I know this is an OSU board, but you guys are pretty good about knowing your opponent. I'm no insider with OU, but these are just some thoughts I had about OU wrestling from last year that I carried over and wrote down. Probably some OU bias (I'm predicting 11 All-Americans, Ionel 
). So take this with a grain of salt. Also, would love to hear some feedback from you guys on who you think I missed, or slept on, or over rated. BTW, I wrote this on an OU board that has mainly football fans on it, so don't feel like I'm preaching to you guys. Obviously you're knowledge and passion for wrestling is much higher than theirs.
125 - Joey Prata had a good year last year. (19-9) and was one match away from being an All-American at the NCAAs. That makes him a dark horse candidate for All-American status. A transfer from VaTech, he's now a multiple time NCAA qualifier. I'd expect some good things out of him this year. He won the Outstanding Wrestler and Warrior Awards given at OU last year.
133 - Anthony Madrigal gets the slightest of passes here as he was injured for almost the whole year but gutted through it. His record in the past has been up and down, so this year will tell if he's the promising young star we saw as a sophomore or if he's the same as he was his freshman and junior years. He was 12-12 last year, but was ranked as high as #7 early on before being injured. I've been high on Tony since his freshman year where he got brutalized by much bigger 133 pounders. His sophomore year he was 20-10. Too gunshy to predict here, but he's a fringe dark horse candidate if healthy is the best I can say right now.
141 - Jacob Butler pulled down and wrestled here the last half of the year after Dom Demas quit on us. He didn't fare very well at all, but he DID beat a top seed at the Big Twelve CCT, but he's not the answer (although I love this kid's personality and character). More than likely transfer Mosha Schwartz from Northern Colorado will start here. Tons of upside, but I think he's coming off some injuries (only wrestled four matches last year, and 16 in the last two years). More likely we're looking at a development year from Mosha.
149 - This could be very interesting. Willie McDonald started here over Mitch Moore after Moore got injured. And Willie had a pretty darn good season especially for a redshirt freshman. But Mitch is a multiple returning NCAA tournament qualifier who was doing very well until he got injured. He's a pinner, and has won several matches when he was behind but just caught someone. Enough times to believe it wasn't just a fluke. He's extremely strong, and wins matches usually by controlling his opponent with his strength. He's not the slickest guy on the mat. Mitch is a dark horse All-American candidate at 149. Hopefully Willie can pull to 141, where I think we have a vacancy. If he can AND can manage his weight, he's going to be very tough for us. Or if Mitch goes up to 157 Willie can slide in here.
157 - Justin Thomas was here last year and graduated. Another who never lived up to his potential, so many fans I've talked to all agree there's no reason this kid wasn't an All-American, and probably a multiple time AA. As mentioned before, Mitch Moore may want to come up to this weight, opening up 149 for McDonald. However, we have the #1 152-pound kid out of HS a year ago sitting at this weight in Anthony Herrera-Rondon. It would be weird to see him sit, and he's not big enough to move up to the next weight. I like our chances for success here a lot, but if RH starts there may be a few growing pains. I'm not saying he's not good, but I just don't rate kids who have almost zero college-level matches very high until they start to show it at this level.
165 - No one on OU's roster is listed at 165. In all honesty, I don't even remember who wrestled here except little Mantanona (the 174 pounder's brother) and he was very ineffective. Since no one is listed at 165 for SoonerSports, my guess is one of the 157 pounders will move up here.
174 - Anthony Mantanona graduated finally. Hopefully now we can get someone in there with a little more mental focus. Ant had all the potential in the world and squandered it. Like, former World medalist in Greco Roman for his age group potential that never translated at OU. Listed here is the former #1 ranked High School 170-pounder three years ago. He didn't compete at all last year (not sure why). He's the only 174-pounder listed. I have zero idea if he's going to be good or not. My guess is more likely a decent wrestler, but not much more until I see him on the mat.
184 - Keegan Moore came on at the end of the year and beat out former starter Darrien Roberts and started looking better and better. A former OSU kid who transferred out and went to Northern Iowa and then transferred to OU, he had all-world potential coming out of high school. I think he got a little derailed at OSU with something (not 100% sure). But he did beat #7 Greer last year at the end of the year, so I'm hopeful it's turning around for him. Seriously, it'd be weird to call this kid a dark horse candidate for AA status because of his track record. But it'd be weird not to because of his talent. If he gets his head on right this year, he could be a force.
