Intermat Wrestling Podcast Best PSU lineup ever + National Duals buy-in + Women's D1 Championship - IWP 1-16-25

On this week's show Holmes and Robbie pose the question of is this the best Penn State lineup we have ever seen? They also dig into bringing back national duals along with rearranging the season, the latest D1 women's championship news and the possibilities that come with it. In the end they discuss how tough Oklahoma State looks and what's coming up this weekend on the college slate.

Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:02:12 - Discussion on Viewer Comments
00:04:43 - Analysis of College Wrestling Tournament Dynamics
00:07:59 - Perspectives on College Sports as Entertainment
00:10:35 - Examination of NCAA Marketing Strategies
00:13:20 - National Duals Format Discussion
00:22:04 - Overview of Upcoming Matches in NCAA Wrestling
00:25:41 - Penn State's Dominance in College Wrestling
00:30:10 - Implications of New NCAA Women's Championship
00:34:50 – This Week’s ACC Matches to Watch
00:47:15 – This Week’s Big Ten Matchups to Watch 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So what has happened in wrestling? Fans? Welcome back to
the Internet Wrestling Podcast, And yes, we are missing two
of the four of us that are normally here. Austin
is fighting the flu with his family and Kevin's getting
ready to head away on a vacation. That Oh damn, Kevin,
I wish we were that special. I mean, didn't did
you just have a vacation? Wasn't? Did we just have

(00:20):
like these holidays and stuff. He's just like, I just.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Had like a month off, yeah, from teaching.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
So he's taking Yeah, he's he's taking another one. I mean,
it's it's kind of like taking a peek and seeing
what twenty twenty five houurs to offer and being like, nah,
not not gonna do it. I'm good. So you just
got the two of us. We're gonna dig into a
couple of different topics, some of the stuff that went
on last week, some of the things that we saw

(00:47):
today literally with women's wrestling. But first let's dig into
some of the comments that we had on last week's show.
And the one really stuck out, and it's the one
that I want to just us from Leo Thompson, and
he says when it comes to us talking about participation
and the parody that we've seen in other years. And

(01:09):
obviously last week we talked about the falloff with college
holiday wrestling tournaments and how they're very different, and he says,
the thing is, these guys aren't competing to entertain any
of us. They are competing to win in the end.
And while I agree with half of that, you know,
the second sentence is definitely true. They are definitely competing

(01:33):
to win in the end. They are they are sports,
are there to entertain us. They are. We can't complain
about not getting top billing, right, not getting the attention
that we deserve, only being on ESPN at certain times. Obviously,
there are a lot more broadcast companies. You know, we've
got Big Ten, we've got ESPN Plus, we've got you

(01:56):
know Flow, you know UFC by Pass coming in well,
among other things that are doing any sort of broadcast.
But it is about the entertainment and it is about
you know, I was not touting that they have the
attendance record if they're if they don't make that happen

(02:18):
right there. It's about putting butts in the seats. It's
about having program support. So I want to push back
on that, like they are trying to entertain us. That's
what sports are for. So like, like I said, I
agree with half of it. In the end, they certainly
want to win, but if they don't want to put
on a show as well. And not so much to

(02:40):
the fact where they're doing backflips in every match and
they're doing the craziest shit out there, but the fact
that they're trying to bring in more. They're trying to
showcase their athleticism and their grit and everything else, and
they're trying to show off their team, Like that has
to also be, you know, on the list of things

(03:01):
that you want to do. Right when I talk to
Goodel at the beginning of the season about the way
they always pack jersey mics and he's like, that's the
number one thing people should be trying to do, is
making phone calls to get fans into these arenas. That
is the right mentality, right. You want to coach the team,
you want to support the team, and you want to
have people that also want to support the team. So

(03:23):
even though winning does solve everything, where Penn State is
going to pack the house because they're Penn State and
they're also in a hotbed where you know, you're in Pennsylvania.
Tons of teams and tons of fans want to be
around penn State. But teams want to go you know,
fans want to go to these matches. So I can't.
I do not agree with they're not there to entertain us.

(03:45):
As an athlet, as a former athlete, I wanted to entertain.
I want people to come out and see me show off, right,
especially as as a twenty something as a college kid.
You know, I'm repping my alma mater right here. Like
when I was at Will's playing football, I wanted the
girls to come out and see me, right like I wanted.
I wanted people to notice that I made a play
on Saturday, right like you want that. So, yeah, entertainment

(04:07):
is a very big part of what these guys are doing.
It's even though it is about a championship, they certainly
want to entertain. What are your thoughts on the comment
of they're not there to entertain.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Us, Well, there, I mean, yes and no. It's it's
a valid point that ultimately their goal and their focus
is to win. But you know, it's not just solely
on individual wrestlers to be entertaining either. And if you
look at kind of the game that we have of
teams and their approach to marketing, their approach to in

(04:41):
venue events things like that, and how how things are
are produced is completely different. You have some schools that
are you know, bare bones and it's like a high
school duol and you go out there, you shake handsy wrestle.
There's no you know, no scoreboards, no nothing extra, no giveaways,
no nothing to engage the fans. That's just straight up.

(05:02):
We're going to throw at our ten guys. You throw
your ten guys and that's the end of it. And
then you have teams who have taken you know, that
marketing to the next level. I mean, so we all
saw the NC State Oklahoma State Pool. I mean, they've
done a fantastic job and they've improved even even more
since since David Taylor's been there, because he has the
mind for marketing that's really driving that. But that that

(05:23):
entertainment value has to be there or you're not getting
the butts in the seats. There's only so many wrestling
specific fans, right There's only so many of us that
grew up in the sport and love it for what
it is, and you know, love the purity of the
sport and all that, all those arguments that we always
make about how great it is. If you want to
grow it though, we need casual fans, and casual fans

(05:47):
aren't going to be there if it's not entertaining. No,
casual fans aren't going to watch a you know, tie
break or two write out and be entertained by it
like we are because we see the nuances of it.
They want to see eat the big moves. They want
to see the big takedowns, they want to see a
blast level, they want to see throws like there has
to be some entertainment value to it. Otherwise we're never

(06:07):
going to grow beyond what we have exactly.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
And that's the that's the the showmanship of the UFC
is why the UFC has become the fat one of
the fastest growing sports in the world. Right Like they
want to see the knockouts. That's why when there is
a match that is wrestling or grappling specific I mean, hell,
let's take let's let's take bow Nickel, right, Bo Nichols
last fight, it was it was a boring fight. It

(06:31):
was watched it and it was a boring. It was
considered a boring fight because Bo was tactical. He he
didn't want to get into a grappling match for the grappler.
He didn't want to showcase his wrestling. He stood and
he threw punches and he was tactical and he won
the fight. But that's not and he addressed it. That's
you know, that's not how people want to see. They
complain that he fights toa meat. It cans when he

(06:51):
goes out and he just beats people up. But then
when he's tactical on the fight goes the distance, it's like, well, still,
what the hell, Like, he's damned if he does, dimned
if he doesn't. But his fight was consider to be
boring because it was tactical and it was it was
within Fighter IQ. And even though people want to see
fighter IQ, they also want to see the guy stand
in the middle and just throw punches and just be

