NCAA - Day 3
- Thread starter CowboyMedic
- Start date
Rogers lost to the 16th seed Chavez 10 to 5 and Smith lost to Kocer of SDSU 7 to 2. Very sad. Poor year, poor coaching and not inspiring wrestling. I knew we couldn't win this year but this was well below expectations for us. I do not think we can replace Coach Smith but he sure is not working as hard or being such an innovator that he was as a wrestler in his coaching position. Since 2007 he is step or 2 behind Sanderson and this year we are in 13th place. Yes next we will be better but Coach Smith has to make changes because he off course again like he was in the late 1990's and early 2000's. He fired an assistant and recruiting and developing wrestlers improved. I remember that assistant saying this is an individual sport not a team sport. We were way off course and I believe this year we saw we were way off course again with recruiting etc. We made changes but more need to occur. I don't know this is right but these are my thoughts.
It was not a good tournament for us. Overall the season was fairly good 13-2 wrestled three top 5 winning one. Won the Big 12. I’m not that down or disappointed as some others about the season but was disappointed with the NCAA performance. I thought we would definitely be in the top 7 and was hoping for a top 4 finish. I think we will rebound nicely next year.
I respectfully disagree with your ideas. Who has Cale Developed? David Taylor, Ed Ruth, Zain Retherford, Jason Nolf, Mark Hall, Bo Nikal were all elite wrestlers when they went to Penn State.
The Alton brothers, and other highly ranked recruits have not developed into National Champions and in many cases, high AA. The issue is not coaching or developing talent. Iowa has 3 elite wrestlers - Lee, Kemerer, and Marinelli - I don't see anyone else on that team "jumping levels" or completing for a national championship. If you get kids that are junior world champions - Mark Hall,... They are going to make you look good as a coach, but I don't see anything to make me think Cale is a better coach than John or Tom Brands - just better talent. If it was all coaching, Why did Cale leave Iowa State? Did he become a better coach after moving to State College? or was he able to get better recruits?
I agree with you that recruiting is number 1 but the Alton brothers was how many years ago. Yes they have recruited blue chip recruits but their domination of the whole wrestling field indicates great development also. Nobody can say that Retherford, Nolf, Joseph, Nikal have developed tremendously from high school. Nick Lee got pinned by Gfeller in January and he took 5th at Nationals. Our wrestlers from high school also of course have developed a lot.