FWIW I also think the last few years have been the hardest to ever achieve NQ, AA, or championship status. With the NCAA botching the COVID year situation, the talent pool is bigger than ever having experienced AA’s mixed with up and coming elite talents. That’s always the case, but with the bonus eligibility there’s more of all of it. I think it’ll start to level out now that we’re 5 years removed from the bonus year.
Midlands Thread - 12/29
- Thread starter njsportsphan
- Start date
When a wrestler (or athlete regresses) you don’t know the personal life - injury that never fully recovered, family member sickness, etc
He can say what he wants but then at least back it up. Rather have a guy that focuses on the process over results actually. It’s ok to take losses but now he’s losing to unranked, getting TF by freshman, losing to wrestlers he used to beat in the past. His NC title comment is actually when he started regressing and I’m not the only one that noticed that. He can say what he wants, just pointing out, that’s when he started to lose a step for some odd reason.
Hey they looked good running in place but need work on their penetration steps and down blocks.
You make it sound like he had a lucky tournament. Turley had a lucky tournament. Maybe even Theobold. Shawver was having a really good year not just the b10 and nationals. Look up who he beat that season. After he TF Ragusin to be a b10 champ, many people actually predicted him to be top 4 at nationals. So no, his 7th place at nationals was not a overachieve, think he got the 5th seed?
Ofc after that season who wouldn’t think he would at least be a AA contender the following 2 years. He clearly is not the same wrestler as before. What are you talking about not crediting the wrestler?? Did Goodale not dubb Shawver as “the face of the program?” Everyone knows he wasn’t a blue chipper outa hs and gave him his flowers when he AA’d
Your the one saying him and Poz are in reality R12/R16 guys that got lucky. I’m saying no, they were wrestling diff when they were at their peak, there was more fire they were AA lvl and at some point lost their way.
And it's **** like this on why the Midlands is now in a field house. The tournament was supposed to start 30 minutes ago. Half assed organizing. I can't blame Tom and Terry for starting their own tournament.
Yoo stop making excuses, talent pool this talent pool that. The two guys Poz and Shawver that you said got lucky runs bc talent pool.
Same talent pool. You can’t tell me a sophomore version of Shawver doesn’t bonus sr Shawver. Same talent pool. Freshman Poz is wiping the floor with sr Poz. Freshman Poz is hanging tough with Hidlay, sr Poz is getting TF by same Hidlay. What’s so hard to understand about that instead of blaming talent pool and saying they got lucky runs and later just regressed to what they truly are.
I get we're at a pretty low point with the program right now. Seidel beating Shawver by tech was not really something I wanted to read when I opened Twitter up. But I think prescribing the "regression" of an athlete on one thing oversimplifies the matter so much. Hell, even putting him and Poz in the same category is just wrong. Both are AA caliber wrestlers who faced their own share of issues after that podium run.
Poz's injuries caught up to him and outweighed the love of the sport eventually. You have to remember that his last national tournament ended in the R12 losing to Stephen Buchanan in a pretty tight match. I don't think anyone was overly disappointed by that until he finally showed signs that he was done the following year.
Shawver is a guy who is beginning to show us how deep the talent pool is becoming in this sport. Seriously, what high school athletes are able to achieve on the national level is insane at this point. Add guys coming off of redshirts, transfers, etc. into that, and every weight is a bloodbath by now. I look at the rankings and think to myself "there are at least 12 guys at each weight who deserve to be on the podium." But that's not how the world works -- only got 8 spots. I still think Dylan is an AA caliber guy. I think he showed us that last year, even if the run to R12 was a little less flashy than in 2024. I think he is gonna make another run this year, even if the field becomes deeper with each passing season.
I won't even touch on the coaching staff stuff. My sentiments aren't too far off from the lot of ya.
Poz's injuries caught up to him and outweighed the love of the sport eventually. You have to remember that his last national tournament ended in the R12 losing to Stephen Buchanan in a pretty tight match. I don't think anyone was overly disappointed by that until he finally showed signs that he was done the following year.
Shawver is a guy who is beginning to show us how deep the talent pool is becoming in this sport. Seriously, what high school athletes are able to achieve on the national level is insane at this point. Add guys coming off of redshirts, transfers, etc. into that, and every weight is a bloodbath by now. I look at the rankings and think to myself "there are at least 12 guys at each weight who deserve to be on the podium." But that's not how the world works -- only got 8 spots. I still think Dylan is an AA caliber guy. I think he showed us that last year, even if the run to R12 was a little less flashy than in 2024. I think he is gonna make another run this year, even if the field becomes deeper with each passing season.
I won't even touch on the coaching staff stuff. My sentiments aren't too far off from the lot of ya.
Talent pool aside, soph Shawver is not getting TF by Seidel. He was great from neutral, had the dump, the duck, was even good on top. Wrestled with that dog in him. Now we are suppose to believe that was all an illusion and he’s regressing back to what he truly is a “R12/R16 guy that had a lucky run”.
Dunno why anyone would think he’s going to make another run this year. I mean I hope he does, but I know that won’t be reality unless he randomly flips a switch. But yeah doubtful that will happen bc now he’s just “regressing back to what he truly is” as SCNJ would say.
Harer is wrestling without the Unattached label. Does that mean we took his RS off?
RU has usually responded second day fairly strong in tourneys....need to bring that energy the 1st day,
Jordan CHampman with the pin late in 1st
He's wrestling unattached this weekend. He's currently in redshirt.
PJ has turned it up and is starting to realize his potential. In 10th grade he was one of the best kids in the county.
His aggressive style from three seasons ago is just not there. As mentioned, he was a beast on his feet. The past two years he is nowhere near his relentless, attacking style during the AA year. Especially neutral. He has changed the way he wrestles for one reason or more. His aggression on the mat, coupled with his wrestling ability propelled him the a B1G title and AA. That style of wrestling is missing. He needs to find his mojo.
Shawver is awful relative to where he used to be. Cant compete against guys he used to beat. Horrible offense, horrible strategy, no sense of urgency in OT to score til last 5 secs when you know you can’t get out of bottom. Has zero drive and desire any longer to win. Just coasting. Seems like a theme under Goodale
That's a harsh take. He's been nothing but a great guy to have on the team. He gave us a lot during his Big10/AA run. Losing Buxton was kind of big for him. He and Pollard were always in his corner and he credited a lot of his "trust" to them. Perhaps he just needs a little break and some recalibration. He's been competing for like 5 or 6 years now. **** has to take a toll over time.
Lots here say Buxton did nothing for us. Lol. Not that I agree.
it comes down to the coaching and leadership of this program right now. End of story.
And realized it was harsh so changed it up some but seems like every year we say this ablut top guys that dont progress including him, Poz, Turley, etc. guys that AA and then never improve beyond that. Its limitation of coaching staff, training partners, team and program leadership. Urgency and Culture just is not there anymore.
New strategy seems to be to recruit 113-126 lb’ers that will commit to us vs working hard for top recruits. Based on latest recruiting we are going to have about 8-10 125-133 lbers on roster. Good roster construction
Yeah, I mean... Us fans (or even doners) are all frustrated. We're not seeing the results we want or expect. The recruiting has been great (some will argue that), but just not getting the performance that we want to see.
We have a good situation at 165. Great wins by Ford and Barbosa. Barbosa really took it to the #1 seed.