(07:12):
entertaining because that's what entertainment is. So, you know, you
mentioned Oklahoma State and their ability to market, right. They
they're having a blackout match this weekend, you know, and
they put probably i would say probably around eight thousand
people in the into to g I A last week against.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Something something that they're going for their attendance record for
the season like that exactly, that's something they're shooting for,
and they're open about that. They want that record, they
want that exposure, they want that growth, they want to
have the entertainment value to make that happen. And they're
damn sure doing it on the map, Like that's an
entertaining product, So why not.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, And David Taylor is certainly not shy about it.
And you know, speaking of him.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
We saw him as his own camera.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
He's not. He certainly does. He wants people to it.
Call it a look at me, look at me all
you want. But like if they're looking, they're becoming fans,
and that's what you want. If he has to be
the the the poster child, or you know, let's make
sure we are putting out content, let's make sure that
we are marketing. I mean, now you're you're even seeing

(08:22):
Penn State do more more marketing these days. You're seeing
more of more of that into.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Fans and then putting a flyer out is more marketing
than they usually do.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Very true, Very true, because normally they're pretty secretive. But
as as time has gone on, they're building, you know,
the Penn State brand, and the guys that have their
individual brands, they're doing more. Right, You're you're seeing Carter
on bow show. You're seeing the entertainment value that they're
trying to bring. You know, you're seeing more trash talk,
so there is more of an entertainment value that they

(08:52):
are trying to that they are trying to bring outside
of just being the powerhouse that they are and just winning.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Penn State's weird and they're always going to be the
outlier because Cale has such a different approach to the
way he runs things and it's very closed in and
very close off, and Carter's kind of the outlier in
that because he is in his fifth year going for
his fifth title, knows he doesn't really have to operate
within those parameters anymore. And you see his personality because

(09:20):
you also know what he's trying to branch into that
he's trying to establish that, you know, his persona before
he moves on to his next step. Right, we think
in UFC or we think in WWE. Either way, like
he wants that persona built up and he's he's doing
everything he needs to do to make that happen. You know,

(09:40):
how obnoxious it is depends on where you're looking at
it from. But that's what he's doing.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, And you know, as you said, Cale and Penn
State there, they're a one off product. And you know,
I was surprised when this was probably a couple of
months ago where it was a video him and I
believe him in mess and Brink or him and Levi
Haynes wrestling, and Cale is literally talking to the camera
as things are going on. He's like, you know, I
missed one fifty seven pound Levi Haynes, not one seventy four.

(10:07):
He's a lot harder to roll through now, right. So,
Like it's different to see personalities come out of Penn State.
But like I've been able to speak to all of
those guys, Cale included when I saw him in Nashville,
spoke to him, right, So I've I've seen that kind
of personality from them. It's not always when you turn
a camera on them, but you see the personality. You're
seeing what they're trying to put out and their marketability.

(10:30):
And you know, David Taylor, while he is a Penn
State product, he is a guy that understands the marketability
of you know, trying to grow the sport and trying
to grow the fans that come to Gallagher Iba and
he what he said about national duels this week, it

(10:51):
kind of got people trending of see, look, coaches want this,
and you know, we gave a shout out to I
gave a shot out to Nick Costco last week. Nick
Costco was doing this in his preseason interviews when all
these things were coming out, and I was like, man,
I really wish I would have thought of that, you know,
that question of getting this out there. So you know,
props to him, and he's you know, continuing to push this.

(11:13):
But as David Taylor says something, then everybody jumps up
and starts to say this, that and whatever. We should
have national duels again, We should have this, and people
are talking about the coach buy in. Good Al was
one of the coaches that was bought in when Costco
was talking about it before, and he's always bought in
when it comes to putting butts in the seats and

(11:33):
having the national duels and everything else. You know, so
you know, I want to pivot to talking about national
duels and you know, we just did see you and
I win National Duels, and you know it was it
was at the un I Doome and so they had
some really good matches and things like that. So it's
not like we don't have one. It was the first
time that they had it since what twenty seventeen, I
want to say, but like, yeah, D two, D three

(11:58):
and Women's and I think has one as well. This
is the first one they've had a D D one
National Duels since twenty seventeen. And I can remember back
in twenty seventeen when you know, you got those huge
matchups and you know, I think, what was a Gilman
that kind of threw his body back with waters on
his back and when that happened, But then that happened

(12:22):
National duels, right and you had Lehigh that also had
an upset at National Duels back then too. So like
I would love to see the coaches buy in, or
at least more coaches by in, because like I said,
we've got good al We've got I think even Eggham,
I think I talked to him about it at the
beginning of the year, David Taylor saying something about it,
I think is what really perked some ears up because

(12:43):
he is in a program that is one of these
trend setter programs. Oklahoma State is certainly a trendsetter program.
So that's why I think people just kind of perked
up when he said it.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
I think it's really easy to see what coaches are
on board by how they schedule. Right. If you're looking
at teams who are seeking the best competition out of
conference and trying to make those duels happen, those are
the teams that are going to be bought into the
idea of the national duels and you know, a bigger
test during the season in the dual format, you have

(13:14):
teams who shelter themselves from a duel from the dual
perspective and hold out for big duels during conference season.
Looking at gipin State, we're not doing a lot out
of conference stuff, right. But then you have like I
was hitting on Stanford the other day, they've had Iowa
Iowa State, Missoo, they have Arizona State, like they're trying

(13:35):
to hit as much out of conference competition as they
can before they even hit the ACC And there's a
lot of teams who are like that. Missoo's been Missoo
always looks for competition Loklahoma State is really stepped up
and looking for competition. There's certainly teams who are very
evident about wanting that, and those are the coaches that
we're going to need to kind of lead that charge

(13:56):
to be able to get through to the ones who
aren't as bought in right now.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, but I think the the other side of that
is those none of the teams that you just mentioned
are in the Big ten, right, So like that's that's
another reason why you're seeing Stanford want to step up
and have these out of conference tools because their schedule
warrants it and it has to right where Penn State, Yes,

(14:23):
they are the big one on the block, but like
they don't have to seek out of conference competition to
get that best competition because the Big Ten is.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Because they're the Big Ten. And that's how it's gonna.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Work exactly right, They're gonna see the biggest matchups just
naturally built into their schedules. So those teams that are
outside the unis wrestling you know, Nebraska, the Oklahoma State
and an NC State, right, you're gonna see those because
those conferences have to they don't have the biggest and

(14:54):
baddest competition not all the biggest and badest competition in conference,
so they have to travel outside of their conference to
make those things happen.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
But then you look at Rutgers, who is in the
Big ten and has.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
That they had one They had ten duels going into
the new year.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, and they had multiple top ten tools, like they
came down to Virginia Tech. They've they've gone back and
forth and they've had a tough schedule like it's it.
They don't they don't mess around with that. So good
All is certainly, you know, one to kind of lead
the charge and that he's been vocal about it. I
think Schwab was pretty vocal about it this weekend in
kind of stating the you know, we don't want to

(15:33):
be considered a mid major. We want this to be
a bigger thing. We want this to be we want
this to be more meaningful. Not to say that it
wasn't meaningful, because they looked great and they've got wins
over huge teams this year to back that up. But
if we're really looking towards this national duel title, which
I think more people are on board with than not,
just kind of based on my interactions with people, I

