Analyzing the weaknesses of Penn State 2025-2026 (long post)

[Indian rocks rich]

It was a good, but not great year. It sounds crazy to say this when Penn State broke the team points record (yet again) and crowned 4 individual champions. That said, they left a lot of points on the table and could have had 6 champs. You have to feel very bad for guys like Van Ness and Welsh who have both been so close to the top yet haven't been able to get it done. Here is my weight by weight analysis of the wrestlers and how they can improve.

125 Lilledahl - Luke has improved greatly and he really doesn't have many weaknesses. He's obviously elite from neutral and has become much more judicious in how he attacks. He's also gotten much better at scrambling and defending against scrambles. I would say the one weakness is he doesn't have much of a top game. I don't believe he had any falls this year and I don't really recall him scoring many back points either. This is the one area he could make a lot of improvement in.

133 Blaze - Marcus has skill and speed. He also isn't much of a rider and at times has struggled to get out on bottom versus elite guys like Davino and Seidel. I think the biggest issue for Marcus is strength. He's certainly not a big 133 pounder so I think adding some power would help him greatly. He also needs to open up his leg attacks more against elite guys instead of trying to snap and run around. It just doesn't work against top guys.

141 Davis - Braeden wasn't supposed to start this year so his poor performance was a bit expected. His biggest weakness in prior years was an uncanny overconfidence in his scrambling ability (i.e. he would often put himself in horrible positions thinking he could scramble out of it when he should have just bailed). Davis is still not great at scrambling but his biggest problem this year was his gas tank. He could come out blazing for 3 minutes (see his first match against Brock Hardy where he scored 2 first period takedowns) and then fall over exhausted for the rest of the match. I truly believe Davis never fully got in match shape at 141. Let him redshirt for real next year and hopefully he can get in full match shape. If he does that and avoids scrambling I think he can All-American again.

149 SVN - My heart breaks for Shayne. He was so fun to watch this year with his reckless style. However, this was also his greatest weakness. I'd say in 4-5 matches this year he gave up to first takedown and had to rally back to win. Against a guy like Valencia who was just as aggressive this did not work. Shayne's baseline defense needs work. I get his pressure with stalking forward constantly beats most guys but it also leaves him vulnerable to attack, which is what was his demise in the finals.

157 Duke - Duke got hosed versus Robideau. That said, his biggest weakness I think was his pacing and gas tank in just a few matches. In his first match against Antrell his pace was way too high which led to him gassing out. I think he just needs to wrestle a bit more tactical against top guys and he will become a champion. Honestly, I think had the cradle versus Robideau been called correctly Duke would have beaten Taylor in the finals.

165 Mesenbrink - Hard to point to any weakness here other than Hepner was able to make life difficult with his scrambling ability. Maybe a weakness is his overconfidence in his singing ability?

174 Haines - What a career for Levi. Also hard to find a weakness here. He wrestled judiciously against Minto - perhaps he could have attacked a bit more? Crazy that Levi didn't even redshirt - 4 straight years and done, so rare now.

184 Welsh - McEnelly was always a coinflip match. Hard to find a weakness other than maybe he should have been a bit more aggressive early in the match. Feel for Rocco, since he actually was much more offensive this year than at Ohio State. 184 was just a minefield.

197 Barr - Not much to say here. He was the best guy here by far. He wrestled Merill a bit more tactically than perhaps he had to. I think he could have pushed for the major if he really wanted to.

285 Mirasola - Cole is just too small. 6'0 220 doesn't work at the D-1 level unless you are Kyle Snyder. Cole's problems all stem from being undersized and underpowered. He can get to legs on anyone but can't finish on the big guys. He also can't ride or get out from bottom. He has the skills, but not the size. Can he put on 20-25 pounds of good weight in 1 season? It's doubtful since he is small framed for a heavy. I think both Mirasolas could be elite at 197 though.

Overall the team's most common weakness is tactical - match pacing and strategy. I'm sure Cael and staff will work on this. I expect Penn State to win next year but 2027-2028 will be a bona fide battle. Ok State very well could win it all with their super freshman and incoming talent.

