The NCAA DI Wrestling Championships finished up last weekend...and with the I Mar/Nolf and Gwiazdowski/Snyder headline matches providing lots of excitement, many people think it was one of the best Finals events ever!!
With all of this excitement at the Natty Championships and with College Wrestling on a big rise in popularity, our Gopher Wrestling program had it's weakest year in many, many years.
As most of you know, we had two All Americans - Brett Pfarr at 197 and Michael Kroells at Hwt. and we took 17th place in the team race with 26 points. While Pfarr and Kroells had very good years, it was a very disappointing year for most of us who are used to having the program in the Top 5 every year.
We have had quite a bit of discussion on the board about why this year was so weak. I still feel strongly that it's a recruiting problem that happened in 2011 and 2012 when several high level recruits came in that just didn't pan out. This left us in an extra weak position this year with no elite level senior starters and no senior AAs. Considering what we had to work with, and with several large holes in our lineup at 125,133,165, and 184, in some ways we performed pretty well for the year. Highlights were:
- We took 3rd in the Cliff Keen Invitational
- we lost 20-17 to a tough #3 OK State
- we upset #8 Rutgers
- we upset #14 ISU
- some significant improvement by Jake Short (at times)
- a good (but not great) year for RS Freshman Tommy Thorn
Other parts of the year were more painful including:
- a very ugly 34-6 loss to archrival IA
- Our weakest weights 125,133, and 184 got even weaker as the year went on
- only two AAs (when others like Thorn, Kingsley and even Short had a chance)
- except for BP and MK, real technical weaknesses across the line-up, especially on their feet.
Even J Rob was shocked and disappointed by our poor showing at the NCAAs, when he said after Day 1,
"Today was pretty much the way the season's been. It's been challenging," said head coach J Robinson. "We're not wrestling our style. We're not wrestling our pace. When you get to tournaments like this, it costs you. That's just the way it is. It's something we have to take match by match and day by day. We'll do as well as we can here and then, when we get home, we'll have to fix some stuff."
And again after our wrestlers were done on the last day,
"We brought five guys to the tournament and we had two All-Americans. You have to be grateful you got those two All-Americans," said head coach J Robinson. "But then you have to reflect on where we are and what we need to do. Obviously, we have a long way to go. We have to go back and we're going to have to change some things. It'll be an interesting spring."
Most sources that follow the Gopher Wrestlers think that J is alluding to the really bad technical weaknesses we showed all year and at tournament time. Guys practiced their takedowns all year, as well as other mat moves, but much of the time they were too timid to act, or even moreso, if they did...THEY DIDN'T FINISH!!! Tommy Thorn could easily have been almost unbeaten this year if he just finished his shots. And in the tournament, he lost twice in matches where if he just finishes one more move, he wins. He had #3 Kevin Jack's (NC) leg way up in the air twice and couldn't execute a simple mat return (for a 2 point takedown). I'm sure Tommy had plans to be a 4x AA as a Gopher...now he'll have 6 months to think about whether he wants to fix that problem so he can be a winner next year!!
As an aside to this point, we weren't the only team that underperformed at the Nattys. The posters on the IA Rivals Wrestling Forum are having a tough time swallowing a performance where all 9 Hawkeye wrestlers lost their last match at the Nattys and on the last day their wrestlers got only one takedown in 7 matches!! They still like Tom and Terry (TNT) over there, but have a lot of questions about technical abilities, getting new asst. coaches, and changing the attitude of the individual wrestlers from grumpy/fearful/dour to having more fun...like they do at Penn State.
I feel so sorry for Hawkeye Wrestling's problems...it brought tears (of joy) to my eyes while I was reading all of this!!