(15:56):
think we have some kind of top tier holdouts that
are really kind of stepping us back and keeping things
from happening. And it's not hard to see who those
teams are.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, And and the thing about it, though, is Penn
State's never vocal about anything that they're doing anyway.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
So like I've heard Kal say like three words ever, yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
He's That's the thing is like they're they're not vocal
about their intentions of doing whatever right. Like if they're
going to do something, they're just going to do it right.
Like It's not like they were promoting the fact they
were going to be in Nashville right there was just
another schedule, another date on their schedule, so they were there.
They went, you know, full on starters with every single

(16:41):
one of their matches, even though they weighed in twenty guys,
they're only their ten starters, well, the ones that wrestled,
you know. And then you you know, you have comments,
you know, people on Twitter that are talking about you know, Uh,
there's there's somebody that I actually bookmarked it and he
said until Kale buys in, it'll never happen, which means
it'll never happen. And I don't want to I don't

(17:01):
want to say that because if that was truly the case,
then Kale's not going to the Journeyman event in Nashville,
right Like, that's a for me, that's parody for National Duels.
It may not have been the biggest parody when it
came to competition, but he's going to this event and
wrestling and the team is wrestling multiple duels in a day,

(17:24):
three duels in a day.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
That's against top competition.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Against top competition, right like, and that's he's going to that.
That's that's how I that's how I don't think that
it's a never type of thing with that type with
with Penn State or I mean, obviously Oklahoma State is
in with what David Taylor is talking about. I think
Iowa would would be in as well. They'd be crazy
not to be in with the other top tier teams

(17:50):
that are going to be there. So so what say
you see Penn State twice in a year because you
see them at National duels, or you see Oklahoma State
twice in a year because you see them at National Duels, Like,
let's let's make that happen, right Like, what was it
last year where Oklahoma State and Oklahoma wrestled twice. We
had two bedlams last year and those and the results

(18:12):
didn't equal both times. It wasn't the same. It was
not the same both times. So like, who cares when
we see that match multiple times in a year?

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Right, Like the only two really good teams wrestle multiple times.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
Exactly, right? Like that means we're just going to were
That means that gives us a chance to grow the
sport even more, and the entertainment value is there. So
I think that we can certainly have a national duels
and I think that the buy in is probably there.
There's just more coaches right now that are being more

(18:43):
vocal about it than others. But I certainly think that
if you put a championship on the line and you
make it that's a thing, they'll show up.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
That's that's a big part of it too. It's the
logistics of it. And you know, not to speak for Frank,
but when he put together the collegiate Duels, that was
kind of the long term thought process was that we're
going to drag all these you know, bring in the
top teams. Initially there was a crossover, so there was
like a title aspect involved with it. They moved away

(19:16):
from that this year and last year or too, I
don't remember last year, so there wasn't a crossover. But
we have multiple really big teams and over the ford
three or four years of that event you've had, you know,
eight of the top ten teams in the country have
been there, so we have precedent of these teams getting there.

(19:37):
Now we just need to have you know, more buy in.
We need to make it more structured. And it's logistics
of it that are going to be really difficult to
figure out because that's where there's so much disagreement. You know,
when in the season do we have it, do we
have it before individuals? Do we have it after, do
we have it before Christmas break? Do we have it
after do we have you know, some people were saying
Willie is very adamant about it being like a early

(20:00):
early season event. Yeah, some coaches are saying, you know,
let's host it after the after the individual tournament. So
there's I mean, there's a lot of things to figure
out with it, but I think you know, you put
the right people at a table and we could figure
out those logistics and make it work. And like you said,
I think there's more buy in for it than there

(20:21):
are people against it, and that we just need to
work through those issues to make it happen.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, I agree with having it before Christmas. And the
the hard part about it is you have to compete
with football. That's the hard part. You know, we're we're
kind of the only sport that is competing with two
of the big boys. We're competing with football and their

(20:48):
national their new national championship schedule that they don't have
to worry about scheduling around anyone but the NFL, and
at least when it comes to like TV rights and viewership,
and then you're also competing with March madness when it
comes to individuals. So I think that there's there's there
is a there is a college football dead period that

(21:08):
does happen when you get around championship season. Hell, we're
in it right now, right The National Championship isn't until
what next week? I think, so those teams have a
good bit of time that that are off where we
could be like, all right, you know, if they're going
to be off, let's schedule to be in this time
slot and have national duels and then that way, if

(21:31):
if we have it kind of splits the season where
you have a dual meet season and individual season. You know,
high school certainly do it. You know, you wrestle for
your team state title, you wrestle for your individual state title.
And I think it can be done on the college level,
especially considering that the college level we start earlier than

(21:53):
any other and any other level, so this season it's
so long, there's time to fit in, there's time to
fit in and short in the season.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah, it's interesting to see, like compare the different high
school states and how they handle team versus individual and
the timing of that and how that impacts the overall
results because every state does it differently, So it's it's
I think there's something to be said for looking at
different options with that and seeing what works the best

(22:23):
at the you know, at that level, and using that
as as some information that we have when we're we're
making a national dual schedule.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, I'll always be partial to the one that I
wrestled in, which is obviously Pennsylvania, where we have team
states a couple of weeks before in any of the
individual stuff happens that way, and I think what is
it Illinois does their team states after individuals, So you know,
there's you can look at the bigger the bigger states
that do it and figure out you know, obviously there's

(22:55):
a high school model that's already out there where you
can say, okay, it works this way in this state,
it works this way and this state. Let's see how
we can make it work on the college level. If
you add incentives winning a team title, you add incentives
of money like they do in you know, football bowl season,
it changes aspects. It certainly changes things. And we were

(23:16):
seeing right now the NCAAA is on the look to
expand in other sports, even though we do have to
worry about what happens to Olympic sports moving forward with
this rev share shit, we can certainly do some Yeah,
we certainly can do some expansion though you know, not
maybe not expansion, but like change the scheduling. Make it

(23:37):
If we are going to have an eight month long season,
let's break it up, have dual meets during one select
part and go individuals in another instead of you know, okay,
we're gonna have some dual meats and then we've got
some individual tournaments with Midlands and Scuffle and CKLV in here.
But then we're going to go back to duel meets again,

(23:58):
and then we're going to go back to individual with conferences,
and then we have the NCAA Championship. It's it. It
kind of mixes and mingles way too many things in there,
I think. And you know, if you split it up
and you said, all right, this is this is when
we're going to throw in our dual meat season, and

(24:20):
then this is where we're going to throw in our
individual season where you know, it would probably take some
some coordination and say, hey, Midlands, why don't we have
yours you know, January sixth, and we have scuffle January seventeenth, right,
or maybe we have it in February before conferences or
something like that. Right, like something along those lines where

(24:42):
we start to change the schedule that we have so
we do get the entertainment value. We can have the
freshmen that get their their five dates have it where
you need to be the most strategic during dual meat
season where if you have a better matchup, say it
is a Nick Buzakis or Ben Divino, and you're like, man,
maybe we should see Divino against Braden Davis instead of

(25:04):
seeing Nick Buzakis. Here, let's throw a divino out there
right where you have to be more strategic, and they
can get those five dates during the dual meet portion
of things, and then they're wrestling unattached in you know,
the second half of the year where they're not worried
about anything else and they can wrestle unattached in any
in anything, any open tom that they want. I just

(25:26):
think that we need to do better with the scheduling,
need to do better with the season. That way, we
are one offering up more options for fans and two
making it easier on the wrestlers as well, instead of
having so much back and forth of all right, we're
wrestling here this week, we're wrestling here. Let's change some