You are an idiot go root for another team

 

[mh-larch]

My apologies, I didn't mean to cause a firestorm over my post indicating Jimmy was mostly spot on with his original post. Of course I agree that this was a GREAT season (and greatest so far), not just a good one, for PSU wrestling. However in a rather lengthy post much of what he wrote seemed fine, except that objectionable first statement.

I don't put people on ignore, I just ignore any objectionable posts or trolls. I guess I should have passed on this one too.

 

[funkisfun10]

MSU over on the Hawk forum says this guy is the best. I'd like to keep him. Maybe I can learn from him and step up my troll game a bit...

Raise the bar bud...

 

[MPPosterDeuce]

Honestly a lot of what the original post said is accurate and I agree with a good bit of it. BUT… they just won the championship with record breaking points!!! Maybe wait a few weeks before posting a thread with the title “Analyzing the weaknesses of Penn State”. I mean read the freaking room.

 

[Locopsu]

It was a good, but not great year. It sounds crazy to say this when Penn State broke the team points record (yet again) and crowned 4 individual champions. That said, they left a lot of points on the table and could have had 6 champs. You have to feel very bad for guys like Van Ness and Welsh who have both won been so close to the top yet haven't been able to get it done. Here is my weight by weight analysis of the wrestlers and how they can improve.

125 Lilledahl - Luke has improved greatly and he really doesn't have many weaknesses. He's obviously elite from neutral and has become much more judicious in how he attacks. He's also gotten much better at scrambling and defending against scrambles. I would say the one weakness is he doesn't have much of a top game. I don't believe he had any falls this year and I don't really recall him scoring many back points either. This is the one area he could make a lot of improvement in.

133 Blaze - Marcus has skill and speed. He also isn't much of a rider and at times has struggled to get out on bottom versus elite guys like Davino and Seidel. I think the biggest issue for Marcus is strength. He's certainly not a big 133 pounder so I think adding some power would help him greatly. He also needs to open up his leg attacks more against elite guys instead of trying to snap and run around. It just doesn't work against top guys.

141 Davis - Braeden wasn't supposed to start this year so his poor performance was a bit expected. His biggest weakness in prior years was an uncanny overconfidence in his scrambling ability (i.e. he would often put himself in horrible positions thinking he could scramble out of it when he should have just bailed). Davis is still not great at scrambling but his biggest problem this year was his gas tank. He could come out blazing for 3 minutes (see his first match against Brock Hardy where he scored 2 first period takedowns) and then fall over exhausted for the rest of the match. I truly believe Davis never fully got in match shape at 141. Let him redshirt for real next year and hopefully he can get in full match shape. If he does that and avoids scrambling I think he can All-American again.

149 SVN - My heart breaks for Shayne. He was so fun to watch this year with his reckless style. However, this was also his greatest weakness. I'd say in 4-5 matches this year he gave up to first takedown and had to rally back to win. Against a guy like Valencia who was just as aggressive this did not work. Shayne's baseline defense needs work. I get his pressure with stalking forward constantly beats most guys but it also leaves him vulnerable to attack, which is what was his demise in the finals.

157 Duke - Duke got hosed versus Robideau. That said, his biggest weakness I think was his pacing and gas tank in just a few matches. In his first match against Antrell his pace was way too high which led to him gassing out. I think he just needs to wrestle a bit more tactical against top guys and he will become a champion. Honestly, I think had the cradle versus Robideau been called correctly Duke would have beaten Taylor in the finals.

165 Mesenbrink - Hard to point to any weakness here other than Hepner was able to make life difficult with his scrambling ability. Maybe a weakness is his overconfidence in his singing ability?

174 Haines - What a career for Levi. Also hard to find a weakness here. He wrestled judiciously against Minto - perhaps he could have attacked a bit more? Crazy that Levi didn't even redshirt - 4 straight years and done, so rare now.

184 Welsh - McEnelly was always a coinflip match. Hard to find a weakness other than maybe he should have been a bit more aggressive early in the match. Feel for Rocco, since he actually was much more offensive this year than at Ohio State. 184 was just a minefield.

