Okay, I don't follow the wrestling team very closely so can somebody please clue me in as to why Mike Evans wasn't in the starting lineup? He was very solid last year, IIRC.
Broc Berge may be the only reason that Brands took the red-shirt off Burak. He might just be thinking Burak is our best option for now, and he won't be in the line up in a couple years anyway so i might as well use him. If not, then most optimism I can hope for is that his career path is similar to Fulsaas.
I completely agree. If the Hawks didn't sign Berge this year, I'm sure there'd be a much better chance we'd be seeing Lira this year to preserve Burak's RS and give him a year to develop. After signing Berge, I'm sure the coaches were much more open to pulling Burak's RS this year knowing that he could always us his RS another year after Broc's on campus. You might as well give him some live matches and experience now when he's the best man at the weight in the room rather than redshirt him and then possibly have him only wrestle one year then ride the bench for three years if Berge wins the spot.
Mike grew and couldn’t make 165 any longer so he moved up to 174 this year. He’s been battling Gambrall for the starting spot at 174 and has been much more aggressive in his performances and likely will be named the starter now that Grant has continued to be too passive and let matches slip away against lesser opponents.
You guys are talking about GG wrestling like this was his chance to start - it wasn't. Evans is the guy and has been the guy. Nothing has changed. This is just Brands dinking around early in the season when it doesn't matter to mix things up. He's continuing to give chances to GG to see if he can do anything. Guess what? He can't. He continues to unimpress for the last 2 years. But he's put in his time and Brands is at least throwing him some bones. Evans is the guy. Don't kid yourselves.