(25:47):
things up, you know, make it a little bit easy.
I know, I know Scott Green, you know, does his
thing where he fixes things on just based in one tweet,
and you know, I would love to have, you know,
Scott Green be one of the brain child, one of
the brains behind some of these things, because he obviously
has a pretty good handle on stuff. But yeah, I
think there's there's certainly a way that we can go

(26:08):
about having national duels in putting it into a more
cohesive schedule. So it's better for fans and it's better
for viewership, and it's better for the wrestlers ultimately too.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, and as we you know, are going through all
these crazy changes with roster limits, with revshare, with whatever,
scholarships are going to look like whatever. You know, however
many years people end up having for eligibility. Now as
we move into a decade of eligibility for people, yeah,
you know, things are looking different and we have to

(26:42):
be you know, adaptable to those changes as we go
through this. So so this is a time with all
these things happening, we can take advantage of these changes
that are happening now and make changes that are going
to be better, you know, in the long run for
the sport and establish some things like this, like we
got the news today about women's wrestling being a for
D one for a championship, which you know, we look

(27:04):
at title nind that that helps, you know, level some
things out for us now that they have fullen statement.
So now there's another women's NCAA championship, which you know,
maybe that is some leverage that we can use to
add a dual championship. You know, if we have an
indoor and outdoor season for track. Why can't we have

(27:25):
a duel and individual season for wrestling, same thing for
men and women if we if we mirror that, because
the women have already had the dual title, they've they've
been really on the forefront of that. So you know,
why can't we do, you know, take advantage of this
this growth that we're having now and make those big changes.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, I agree, And you know, I think the indoor
outdoor track seasons are is a really good model as
well for you know, sport like wrestling to look at
you know, we should be looking at other Olympic sports
and how they do their championships and how they do
certain things as well. And you know, I love the
fact that the news broke today with with you know,

(28:07):
the NCAAA voting yes on having a Division one women's championship.
My question is where do we go from here? Now? Right?
Are we going to see Oklahoma State have a women's team.
We're gonna see Penn State have a women's team. Lehigh
already has one. Obviously, I Will already has one. There's
a number of women's teams that are already out there.
I'm not trying to pooh poo them or sweep them

(28:29):
under the rug. I'm thinking completely about expansion and what
which one of these blue blood schools that we have
that have a number of titles on the men's side
are going to say, Okay, now it's time for us
to bring in a women's team. And not only that,
who are these teams that may want to change their

(28:52):
competition status where they're maybe now a Division one in
women's wrestling. You know, as I said, like I'm wearing
my Wilkes T shirt, shout out to to uh Pinkeell
Chander and coach Loudenslagger at MYLMA matter at Wilkes. But
they got approved Division three for a women's team before
this season, and they're, you know, looking for a coach

(29:15):
right now, and they're trying to establish things. There will
there will there be a team like Wilkes. It says, okay, well,
maybe it's maybe we do try to become a Division one.
Wilkes used to be Division one way back when and
now the Division three for different reasons. They actually just

(29:37):
put out a podcast with their old coach, coach Zelner,
where he talks about moving from Division one to Division
three and all the things that he had to go
through and when all that stuff was happening. But do
we see Division three teams try to, you know, jump
up into divisions. We've seen it in football where teams
are are are doing this. The only thing that I
think is possibly a hurdle is what the NCAAA did

(29:58):
with how with like the fees and things that you
have to pay, they've made it almost impossible team. Yeah,
that's the thing is they really are discouraging teams from
jumping from one division to the next. But I think
that in the spirit of and obviously the NCAA isn't

(30:19):
really going to do much that is good outside of
their decision today. In the spirit of it, though, if
you want expansion, you need to look at teams that
are already established, that have really good teams and say, okay,
you know, King, let's bring you up right, like, let's
make sure that the competition is at the level that
it should be at, right, you know, they're they should

(30:41):
be looking at you know, life university, right like, teams
that have these established women's programs and say, okay, well,
if we're going to say that they can have a
Division one championship and we need more teams to be
part of this, maybe we look at reclassification. How would
you you know, what are what are Obviously we both
agree that it's a good thing, but like, how do

(31:02):
we make it so that it is a flourishing pormat
for the women?

Speaker 2 (31:08):
And that's something I I'm not going to pretend that
I know enough about women's wrestling and the logistics of
it to speak eloquently on it, but you know, I'd
love to know the numbers of teams in D three
versus D two And now how many active D one
programs do we have and how many are we going

(31:28):
to see? You know, is there a timeframe where we
can combine these and just make them one big one.
I don't know if that's feasible at all to kind
of branch off and make it a more you know,
robust competitive environment, because.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Right now it's not very it's it's not as competitive
as as it probably needs to be, with IOWA having Olympic,
the world team or in world world world team basically there.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, well that's I mean, that's what you spoke to earlier.
That's going to take another blue blood program and stepping
up because you know they're going to want to be
affiliated with the big names. And I think you know,
we've we've touched on it briefly. But Oklahoma State is
you know, they're they're in a good position with all

(32:16):
the goodwill they have right now to make that move.
They have the alumni support, they have the money for it,
they have the facilities for it. They're building, they're building
onto the their facilities. If I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
I think they are getting a new room or something
like that.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, And I mean, just a few miles down the road,
you have a World Team member who's you know, doing
some good coaching at Bixby. Why not grab jenner Berket
and give her a shot at running a D one program.
I think she'd be damn good at it. And that's
you know, it's all the infrastructure is there, and the

(32:54):
money is certainly there. It's just a matter of making
it happen.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
That was that was my next point is you know,
we're we're seeing David Taylor. I mean, I'm just gonna
say it flourished in his first year at Oklahoma State
with you know, the things that he's putting up. It
would be awesome to now see girls like you know,
women like Jakara or Jenna or Helen now sitting at
the helm of a team at Michigan, a team at

(33:18):
Oklahoma State, you know, a team at Penn State, like
a team I mean Princeton has Julius Latta that's been
there and they've been trying to establish things and women's
wrestling for a very long time. I guarantee you that
heirs would be the first one raising his hand be like,
hey here at Stanford, let's let's make this happen, you know,
because he was already doing it at Princeton. So like

(33:40):
there's a number of places. I mean, Adeline is that
is at Oregon State, and the things that you know
she's worked with with with Nate on just awesome.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
So like I am a damn good a lot of
all women' stuff going out with the there. So that's act.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
So that's the thing is like this expansion, it's going
to one open up hopefully it opens up more jobs
for the women that were probably not going to see
wrestling anymore, right, Like yeah, and we at.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
The privilege of seeing the explosion of women's wrestling in
America and seeing how good of a program we have
on the world level, and seeing all these women go
out and win world medals, world titles, Olympic titles and
become you know, historic in our sport, and now they're

(34:32):
at the position where they're aging out of that competitive level.
This would be the next logical step. I mean, Claris
is doing a hell of the job at IOWA. I mean,
this is kind of the next logical step. And we
have all this positive momentum. It now's the time to
capitalize on it. And I know that everything's kind of
chaotic with all the changes, but you know, and I

(34:54):
think that may be what is holding some people back
right now, or some administrators at least.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, for sure, I think it's I mean, all in all,
I think it's great. I think it's going to open
up more opportunity for women. It's going to open up
more opportunity for the women that we've seen in our
world and Olympic teams to be coaches and to continue
giving back to the sport. We've got. You know, as
you said, we've seen Adeline win titles, Jakara win titles,

