Bedlam
- Thread starter Mrgrapple
- Start date
Him and Sheets aren't healthy at all....I appreciate the grit, but neither of them aren't going to do anything in the NCAA's with their injuries.
Undefeated in duals but imo this season is a bust.
I mean we could wait until Big 12s and NCAAs to say it is a bust.
We might not steam roll the Big 12 like we have been doing but I would still call us the favorite.
We have 4 guys: Fix, Lewallen, Wittlake & Ferrari. Fix like the other top 133, hard to tell where he is, should be in finals. Wittlake looks great. AJ has some really tough guys in top 5 at 197, you'd maybe say he has 50/50 chance with them, should AA. Boo is a top 5 guy but he is leaving some matches open this year.
I would call us a "very slight" favorite right now. I only say that b/c it's like OU football...gotta see it to believe it. Right now, this team is limping to the finish line and with the injuries some of our starters have....there's not enough rest that's going to make them feel anywhere near 100%. Let's just hope no one else gets hurt.
Today was a bad day, bad matchup for him; however, if Burks can keep his quickness while bumping up to 141, that could be interesting.
He got thrown to the wolves today and you could tell...hopefully the experience will help him.
One of the biggest if not the biggest keys to next year is Gfeller & where he slots. If that happens to be 149, perhaps Burks is a solution at 141.
He got thrown to the wolves today and you could tell...hopefully the experience will help him.
One of the biggest if not the biggest keys to next year is Gfeller & where he slots. If that happens to be 149, perhaps Burks is a solution at 141.
For sure and I don’t have high hopes for NCAAs. Big 12s, having four guys like that is a lot of fire power. Frankly, three of those guys shouldn’t be touched at Big 12s. That is a lot of fire power other teams in the conference simply don’t have.
Doesn’t mean they will just hand us the trophy but I would be surprised if we don’t win.
Last edited:
I have a question - I like to watch, but don't know much about wrestling and techniques. I think it was Plott that was ahead with about 15 seconds or so to go - he was riding the guy and then let him up and the guy took Plott down to win. Could Plott not held on ?
I think the ship has sailed on G being a guy you can count on and a guy who can be a factor in March. It’s a shame but it’s just where we are at with him.
I think there is a decent chance we RS lots of people next year to lead up for the following 2 years.
Blankenship projects as a 141 or 149 as does T Travis. I think it’s possible Voinivich could be a 149 his first year or two here also.
We will also be in the transfer market and a very desirable landing spot for available transfer at the few need weights we will have over the next 3-4 years.
I never thought this would be a national championship season. It was more about certain weights developing. So IMO, the development of Plott, Wittlake, & Ferrari was the key. Just gotta fill in the weights around them. (& Fix of course)
This dual was hard to watch. First it appears we have very little luck with injuries and in wrestling in general. It was sad to see what injuries have done to Sheets and Plott. However when injured you have to wrestle smart and stay focused. Neither of them wrestled that way. Mastro won but he sure is not progressing. Fix is great. Boo wrestled okay but does not seem to be progressing. Wittlake is consistent and good and broke his opponent again. Geer is way better than his Oklahoma opponent and as it should be he dominated. AJ had a clutch win and he appears to be our next great. I think we were counting on Dustin to be another great but shoulder problems taking him down 2 years now. Harris does his best but I think we should go with the freshman. To beat Penn. St we are going to need more luck and our wrestlers need to make more progress. I watched Penn. St wrestle Ohio St and they looked very good. An example Bartlett a true freshman wrestling up a weight class against the number 1 wrestler at 149 lost 5 to 3. He wrestled Sasso very tough. RBY at 133 broke Decatur and teched him. RBY may be Daton's toughest opponent at Nationals.
I do think we should redshirt most of our wrestlers that have a redshirt next year. Dustin really should get his shoulder taken care of and then work the extra year strengthening it. Montalvo can wrestle 74. Also redshirt Mastro and let Burk wrestle 25. Redshirt bigger Mastro and Voinovich. Redshirting Ferrari would work best for us especially since we have Surber who could wrestle 97. However some guys might not want to redshirt so who knows what will happen.
So 141, 149, 157, & Hwt. are the weights were OSU must be better (much better?). Is there a chance of that for 2023? I had thought there was. @osu2082 I'm tagging you cause I want your input, actually I want everybody's input here.