So back to Gopher Wrestling. We got 26 points at Nattys with 2 AAs and with improvement by Short and Thorn next year, plus several elite redshirt recruits coming into the lineup, we should be in a lot better shape next year. Here is what next year's lineup might look like:
2016-17
125 Lizak - Fargo AA RS Soph.
133 Brancale RS Sr./ Polakowski RS Soph. , Petry RS Soph., McKee - Fargo Champ FR
141 Tommy Thorn - Fargo Champ RS Soph.
149 Stroker RS FR - Fargo Champ/ Short Fargo AA RS JR
157 Short - Fargo AA RS JR/Kingsley RS SR, Larry Early - Fargo Champ RS FR
165 Larry Early - Fargo Champ RS FR/ Krone RS Soph
174 Nick Wanzek - Fargo AA RS JR
184 Bobby Steveson - Fargo Champ RS FR
197 Brett Pfarr - Fargo AA RS SR
285 M K - Fargo AA RS SR
Some observations:
- Lizak was 2-2 at Nattys as a true Freshman and he crushed it this year as a redshirt winning 3 tournaments. He's always been a hammer on top, and has improved on his feet and will a big winner next year
- 133 will still be our weakest weight, unless SB, SP, SP get significantly better. McKee should redshirt, but could be a big winner in the lineup if he was in there.
- Thorn will pick it up a level or two and will AA, start to compete for a natty.
- Stroker killed it this year winning three tournaments. He's also wrestled 157, but he is too small for that weight so he should be at 149. Short may still want to be at 149, but that could leave a hole at 165. Short is very strong for 149, but is not very tall for 157. Short should improve quite a bit next year.
- 157/165 not sure how this settles out depending on who grows and how much weight these guys can cut. Larry Early is ready to go, but if he can get down to 157 he might be better
- Wanzek should get better next year...maybe still not AA until he's a Senior.
184 Bobby Steveson won several tournaments and is a killer...if he can hold that weight (he'll be at 197 later on), he will be a big plus here!!
197 If J'den Cox (MO) goes to Hwt, then Pfarr is #1 and a Natty Champ. Otherwise, he is #2 with a shot at a Natty.
285 Kroells is a top 5 Hwt.
This is top #7-10 lineup, and with another elite recruiting class coming in, it gets better in 2017-18. And if we can get All World Soph. 220 lb. Gable Steveson to commit, we could be top 3 for 2018-19. Gable is leaning our way now along with 120 lb. elite Soph. friend Roman Bravo-Young. So it could be looking pretty good the next few years!
I know some of you think JRob has gotten stale and should be replaced. J is a legend (like Coach Anderson in Baseball) and you just don't replace someone like that. Our program bottomed out this year and we have two elite recruiting classes coming in, with a good possibility of a third one too. J is 69 and I think he wants 2-3 more years, then he will hang it up. Damion Hahn is sitting out there...ready for the picking. And if he brought in Kyle Dake as "Asst. Head Coach" and got him out there recruiting the elite wrestlers and helping train international wrestlers for the MN Storm Wrestling Club, that might be a winning team.
Eggum, Becker and company still have a shot for the next couple years, but they will have to do better than they have been doing lately. I think we have been pushed around too much (we haven't been as "Gopher Tough" as we need to be!!), have been technically weak (as stated above), and have still not recruited enough elite (non MN) wrestlers. Why should we be satisfied with picking up 3 or 4 top 50 wrestlers, with maybe 1 or 2 in the top #10-25...while PSU, IA and OK State get the top #1-5 wrestlers?? Eggum, Becker, Ness, and Schlatter need to get out and recruit big time...or THEY WILL BE GONE!!!
Unless we get more outstate elite (Top 10) recruits, we will still not be able to challenge:
1. Cael, Cody and PSU
2. TNT and Ryan Morningstar (a big recruiter) and IA
3. John Smith and OK State
4. Tom Ryan and OSU
5. Rob Koll, Damion Hahn and Cornell
6. Brian Kelly at MO has been a Top 5 program for several years
7. NC State and VA Tech programs on a big rise
These are my thoughts, so let's hear it...what are yours??? I know some of you must be disagreeing with me as many of you have quit posting to my threads. While I have strong opinions, and I always think I'm right...you are welcome to post and tell me that you think I'm way off base. I've been aiming to get some good discussion going on GI about Gopher Wrestling for a long time.
So here's your chance...what do you have to say??
Go Gopher Wrestling!!
With or without J, Brandon, Luke, etc., ...right back TO THE TOP!!
...As Nothing Less is Acceptable!!!