(35:22):
Helen you know, become the first woman to win a
gold medal at the Olympics, and you know, the amount
of talent we have on the women's side has continued
to grow over these years, you know, and I think
and so I.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Don't think there's a drop off in our quality, even
if if you know, those top tier women move into coaching,
we're not We're not losing talent. I mean, we're losing talent,
but we're not losing We're not dropping off on the
level of talent as we go down our ladder.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Completely agree, So kudos to to the NCAA for for
doing the right thing. I know, Skyler Grot has been
campaigning for the longest. She's you know, not one to
bite her tongue when it comes to expansion with within
women's wrestling, and she's also one of the ones that

(36:13):
has been trying to champion this. And you know, I
know she put a tweet out celebrating it as well,
and I didn't I mean, I didn't see it. Maybe
I wasn't paying attention to it because I've learned to
lock out the stupidity within our community. But like everybody was,
you know, applauding this today, and so I'm really happy
to see it, and you know, hopefully it continues and
we'll see how they go from you know, only a

(36:36):
couple of Division one teams or you know, to making
it more robust or at least try to mimic what
we have on the men's side on on the women's
side as well. But with that, let's let's dig into
some of the wrestling that went on, and let's let's
start with the Cowboys. They put a hurting on on

(36:59):
NC State and was whoop, it's it really really was.
I did not see this coming obviously, Like, like we said,
they have Oklahoma State looked very good this year, and
it's it's prompting a number of memes where people are
saying that Oklahoma State is now chasing Penn State and

(37:21):
they're leaving Iowa in the dust. Like I think we yeah,
I think we got to pump the brakes on that
because they those two teams still have to wrestle this
year and we still have no idea how that's going
to come out.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
However, it's also nobody can even see Penn State right now. No,
you're so far back were seeing the break lights?

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Yeah you're not. You know, there's there's a lot that
needs to be done, and it's not going to take
one year in order to do it. I love the
optimism from Oklahoma State fans, but let's let's pump the
brakes a little bit. I think they're they're happy. They're
happy with the coaching staff that they have and and
and the guys that are on that team. But let's
remember some of the firepower you have on that team,

(38:02):
you're only gonna have this year. You're only gonna have
Hammity this year. You're only gonna have Hendrickson this year.
You're only gonna have a mean this year. So you're
gonna have to replace those guys in the next year.
But they put on a seat. Yeah, they put a
hurt in on NC State, and.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah, and you know, the duel was closer than it
the scoreboard showed.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
There was a lot of tight matches. I mean I
posted about it and spoke to it a little bit
in our in my wrap up. But like the separation
I saw was full seven minute goes and not stopping
for the Cowboys, and those points in the last thirty

(38:44):
seconds of the matches that separated probably four or five
matches from being a one point win to being near
major decisions. So there was a lot of separation just
at the end of matches that that made it look
a lot worse than it actually was. Yeah, obviously it
was not a good showing.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
But no, I mean when when things got off to
the start that they did with with you know, with
Robinson beating Troy Troy s Bratley, you're like, okay, all right,
this can this can be a thing. But they took
a complete turn when kill Hughes pins Kyrine that that

(39:22):
was put.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
On Ky too though. It wasn't just an like he
he he.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
It wasn't just a lucky wal.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
No, and that's not you know, that wasn't the best
version of Kai we've seen. He's still kind of getting
his weight back down because he started the season at
forty one, so it's period.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Has he been trying to readjust back to thirty three?

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, yeah, and that's you know, it's going to take
some time. That's a big gut for him now, bigger
than it was previously because he let his body get
a little bit bigger. So he's having to kind of
to suck back down and adjust his body back down
to the lower weight class. So it's going to be
you know, his his test is going to be going
seven minutes strong and having the guests to do multiple

(40:09):
matches in a day, and that's going to be the
big test for this year because we know we can
go with anybody.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
He's shown that a multiple tiah.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah, he's he's shown that he's earned that respect. But
it's certainly going to be an adjustment to make that
change mid season and and be successful at a pretty
challenging weight in the conference.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah. On the on the NC State side, and I
don't know if you've spoken to Pad or anybody there
are they kind of stunned with the result.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
I have not spoken with Pat. I'll see him tomorrow
tomorrow night. Yeah, there's a night they're coming up to
charlesvill So I'll be with him tomorrow. Yeah. So I
haven't spoken with him since that match. I talked to
him this weekend beforehand. I don't think, certainly not the
result they expected. Yeah, you're looking at it on paper,

(41:06):
it's not too far off from from what would be
the expected result. There's a few upsets and few bigger,
bigger wins than you would have expected. But on paper,
Oklahoma State was heavily favored the up Their upper weights
are insane like that. That's that's a murderer's row. Going
from you know, Hammity through Plot and Serverer and Hendrickson

(41:29):
is going to be a challenge for pretty much any team.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah. So all top all ranked top ten from sixty
five to heavyweight.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah, and honestly, that was the best I've ever seen
Caleb Fish wrestle. So he's coming on too.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
I know it's going to be interesting to see how
motivated they are because they went from shutting out Duke
on Friday Night, which you know, I love coach Land
and I love Coach Erickson and Coach Randers, but you know,
the product that they're putting out is the product they're
putting out. Aiden Wallace has had a pretty decent year.
Connor Barket's having a pretty good year. But other than that,

(42:08):
you're not going to see a lot of success from
from Duke. So they're not going to be challenging for
the conference. So they went from shutting.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Back in that in that room anytime soon to suit up.
I had dinner with him a couple of months ago.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Or he's a fantastic human being.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
Yeah, he was here in Austin doing some some jiu
jitsu training with Nicki rod So we got.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Dinner nice, but that yet to go from that shutout
of all but one bonus point victories too. You know,
starting a duel off really really well and then everything
going wrong after that is not not a good turnaround.
So there they have UVA on Friday. They're gonna be

(42:51):
pretty heavily favored, but there's gonna be some really good matches,
so it's going to be interesting to see how they respond.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Yeah, I mean, it may have been the only win
with Vincent Robinson, but it was a good one. He
looked really good in that match.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
He I'm happy to see him back on.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
His heels and yeah, he looked healthy and obviously for
for the win. He jumps what nine spots eight spots
and he's now third above Spratley. So he's gonna.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Have a challenge on Friday. Rollers he's that wasn't.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Gonna say he has a He has a tough one
obviously this weekend. And then you know, when do they
when did they see Virginia Tech Not till like the
end of.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
The February, last last weekend of the duels.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Figured they usually saved that one for for last week,
which up.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Two years ago, and they opened with it, which was
the dumbest ship ever.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Well, I think I think two years ago it was
probably one of those, uh you know, when you schedule
the teams you think you should beat pretty handily early
if you look at mostly everybody's schedule. I mean, hell,
I think, what is it? I wan in Oklahoma State
wrestle like they're I think they're like their last duel
before going into conferences. So obviously it ramps up as

(44:10):
opposed to football, where football is playing like the Hell
and Keller School of the Blind in like their second
to last week. Wrestling does not do that. But like
I said, Robinson looked good, he looked healthy, looked you know,
looked really good on his feet. Two takedowns to zero.
I know that last takedown was kind of a bit
of desperation, I guess for Spratley trying to get into it.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
But it was a great reaction for Vincent exactly.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
That's what I'm saying, Like Robinson was was in position
to score the takedown. So but no, I mean the
other highlights for me in that duel, obviously, thirty three
was you know, a crazy one. But I don't think
that I have seen Dean Hammity this offensive. Ever, he

(44:58):
looks really good, like he looks like he is going
to be in the thick of it towards the end
of the year.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
You know, I don't disagree with you, but I didn't
see that in this match. I think maybe not in
this match probably shut him down more than than most
anybody has this year. And you know, there was he
was in on some deep shots that he wasn't able
to finish, and that speaks to him Andy's defense. But
it was certainly a lot closer of a match than

(45:29):
I think a lot of people would have expected there.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, and they have some history, right, they wrestled. Where
was it super like in high school? Super thirty two?
I think it what it was. I think that's what
it was. I think, and ham Many liked.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
So has the chippiness been there for five years?