We
Harley, how would evaluate are true freshman this year if it was there redshirt year?
I watched the PSU/OhioSt dual also and Starocci looks like he will be a favorite to make the finals in 2022/23. So will Kerkvliet, Brooks & RBY. Howard, Bartlett & Beard will be point scorers and we haven't even seen Facundo and Van Ness yet.
To know just how good a healthy Plott is, Dustin beat Starocci in the Fargo semis a couple of years ago.
Actually all 3 will come back as freshmen and still have a redshirt year to take if chosen. Wrestling as true freshman Ferrari is having an outstanding first year( close but not quite Daton Fix level first year). Plott's year could have been viewed as outstanding but the shoulder problems have knocked it down to very good but real concerns for the future. His year has been much better than Wittlake's first year even with the injury. Mastro has had a good first year (much better that Piccinini). So great potential is there if they each jump a level between their 1st and 2nd years like Wittlake and Piccinini did. Time will tell if each wrestler makes that jump and if Dustin can get his shoulder right to be a National Champ contender for 4 years. Iowa dominates now. Penn St is rebuilding for domination in the future. We need some luck, great recruits, motivated wrestlers and outstanding coaching to win in the future. Overall this year has been disappointing in my view with uneven performances being the norm for us.
Last edited:
Voinovich will be a 149/157 and is a blue chip recruit (top 15 P4P). Younger Mastro projects as a 157/165 and is a top 10 P4P blue chipper. Travis is a top 100 national recruit who projects at 141/149. All were in this 2021 class. The Blankenship kid from Bixby who is a top 2022 kid will be in the 141-157 mix.
Another one to watch is the older Mastro who is our current 125 as he will likely end up at 133 or possibly even 141 in a few years as well.
As far as HWT. We will be looking at one of 3 guys. Doucet who was the #6 ranked 220 prospect, Surber who will be bulking and was a highly ranked prep and then the highest upside prospect in Haas who was ranked the #1 HWT prospect in 2021 and top 10 P4P.
This is definitely not a dual team, but if the bright spots can perform, then we could be a good tournament team. That is especially including the NCAAs. I could see us making a run, if we peak correctly.
@osu2082 has great insight and intel...
In addition to his contribution, for fun...
According to Track:
•132 #19: Zach Blankenship, Jr.
•145 #14: Teague Travis, Sr. (Would be nice to know way #1 Cody Chittum from TN is leaning...he’s a BEAST)
•152 #1: Travis Mastrogiovanni, Sr.
•152 #2: Victor Voinovich, Sr.
•160 #6: Anthony Ferrari, Jr.
•220 #2: Kyle Haas, Sr.
I'm prepared to take some heat for this statement but I don't see how you can compare Ferrari to Fix. Results wise it is the same as both had only one dual loss but on the mat there is/was no comparison.
Last year Fix could do anything; Takedowns from multiple positions/levels/takedowns, upper body throws, inside trips; Ride with legs, cross-body and shoulders, Turns with cheap tilts, arm bars and halves; Almost (if not never) ridden; and he works for and gets falls; He was nearly impossible to take down.
Ferrari relies almost exclusively on a double leg for take downs; I don’t remember a lot of near falls from him; not nearly as good escaping; 1 or two falls; He was nearly impossible to take down.
Since I first read Ferrari’s name on this board he has been described as “Outstanding”. I’ve seen every home match and a few on the road and I’ve yet to see anything “Outstanding” from him except his defense and his attitude. If memory serves (and mine is getting worse every year) he will try a single leg but relies on a double, often (if not usually) from his knees. Early in the season he hit a couple of good blast-doubles but at least one of those involved a pretty good head butt.
I hope he becomes a four/five timer but so far he seems to me like a one trick pony which is why he had so much trouble against the OU wrestler yesterday. As soon as he goes all-fours any good wrestler should just stand there and wait for him to be called for staling.
The first time I saw a wrestler on his knees was against Coleman Scott (I believe it was the Big 12’s in Stillwater) and it nearly shut him (Coleman) down. I thought it was staling then and I don’t like it now. If a wrestler is on his knees for more than a couple seconds and doesn’t shoot, it’s stalling IMO.
Someone else will have to compare their (Fix/Ferrari) statistics cause if I don’t work at least half of the time I’m at work, they might catch on.