197 - Jacob Woodley graduated this past year and was an All-American two years ago. But he never progressed much after his sophomore year. His junior and senior year mirrored each other except he upset one more ranked guy at the NCAAs as a junior. In his stead is former #1 HS recruit Tate Picklo out of Mustang. The kid's legit. Until they step on the mat (or football field), I never count them as anything other than a really good HS pickup. But I will be zero surprised if he does something this year. It's tough for freshmen to break into the upper weights and place because there is sooooo much of a strength difference at the higher weights between freshmen and redshirt seniors. Moreso than in the lower weights I believe. But Rosselli has done one thing right...he's recruited very well. And Tate's a prime example.
HWT - Josh Heindelson has been a two-year starter with few quality wins. He looked the same as a sophomore as he did a freshman weight and size-wise. Could definitely use a trip or three to the weight room and bulk up some. On the plus side, he has won several OT matches and that's a good sign of still hustling at the end. Hoping he turns the corner and becomes more productive.
If I'm being perfectly honest, I really can't see a team that's loaded up to do any real damage at the NCAAs. And if you don't follow wrestling, just know this...how you are perceived as an individual or as a team by the wrestling community is almost exclusively judged by how you do at the NCAA tournament. The Big 12 conference tournament means very little except that's how you qualify for the NCAAs. No one has ever been introduced as "He's a tough wrestler, proven by his third-place finish at his conference tournament". No one gives a rats ass about your conference placing.
The bright spots are that we have a few wrestlers that could very well maybe might possibly be an All-American. Doubtful that all that our dark horse candidates actually fulfill that promise. But they've had some level of success and I am hopeful they can make the jump to that next level. We'll see.
A bigger bright spot is we have several kids on our roster that were #1 ranked kids at their weight coming out of HS. Rondon-Herrera, Penner, and Picklo were seriously elite level wrestlers at the high school level. Joey Cruz was a #1 rated wrestler in high school as well and he's at 125 waiting in the wings. So we DO have some talent.
The downside is our coaches have not shown they can develop talent AT ALL. The two most recent All-Americans we've had were elite HS kids that pretty much progressed minimally while they were here (Demas and Woodley). And now that Michael Lightner is gone, I have zero idea how the new guy will do (former OU wrestler, 2x NCAA Champion, 3x NCAA Finalist, 4x NCAA All-American Teyon Ware out of Edmond, OK). So until I see the staff start to produce, I can't realistically see us moving into the Top Twenty even though we do have the talent to do so.
Let me know where I missed, or if you see things differently.
). So take this with a grain of salt. Also, would love to hear some feedback from you guys on who you think I missed, or slept on, or over rated. BTW, I wrote this on an OU board that has mainly football fans on it, so don't feel like I'm preaching to you guys. Obviously you're knowledge and passion for wrestling is much higher than theirs.125 - Joey Prata had a good year last year. (19-9) and was one match away from being an All-American at the NCAAs. That makes him a dark horse candidate for All-American status. A transfer from VaTech, he's now a multiple time NCAA qualifier. I'd expect some good things out of him this year. He won the Outstanding Wrestler and Warrior Awards given at OU last year.
133 - Anthony Madrigal gets the slightest of passes here as he was injured for almost the whole year but gutted through it. His record in the past has been up and down, so this year will tell if he's the promising young star we saw as a sophomore or if he's the same as he was his freshman and junior years. He was 12-12 last year, but was ranked as high as #7 early on before being injured. I've been high on Tony since his freshman year where he got brutalized by much bigger 133 pounders. His sophomore year he was 20-10. Too gunshy to predict here, but he's a fringe dark horse candidate if healthy is the best I can say right now.
141 - Jacob Butler pulled down and wrestled here the last half of the year after Dom Demas quit on us. He didn't fare very well at all, but he DID beat a top seed at the Big Twelve CCT, but he's not the answer (although I love this kid's personality and character). More than likely transfer Mosha Schwartz from Northern Colorado will start here. Tons of upside, but I think he's coming off some injuries (only wrestled four matches last year, and 16 in the last two years). More likely we're looking at a development year from Mosha.
149 - This could be very interesting. Willie McDonald started here over Mitch Moore after Moore got injured. And Willie had a pretty darn good season especially for a redshirt freshman. But Mitch is a multiple returning NCAA tournament qualifier who was doing very well until he got injured. He's a pinner, and has won several matches when he was behind but just caught someone. Enough times to believe it wasn't just a fluke. He's extremely strong, and wins matches usually by controlling his opponent with his strength. He's not the slickest guy on the mat. Mitch is a dark horse All-American candidate at 149. Hopefully Willie can pull to 141, where I think we have a vacancy. If he can AND can manage his weight, he's going to be very tough for us. Or if Mitch goes up to 157 Willie can slide in here.