197 Barr - Not much to say here. He was the best guy here by far. He wrestled Merill a bit more tactically than perhaps he had to. I think he could have pushed for the major if he really wanted to.

285 Mirasola - Cole is just too small. 6'0 220 doesn't work at the D-1 level unless you are Kyle Snyder. Cole's problems all stem from being undersized and underpowered. He can get to legs on anyone but can't finish on the big guys. He also can't ride or get out from bottom. He has the skills, but not the size. Can he put on 20-25 pounds of good weight in 1 season? It's doubtful since he is small framed for a heavy. I think both Mirasolas could be elite at 197 though.

Overall the team's most common weakness is tactical - match pacing and strategy. I'm sure Cael and staff will work on this. I expect Penn State to win next year but 2027-2028 will be a bona fide battle. Ok State very well could win it all with their super freshman and incoming talent.

I disagree with your original statement this was a record setting year. That said OSU is coming after PSU.


125 Lilledahl - champion on many levels continued improvement.

133 Blaze - Marcus has skill and speed needs to improve against equal or better competition, hate the 3 pt stance but ts defensive. Ask Caliendo how that works.

141 Davis - 149 SVN - Different but similar, gotta finish what you start.

157 Duke - needs conditioning and finish late.

165 Mesenbrink - nothing

174 Haines - nothing who slots here

184 Welsh - think he needs to be more decisive, saw a couple where he could have gotten leg and did not.

197 Barr - nada

285 Mirasola - needs to improve and gain weight and strength.

will be interesting to see if DT can challenge, thought his guys were a bit flamboyant and taunting.

 

[WV lion]

I disagree with your original statement this was a record setting year. That said OSU is coming after PSU.


125 Lilledahl - champion on many levels continued improvement.

133 Blaze - Marcus has skill and speed needs to improve against equal or better competition, hate the 3 pt stance but ts defensive. Ask Caliendo how that works.

141 Davis - 149 SVN - Different but similar, gotta finish what you start.

157 Duke - needs conditioning and finish late.

165 Mesenbrink - nothing

174 Haines - nothing who slots here

184 Welsh - think he needs to be more decisive, saw a couple where he could have gotten leg and did not.

197 Barr - nada

285 Mirasola - needs to improve and gain weight and strength.

will be interesting to see if DT can challenge, thought his guys were a bit flamboyant and taunting.

Not sure how you can even remotely compare Davis and Van Ness. Duke did have the late finish.

 

[Locopsu]

Not sure how you can even remotely compare Davis and Van Ness. Duke did have the late finish.

I think they both get themselves in trouble, Van Ness is just such a great athlete and has a motor he can often recover.

 

[Anon1683312534]

Coastals comment refers to the Intermat forum. That's as much as I will say.

Who are you?Why should we believe what you vouching for him makes it real?

 

[Cali_Nittany1]

I know Jimmy has done his fair share of trolling on other sites, but I didn't find his post here objectionable. I think much of it was on the mark. Not everything, but many good points. Is this a case of people reacting to the name rather than actually reading the content?

Sorry. I didn't bother reading after "It was a good but not great year". Its a annoying some here are buying that.

 

[tullfan68]

can't complain about PSU guys not scoring when the other guy refuses to wrestle!

 

[PortaJ]

Who are you?Why should we believe what you vouching for him makes it real?

@Wrestleknownothing can vouch for me

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

@Wrestleknownothing can vouch for me

@Anon1683312534, PortaJ, like me, is an intermat emigre and a good dude. Though I question his judgement using me as a reference.

While I have been told who @Jimmy Cinnabon's alter ego is, I am not into doxing, especially about hearsay. Even if it made a ton of sense when I heard it.

And no, it is no one on this forum, or any of the on3 forums that I am aware of.

 

[PortaJ]

Though I question his judgement using me as a reference.

Fair point. Bad form on my part. Apologies

 

[tullfan68]

sprry

 

[tullfan68]

sorry Cinn but it was a great yr!

 

[HikeNatParks]

It was a good, but not great year.

To mislabel a “great” year as “good” is to risk being mislabeled Dimmy Cinnamon.

