6 duals in a row and gave up less than 10 take downs over 4 matches? They have one mediocre meet and you guys want to change the whole philosophy of the program. Fanthorpe wasnt ready, we didnt have anybody to put in and we took our lumps. We won 5 of the other 9 matches. JEEZ!
 
What I am hearing from other fans is where is our back up. I hear one is hurt but we have 2 red shirts at 125. This the big 12 and we have more young wrestlers coming next year. As an early post said Iowa plugs in a kid and he is ranked. We lose a wrestler and decide to give forfiets. Cael is too laid back about dual meets. Quote Its just a dual meet. We need to care about every match. The team seems real comfortable except for a couple that really push. I will not pick on any one wrestler but I saw one the night before a meet with a pop in one hand and ice cream in the other. That might be part of our size problem vs top competition. I can not imagine Cael when he wrestling saying it is just a dual meet. Craig
 
cyclonecraig said:
I can not imagine Cael when he wrestling saying it is just a dual meet. Craig
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Just looking at Cael's expression at the meet Friday night, I imagined he was thinking "it sure was a lot more fun wrestling than it is coaching." He would tilt his head back and almost look like he was sleeping.
 
. As an early post said Iowa plugs in a kid and he is ranked. We lose a wrestler and decide to give forfiets.
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We don't decide to give forfeits, we didnt have anyone to wrestle that weight. And we did have depth at one time and the backup 133 lbs got hurt and is no longer with the team. And as for Iowa plucking a guy in there, they were both redshirt juniors. You don't just waste a kids redshirt year to win a duel this late in the season unless you like adding to your ego. Have you ever watched the last few weeks of the NFL season, if a player even thinks he has an injury he does not play because they know that there are bigger things to accomplish than a game that does not mean anything except a mark on your record.

If this was December or early January maybe I would pull one of these kids redshirts, but not when there is less than a third of the season left.
 
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