157 - Justin Thomas was here last year and graduated. Another who never lived up to his potential, so many fans I've talked to all agree there's no reason this kid wasn't an All-American, and probably a multiple time AA. As mentioned before, Mitch Moore may want to come up to this weight, opening up 149 for McDonald. However, we have the #1 152-pound kid out of HS a year ago sitting at this weight in Anthony Herrera-Rondon. It would be weird to see him sit, and he's not big enough to move up to the next weight. I like our chances for success here a lot, but if RH starts there may be a few growing pains. I'm not saying he's not good, but I just don't rate kids who have almost zero college-level matches very high until they start to show it at this level.
165 - No one on OU's roster is listed at 165. In all honesty, I don't even remember who wrestled here except little Mantanona (the 174 pounder's brother) and he was very ineffective. Since no one is listed at 165 for SoonerSports, my guess is one of the 157 pounders will move up here.
174 - Anthony Mantanona graduated finally. Hopefully now we can get someone in there with a little more mental focus. Ant had all the potential in the world and squandered it. Like, former World medalist in Greco Roman for his age group potential that never translated at OU. Listed here is the former #1 ranked High School 170-pounder three years ago. He didn't compete at all last year (not sure why). He's the only 174-pounder listed. I have zero idea if he's going to be good or not. My guess is more likely a decent wrestler, but not much more until I see him on the mat.
184 - Keegan Moore came on at the end of the year and beat out former starter Darrien Roberts and started looking better and better. A former OSU kid who transferred out and went to Northern Iowa and then transferred to OU, he had all-world potential coming out of high school. I think he got a little derailed at OSU with something (not 100% sure). But he did beat #7 Greer last year at the end of the year, so I'm hopeful it's turning around for him. Seriously, it'd be weird to call this kid a dark horse candidate for AA status because of his track record. But it'd be weird not to because of his talent. If he gets his head on right this year, he could be a force.
197 - Jacob Woodley graduated this past year and was an All-American two years ago. But he never progressed much after his sophomore year. His junior and senior year mirrored each other except he upset one more ranked guy at the NCAAs as a junior. In his stead is former #1 HS recruit Tate Picklo out of Mustang. The kid's legit. Until they step on the mat (or football field), I never count them as anything other than a really good HS pickup. But I will be zero surprised if he does something this year. It's tough for freshmen to break into the upper weights and place because there is sooooo much of a strength difference at the higher weights between freshmen and redshirt seniors. Moreso than in the lower weights I believe. But Rosselli has done one thing right...he's recruited very well. And Tate's a prime example.
HWT - Josh Heindelson has been a two-year starter with few quality wins. He looked the same as a sophomore as he did a freshman weight and size-wise. Could definitely use a trip or three to the weight room and bulk up some. On the plus side, he has won several OT matches and that's a good sign of still hustling at the end. Hoping he turns the corner and becomes more productive.
If I'm being perfectly honest, I really can't see a team that's loaded up to do any real damage at the NCAAs. And if you don't follow wrestling, just know this...how you are perceived as an individual or as a team by the wrestling community is almost exclusively judged by how you do at the NCAA tournament. The Big 12 conference tournament means very little except that's how you qualify for the NCAAs. No one has ever been introduced as "He's a tough wrestler, proven by his third-place finish at his conference tournament". No one gives a rats ass about your conference placing.
The bright spots are that we have a few wrestlers that could very well maybe might possibly be an All-American. Doubtful that all that our dark horse candidates actually fulfill that promise. But they've had some level of success and I am hopeful they can make the jump to that next level. We'll see.
A bigger bright spot is we have several kids on our roster that were #1 ranked kids at their weight coming out of HS. Rondon-Herrera, Penner, and Picklo were seriously elite level wrestlers at the high school level. Joey Cruz was a #1 rated wrestler in high school as well and he's at 125 waiting in the wings. So we DO have some talent.
The downside is our coaches have not shown they can develop talent AT ALL. The two most recent All-Americans we've had were elite HS kids that pretty much progressed minimally while they were here (Demas and Woodley). And now that Michael Lightner is gone, I have zero idea how the new guy will do (former OU wrestler, 2x NCAA Champion, 3x NCAA Finalist, 4x NCAA All-American Teyon Ware out of Edmond, OK). So until I see the staff start to produce, I can't realistically see us moving into the Top Twenty even though we do have the talent to do so.
Let me know where I missed, or if you see things differently.