 

[El_Jefe]

It took 902 words to describe all the weaknesses of the all-time record points scoring team.

But PSU isn't the only team with weaknesses! So there ought to be guidelines for writing up the weaknesses of every team.

Each team's weaknesses should be inversely proportional to its NCAA score relative to PSU. Therefore:
# Words = (902 words for PSU) * (181.5 PSU pts) / (# Team B Pts)

Team	Pts	# Words
Penn State	181.5	902​
Oklahoma State	131.0	1,250​
Nebraska	100.5	1,629​
Iowa	92.5	1,770​
Ohio State	84.5	1,937​
Michigan	66.0	2,481​
Cornell	21.5	7,615​
Rutgers	7.0	23,388​

It's true because math is the language of science, and we wouldn't want to be anti-science.

I look forward to the 23,388-word description of Rutgers, though I probably won't read it.

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

Not sure why anyone takes @Jimmy Cinnabon seriously or responds to him.

 

[Spykers Secretary]

There are plenty of people with multiple accounts on these boards that would certainly play the part of doxxing with no care for permanent ban.

point is if you want the information out. You can get it out.

 

[PSUAllTheWay]

"It was a good, but not great year." This is a horrible, horrible take. NCAA scoring record, 7 #1 seeds, 4 Champs, 6 Finalists, 8 All-Americans, the other two only lost to AA. There is no way you can look at that as anything but a smashing success.

Having said that, most everything Jimmy said, weight by weight, I agree with. And I'm sure those items are on Cael's To Do list for improvements for these wrestlers. Pretty much spot on.

 

[Nitlion1986]

"It was a good, but not great year." This is a horrible, horrible take. NCAA scoring record, 7 #1 seeds, 4 Champs, 6 Finalists, 8 All-Americans, the other two only lost to AA. There is no way you can look at that as anything but a smashing success.

Having said that, most everything Jimmy said, weight by weight, I agree with. And I'm sure those items are on Cael's To Do list for improvements for these wrestlers. Pretty much spot on.

I really want to say it is the conclusion an idiot would come to. It isn't though. I am not sure if it is a trolling effort, or an attempt to appear more intelligent than the OP truly is. I believe just an effort to troll.

 

[BriantheLion]

"It was a good, but not great year." This is a horrible, horrible take. NCAA scoring record, 7 #1 seeds, 4 Champs, 6 Finalists, 8 All-Americans, the other two only lost to AA. There is no way you can look at that as anything but a smashing success.

Having said that, most everything Jimmy said, weight by weight, I agree with. And I'm sure those items are on Cael's To Do list for improvements for these wrestlers. Pretty much spot on.

It was great…. It was elite as usual… it was not perfect!

 

[Dren007]

He got what he wanted.

 

[Goggles Paisano]

Come on gang. The dude does have one skill. His written takes are quite bitter, but in the kitchen he shines.



PS - If you have ever had a Cinnabon, it's delectable going down, but then the next 3 hours you feel like ****. Come to think of it, much the same after reading his posts.

 

[AgSurfer]

Jimmy should have started his appraisal with the following:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”.

 

[JoeBagobagels]

They return so 155 points. There are no weaknesses.

 

[Joejitsu]

when we say weakness.... i think that implies threat to not reach our goals.
Therein lies the problem.

If we are saying a threat to not win the championship next season.... i dont think there is a weakness
if we are calling a short fall from perfection - "WEAKNESS".... then so be it.. we have a couple

but like el jefe pointed out... so does every team out there and we just happen to be far and away the closest to perfection.
just poorly worded IMO..

Weakness is not a measure of how far we are from perfection. But point taken either way!

 

[JakkL]

Out biggest weakness was avoiding finger lacing. Fix that and we may have had a few more champions

 

[SkiSkiSki]

Out biggest weakness was avoiding finger lacing. Fix that and we may have had a few more champions

THE GUYS MUST HIT THE WEIGHTS HARD!!!!