Speaker 1 (45:44):
Then it's maybe, like I said, I think there there
there was a little bit more to the chippiness than
what we are probably privy to because they they have
wrestled in the past. Yeah, Fretwell on the fun I
think that's what I did talk to Fretwell about that
about that match. I think he did say that it
was a that it was a match that they had

(46:08):
wrestled him.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
I can actually look at text messages, but Singleton's.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
I think I think Hammity pinned him in the Super
thirty two finals is what it was. I think that's
what That's what Prettwell said in our text. We were
talking about it, so, you know, major leaps and bounds,
I guess from the time that they were in high
school obviously, but still it was a it was a
scrappy match and did get a little chippy in the end.

(46:38):
And but you know, I think I'm giving maybe late
props to Hammity because we we've I from what I've
seen from him is not things that I can remember
seeing from him maybe since maybe his like freshman year
where he was, you know, scrappy. This the scrappy youngster
in the in the new weight class, right, So.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
To say his coaching has stepped up a tad bit, just.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
A little bit, I think that has definitely happened. So
it is it is starting to show, that is for sure.
I'm gonna I want to stick with you in the
a CC. What were some of the other highlights in
the ACC that you saw last week North Carolina.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
I mean, they they defended Carmichael Arena and took out
a top ten Virginia Tech team. They did everything they
had to do to win. They had a really good
game plan. They you know, shut down a pretty dynamic
Hoky squad and kept them, kept all the matches pretty

(47:45):
low scoring for the most part, and were able to
win a lot of matches late. And you know, a
pin from Gavin Kane of t J Stewart, which why
he was trying to hit a high flyer, I'm not
quite sure. It seemed very desperate, Yeah, especially for being
early in the second period. But that's you know, we

(48:08):
continue to feels like he's he's trying to force things.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Now he's searching, he's searching for something. There's just like
something that he is just trying to connect the dots
on and just trying to make it happen and it's
not there.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
Yeah, And which which sucks because you know, they wrestled
two really good matches last year and they were really
fun to watch, and that the result I was expecting.
I was expecting another low scoring because they're both shut
each other down pretty well, so I was expecting another
low scoring, likely overtime match. Certainly was not expecting a

(48:42):
second period pin from Gavin Kane, who doesn't pin a
lot of people, so that was a big difference. And
then you know, not having the top ten matchup that
we were hoping to see at forty nine with Kayleb
Pinson and Lachlin McNeil, so McNeil got to die. I
was hence and out, so he got he tweeked his tweets.

(49:05):
I'm not gonna say because I was told not to
say tweet something during his match agins Carter Young and
they don't want to rush him back. So he is
likely going to be back this weekend, if not this weekend,
definitely for the Duke Duel in two weeks. They have
their bye week this week, but they have they're going

(49:28):
down to Boon to Russell app State. I think on Sunday.
I don't think. I think it's on Sunday now on Friday,
so I'm not sure if he'll be back this weekend,
but they're definitely gonna have him, trying to have him
back for the Duke Duel and then to make the
run for the rest of the ACC duels, but they
just don't want to rush him back. But you know,
maybe that's the difference.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
In the duel.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not having Connor McGonagall, who's who's.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Been out for a while.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
Yeah. Yeah, and then Wolak losing to Oginsanya is his
former teammate, which is actually a really good.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Match well, because he's another one of the guys that
just hasn't looked quite right in a little bit too.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Yeah, they're certainly on a slide right now, and I
think it's going to benefit them to have an off week,
effectively two off weeks, having Dual next week, Duke next week,
to really kind of rest and reset and get their
guys focused for a string of four pretty tough duels
after that, because I'll have Virginia and then I think

(50:31):
it's Stanford, Pitt in c State or Pitt, Stanford and
Sea State. So they're gonna have the tough run at
the end of the at the end of the season.
So they have their toughest duels in the conference at
the end of the season. But you know, Stanford got
beat by Pitt. They were expected to win. Pitt rustled

(50:51):
out of their minds. Their upperweights are fantastic and they're
closing out a lot of duels. But that's what what
kind of stood out to me was that we have
so much more parody in the ACC this year than
we've had in the past few years. And you know,
as I continue to look at the lineups and look
at how people are matching up and look at what

(51:11):
these duels are going to look like, I don't know
that I see anybody going through undefeated. I don't know
that anybody makes that run. I think Virginia Tech could
beat NC State, I think they could beat PITT. I
think they could beat Stanford, But I also think those
results could go the other direction. Matchups are going to
be huge, and we saw with the UNC Virginia Tech

(51:35):
matchup one. You know, one pin made a huge difference,
but having two wrestlers out that makes a huge difference too,
because that point separation happens really quick. So it's going
to be an interesting test to see who's healthy at
the right time and how it all shakes out through
the next six weeks.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Yeah, I mean you said it. Having guys healthy is
you always know that you're gonna go through the year,
guys are gonna get banged up, and by the time
we get Dancaa's guys will be you know, have shoe string,
bubble gum, and a whole bunch of tape to just
keep their limbs together. But the amount of guys that
we have that are out for the rest of the
season is crazy. And yeah, the and for me, the

(52:20):
upset potentially the upset of the year right now already
is Maryland beating Michigan. That was not something that anyone
really saw coming. And the loss of Ragason certainly was
felt during that duel. Not taking anything away from anybody
else that wrestled in that duel, but that's a big
swing when you look, and it's I believe it was

(52:42):
a pin at thirty three for Maryland instead of what
Ragason probably would have done of getting potential bonus as
a you know, a top five guy in the country
and you know, all American so like that. You know,
definitely have to give a shout out to to Maryland
for sure as they go two and oh in Michigan

(53:05):
over the weekend, beating Michigan and Michigan State. But that's
a that's a big win for them, and you have
to think that, you know, the injury to Ragason, even
though it is just one match, was a big determining
factor because like I said, Maryland gets a fall there
instead of whatever Michigan probably would have gotten potentially from

(53:27):
Ragason if he's in the lineup, and that's.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Up to a twelve point swing or you know, up
to a nine point swing there, that's huge.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
Yeah, so very big difference. And you know, in the
in the in the Big ten last week, the big
one for me was Minnesota, Nebraska and Nebraska. There was
a lot of close matches and a lot of matches
that needed referees review. And what what sucked for me

(53:58):
was it was in Nebraska and all of I believe
I think it was like four out of five, maybe
five out of five if if i'm you know, if
I'm remembering correctly. But most of those challenges went Nebraska's way.
I think there was like one where there was a
locked hands call at the end of was it maybe