 

[Hotshoe]

It was a good, but not great year. It sounds crazy to say this when Penn State broke the team points record (yet again) and crowned 4 individual champions. That said, they left a lot of points on the table and could have had 6 champs. You have to feel very bad for guys like Van Ness and Welsh who have both been so close to the top yet haven't been able to get it done. Here is my weight by weight analysis of the wrestlers and how they can improve.

125 Lilledahl - Luke has improved greatly and he really doesn't have many weaknesses. He's obviously elite from neutral and has become much more judicious in how he attacks. He's also gotten much better at scrambling and defending against scrambles. I would say the one weakness is he doesn't have much of a top game. I don't believe he had any falls this year and I don't really recall him scoring many back points either. This is the one area he could make a lot of improvement in.

133 Blaze - Marcus has skill and speed. He also isn't much of a rider and at times has struggled to get out on bottom versus elite guys like Davino and Seidel. I think the biggest issue for Marcus is strength. He's certainly not a big 133 pounder so I think adding some power would help him greatly. He also needs to open up his leg attacks more against elite guys instead of trying to snap and run around. It just doesn't work against top guys.

141 Davis - Braeden wasn't supposed to start this year so his poor performance was a bit expected. His biggest weakness in prior years was an uncanny overconfidence in his scrambling ability (i.e. he would often put himself in horrible positions thinking he could scramble out of it when he should have just bailed). Davis is still not great at scrambling but his biggest problem this year was his gas tank. He could come out blazing for 3 minutes (see his first match against Brock Hardy where he scored 2 first period takedowns) and then fall over exhausted for the rest of the match. I truly believe Davis never fully got in match shape at 141. Let him redshirt for real next year and hopefully he can get in full match shape. If he does that and avoids scrambling I think he can All-American again.

149 SVN - My heart breaks for Shayne. He was so fun to watch this year with his reckless style. However, this was also his greatest weakness. I'd say in 4-5 matches this year he gave up to first takedown and had to rally back to win. Against a guy like Valencia who was just as aggressive this did not work. Shayne's baseline defense needs work. I get his pressure with stalking forward constantly beats most guys but it also leaves him vulnerable to attack, which is what was his demise in the finals.

157 Duke - Duke got hosed versus Robideau. That said, his biggest weakness I think was his pacing and gas tank in just a few matches. In his first match against Antrell his pace was way too high which led to him gassing out. I think he just needs to wrestle a bit more tactical against top guys and he will become a champion. Honestly, I think had the cradle versus Robideau been called correctly Duke would have beaten Taylor in the finals.

165 Mesenbrink - Hard to point to any weakness here other than Hepner was able to make life difficult with his scrambling ability. Maybe a weakness is his overconfidence in his singing ability?

174 Haines - What a career for Levi. Also hard to find a weakness here. He wrestled judiciously against Minto - perhaps he could have attacked a bit more? Crazy that Levi didn't even redshirt - 4 straight years and done, so rare now.

184 Welsh - McEnelly was always a coinflip match. Hard to find a weakness other than maybe he should have been a bit more aggressive early in the match. Feel for Rocco, since he actually was much more offensive this year than at Ohio State. 184 was just a minefield.

197 Barr - Not much to say here. He was the best guy here by far. He wrestled Merill a bit more tactically than perhaps he had to. I think he could have pushed for the major if he really wanted to.

285 Mirasola - Cole is just too small. 6'0 220 doesn't work at the D-1 level unless you are Kyle Snyder. Cole's problems all stem from being undersized and underpowered. He can get to legs on anyone but can't finish on the big guys. He also can't ride or get out from bottom. He has the skills, but not the size. Can he put on 20-25 pounds of good weight in 1 season? It's doubtful since he is small framed for a heavy. I think both Mirasolas could be elite at 197 though.

Overall the team's most common weakness is tactical - match pacing and strategy. I'm sure Cael and staff will work on this. I expect Penn State to win next year but 2027-2028 will be a bona fide battle. Ok State very well could win it all with their super freshman and incoming talent.

You lost me at good not great year. Lmao. A 3rd straight record breaking scoring season isn't just great, it's beyond phenomenal. Lmao. No one has ever come close to what we just accomplished. Good Lord.