(54:21):
forty one or something like that, which or no, sorry,
the sixty five with with Minto and and Sparks where
Minto had locked hands and then they had to go
back and to ride them out for the last like
six seconds, right, But all the other challenges went Nebraska's way,

(54:42):
And I was just like, man, I wish that they
had independent review, where it was just you know, what
they did at in Nashville was there was a committee
of referees and if the referees were going to look
at it, they would go over and look at it.
Then there was a separate head referee that would come

(55:03):
over and look at the video and yeah, like he
would come over and take a look at the you know,
whatever it was, and he would then rule on it.
So like it was just one extra one extra referee.
I mean, obviously there were multiple extra referees because there
was a there was you know, a guy on the
mat and a side ref but then they had you know,

(55:27):
independent and I'm like, if this works here and this
is something you could do with just one extra referee,
this should be able to work everywhere where you schedule
three referees for a duel meet and one is independent
review and you just send him you know, the and

(55:48):
you allow him to rule on it. That was the
only thing where I was just like, man, it just
you don't want to call, Yeah, you don't want to
call Nebraska bias because they're the home team and they're
getting the right. But Nebraska wrestled very well. They they
they look very good. They bounce back from the beating
they took from you and I to start the you know,

(56:11):
the year off. But there were multiple matches that were
really you know, high powered matches, top ten versus top
ten guys. Gable stepson back in the lineup. Was good
to see him back. I wonder, I'm actually gonna be
reaching out to Egham maybe tomorrow, see if I can
set up an interview with Gable to see if we
can get some sort of gauge what his schedule looks

(56:33):
like now they are in the big ten half of things.
I feel like he was kind of, you know, doing
his own thing, and he's probably gonna continue to do
his own thing until the rest of the season, right
but how often will he be in the lineup? Maybe
he will be in the lineup the rest of the
year because I don't know who their their backup heavyweight is,
but he might be somebody that wants to take a

(56:55):
red shirt. Right So, but overall, this this was as
I this was a good dual, as I expected. I
didn't think it was going to be maybe this, you know,
it wasn't really a lop sided win. It was like
three wins for Nebraska, three wins for Minnesota. Nebraska clears
out the last four bouts to win it, but like

(57:16):
they could have went either way. You know, you had
sudden victory to start off between Taylor and and ASKI.
You know, a number of one point matches that were
in there, like I said in Minto and Sparks were
one of those vand gets the win over Wells, you know,
which was a flip from the last time that they wrestled,

(57:36):
I believe at NCAA's. So there was just like a
number of duels excuse me, a number of bouts during
the duel that were very close. But it was certainly
a very good match that you know, I think a
lot of people should have watched. Now I'm gonna roll
right into what I'm looking forward to this week and
just kind of sticking with with Nebraska, because Nebraska, I

(57:58):
believe has Penn State. Yes, at Penn State on Friday night,
so that should be really good. And as of right now,
as we talked about at the beginning, Penn State is
doing things that you know, not we haven't really seen
them do. They are a high power team and I

(58:20):
don't think at least I think we talked about it
maybe before we jumped on. But like they they've only
lost to number one rank guys, at least the guys
that are in their lineup. The other one, the other
one loss that they've had was when they put a
backup in anybody everybody else that's in the lineup. Nine
out of ten guys ranked in the top five. The

(58:41):
only one it's not top five is lil Adall. He's
a true freshman that doesn't have a lot of results
and hasn't really had a chance to jump into that
top five yet. He'll have a chance this week wrestling
Caleb Smith, who's ranked six in the country, So we'll
see if he, you know, gets he's able to jump,
you know, with beating Caleb Smith. But man, this is

(59:03):
going to be a very good duel. This is the
one that I'm certainly looking forward to to seeing. The
other one that I'm looking forward to is Michigan and Minnesota.
Minnesota obviously has a lot of high powered guys, as
we just saw Michigan. Yeah, both looking for a bounce back.
Definitely more on the Michigan side than the Minnesota side
with Michigan losing to Maryland. So we'll certainly see but

(59:27):
you know that, and then Illinois and Iowa Lucas Bird,
he's got to protect that that ranking, right, and he's
got another big test. He had Buzakis last week. Uh,
he's got Ayala this week. He's got another, I think
another one coming as well that could be even you know,
another tough one too. So it's it's going to be

(59:50):
a good weekend of wrestling in the Big Ten. And
you know, there's a couple of bouts that should definitely
be be circled. I'm not sure where they're gonna be shown.
I think they're probably gonna all be on Big Ten Network,
but yeah, definitely tune into some Big Ten wrestling. What's
happened in the ACC that people should take notice of
this week.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Pretty low key weekend for the ACC. It's a weird
schedule this year with the addition to Stanford. Previous years
it just was six weeks straight of conference tools and
no breaks. Now it's broken down into nine weeks and
every team has at least one off week, so it's
it's a little wonky. And then when Stanford comes out,

(01:00:30):
they'll do two duels in North Carolina on the weekend,
so it's it changes the schedule a little bit. Pittscott
buck Now should be a pretty easy test. There'll be
a couple of decent matches there. Duke is at North Carolina,
Stanford has Arizona State which should be a pretty fun duel.

(01:00:52):
Jesse Vasquez and Jay Navis will be a good match.
That'll be a fun one to watch. And then NC
State's coming up to Charlsville. Looking forward to seeing that
should be a fun one. There's a few should be
a few really good matches there. Actually, looking forward to
Roller and Robinson. That'll be a good match at twenty

(01:01:13):
five forty one. Interested to see how today and who
does in conference forty nine It will be a good match.
Bisigans and Jack Geoffrey will be a fun one. Hamilton
Fields should be a decent match, so there should be
some good matches in that one. And then Virginia Tech

(01:01:33):
is going down to Boon to wrestle app State. So
not a lot of in conference matches this weekend, just
the two.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
So yeah, yeah, it is. It is weird with having
Stanford in the ACC and kind of how things look
with how teams match up from week to week. See
what do we we have this week? Is there anything
else in the Big twelve. Really the supposed to have

(01:02:01):
I was supposed to have the cyclone open. I don't
know if that's still happened.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
I know that's like, is that just their inner sweat.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
I have not a clue. I don't I don't really know.
I know they've had it. Yeah, they've had it in
past years. I'm not even sure. But to wrap up,
and I said, I realized that we were talking about
before we jumped on, but I want to discuss Penn
State's you know, firepower. And you know, I had the

(01:02:29):
reason that I that I brought it up. You know,
before we jumped on, is I had a friend text
me and they were like, man, Penn State looks really good.
Is this the best Penn State team that we've ever seen?
And obviously last year they break the scoring record, you know,
we know kind of how things went even with new scoring,
they only broke it by like a couple of points.

(01:02:50):
But as I said, they have everyone ranked top five
besides little.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
At all and will likely get up there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
Will likely get up there. You know, it doesn't seem
like anybody's really slowing him down as of right now.
But they're on top of that. You know, they have
four matches where they have recorded shutouts. Three of the
four matches they've had over fifty points, So like they're
doing things that other teams in the past we haven't seen,

(01:03:20):
even though the competition isn't at the highest, Like I
will give that asterixk that caveat, you know, it's not
the It not like they're they're wrestling Oklahoma State and
Iowa and all these other teams or Iowa State. Yet
those matches aren't happening yet that you know, their results
could certainly change this week with Nebraska, because Nebraska obviously

(01:03:41):
does have a very good team, so we could see
some changes there. But if they go out and they
put up the same amount of points and things look
the same against Nebraska that they did against Michigan State,
I don't think that they'll shut out Nebraska, but if
they look similar, if there's some sort of parody there
where it's another forty one to three like they did

(01:04:01):
against Missouri, you gotta start thinking this might be the
best Penn State team that we've ever seen because of
what they're putting out there. You know, like I said,
multiple shoutouts all their guys, but one ranked top five
some of I mean for the most part, they're actually
ranked like top three. I think, like you know, like

(01:04:23):
Jeff Barrs, he's what four, So like they're all like
top three if they're not the number one ranked guy
in in the weight class. So, like, is this the
most high powered Penn State team we've ever seen?

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
It certainly looks that way. I think what's weird about
it is it's it's quietly incredibly powerful.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Yeah, I mean you have story because we're spoiled with
their power though.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Yeah. Yeah, that's part of it too, is that we've
taken it for granted. How you know, dominant they've been,
but they generally have know a couple standouts who kind
of separate themselves from the pack just even if nothing
else but bonus point wise, Like you know, we had
Zay who was always looking to grip somebody's legs off,
and it just kind of built from there with bo

(01:05:14):
and and going through. I mean, Sterarachi does that to
an extent, But you don't have any like, you don't
have the one guy like we've had in the past
that that really kind of encapsulates the team. It's just
a really really strong team across the board. I mean,
it's it's hard to find a lot of fault when

(01:05:36):
you look through this lineup, and like even the guys
that you know coming into the year or or when
they when they signed with Penn State, you weren't expecting
them to be, you know, a title threat necessarily, they're
right there. So I don't know, man, They're they're damn
good and it's it's interesting to watch. I think this

(01:05:59):
this could be a really good test for him. I
would like to see Nebraska, you know, put up a fight.
Lod All Smith would be a good match. Jacob Vandy
is so hard to pinpoint what he's going to do,
but he could give, you know, give Davis a good match.
Party Bartlett'll be a fun match and NASA love it that.
I mean, there's there's a lot of really fun matches

(01:06:21):
in the tool, So that's that's gonna be a good
one to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Yeah, but Taylor Kisik is going to be good as well.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
Yeah, I mean, we don't have Bubba Sparks this weekend,
so I'm a little disappointed about that. But yeah, yeah,
they're they're they're they're scary good and it's uh good
for them. But I mean, there's always the argument that,
you know, is that good for the sport overall? Is
would we benefit from more parody and not having a

(01:06:50):
runaway team. But you know, as we've had different eras
within our sport, there's always been you know, kind of
one team that's that's been the standout for a long
large chunk of time, whether it's Oklahoma State or Iowa
or now Penn State. It's kind of the way our
sports always been. So Penn State's getting their run and

(01:07:11):
it's going to be you know, somebody else is going
to have to catch up with them and surpass them
to make their run.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
Yeah. Yeah, And I mean there's the funny thing about
it is there is there's a lot of parody this
year where Nebraska every guy ranked, Minnesota, every guy ranked,
Oklahoma State, every guy ranked right like you and I
looks ultra powerful as well beating Nebraska. So like, there

(01:07:39):
are certainly teams that look very, very tough, but it's
it's parody from that number two spot on down. Obviously
I was always tough as well, not trying to leave
them out, but like the number two spot on down
is where there's a ton of parody. It's you know
what team is going to give Penn State a run

(01:08:02):
And obviously the talks are going to be it's going
to take a Nitney Lions and knock off the Knitty Lions.
And that's why everybody is getting all excited that Oklahoma
State looks the way that they do. But you got
to remember, no one is Penn State and what they're
doing this year, they may surpass their points record from

(01:08:23):
just a season ago. Very possible. It is very very
possible that that happens with the way that they're going.
All the guys that are ranked as high as they are,
do you truly you know, I maybe I maybe I
hit up Nomad and just like, hey, give me you
know what if they're if they're seeds held right now,
you know, with maybe the outlier of Lillidahl placing top

(01:08:46):
three as well, what do they look like points wise?
You know, give me give me your you know, your
your crazy nerd brain on the numbers, because it would
probably surpass the points that they had last year if
every single one of their guys went out and wrestled
to what their ranking is currently right now, or at
least the nine out of the ten wrestled to what

(01:09:07):
their ranking was, because last year they broke that record
and they didn't they had and Davis didn't place wasn't
an All American. But I think every other weight class
there was an All American for them, I can't remember.
I don't think there was anyone else that wasn't an
All American for them last year. So very possible to

(01:09:31):
surpass that. I think it it And I understand the
the old head and all of us that says no,
like those teams with Dake or too Dike, those teams
with Taylor and and and ed Ruth and and you
know the and Nick Lee and they they had Nulf
and Nickel and Dean and you know all those guys

(01:09:53):
they they had in the past. Yeah, very tough teams,
but they never looked like you knew they had like
a murderer's row where it was just going to suck
to wrestle them, right, the Sarachi's, the Brooks, you know,
the Deans in there, the Nickels, the Knolfs, like that
was tough to handle, but that was a section of

(01:10:14):
their lineup. This is top to bottom where you're like,
where we're gonna where we're gonna score, Where are we
going to do this? Every single one of their guys
is the title threat right now, every single one, Lilidall included.
There are plenty of people that are putting their money
on Lildall to win it at one twenty five. You'd
be crazy to think that Braden Davis can't win a
title at one thirty three. Like, yeah, it just is

(01:10:38):
what it is, right, So we'll certainly see what happens.
But they look ultra powerful, powerful in every single one
of these weight classes, and they could very well be
the best top to bottom pence a team that we
have seen in a very very long time, maybe ever.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
I think it's gonna be a matter of you know,
are they able to put up those bonus points against
the top tier teams? And you know, are they able
to put up those bonus points at at the tournament
that that'll be the big difference.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Yeah, and it all starts this week, so we'll see
how they do against Nebraska that I think that'll be
a really good gauge because Nebraska is a top ten team,
And we'll see how it all works out. But I
do think that they are definitely poison in position to
break their record and be one of the best teams
to ever step on a mat. So we will certainly

(01:11:33):
see people watching this, listening to this. We want your
feedback as well. Let us know what you think of that.
Is this the toughest Penn State team we've ever seen?
Do you think they break the record? Do you think
you know? What? Do you think of this Penn State
team in terms of firepower? So we will certainly see
what what we get. But I think this weekend is

(01:11:55):
going to be certainly a starter to see what we
have in the Penn State team as they face Nebraska,
who is definitely the best that they have seen so far. Robbie,
I appreciate you jumping on with me tonight. I know
the other two guys are a little tied up and
one one is in a house full of sickness. The
other one is packing to hit the beach and have

(01:12:17):
some fun. I think he's what he said, is going
to Miami, him and his wife or something like that.
So enjoy the time away because when you get back,
we'll talk from wrestling. But appreciate the talk and look
forward to jumping back on here next week. After all
the dust settles from some of the things that we
talked about today. But yeah, he'd like subscribe. Leave us

(01:12:37):
your comments, tell us that we're idiots, tell us where
we're wrong, plenty of plenty of that from from our
our man, slap the mat he likes to give us,
Give us a lot of feedback, give us a lot
of flak, but I love it. Keep it coming and
we'll see you guys next time.