Man, this just isn't fair...



#1DieHardHawk said:
PSU has now added Ono, Duke and Blaze to an already stacked lineup.

The separation of PSU and the rest of the wrestling world just keeps widening and widening.

May the battle for second commence...

www.flowrestling.org

Penn State Wrestling Early Lineup Look - 2025-26 Season - FloWrestling

A breakdown of the potential starting lineup for the 2025-26 Penn State Wrestling Team.
www.flowrestling.org www.flowrestling.org
Click to expand...
A few opinions...

I think you're finally going to see Iowa wrestling fan enthusiasm start a slow tank that hasn't happened before. All the stars are finally misaligned.

It used to be that Iowa had a least a 10% chance of pulling a rabbit out of a hat and was the clear #2, but now Iowa is going to have to fight like hell for 4th or 5th and it's more like a .002% chance. What also got Iowa wrestling through some of the second fiddle years recently was an exciting lineup including Spencer Lee, Kemerer, the fireworks of DeSanto not knowing if you were going to see a fist fight, Marinelli, and Cassioppi was pretty dominant for a year or so too.

Those things are all gone now and Carl Sanderson has shown that Gable's smashmouth style of totally destroying yourself physically and mentally in the room all year long worked in the 80s and 90s but it doesn't anymore. Science in training has taken over and he's found the right recipe along with over double Iowa's NIL to boot.

Iowa has no star now and their coaches--while great coaches and personal friends of mine--were too late to the Sanderson style party and now it's too late to catch up. They understand it now seeing what PSU has done, but the money and recruiting isn't there anymore no matter how they change things...that ship has sailed. It's identical to what Gable did in the 80s if you think about it, he found an innovative coaching and recruiting style that worked at the time and everyone else got left behind. Carl is the greatest wrestler and coach to ever do it and he's going to blow by Gable like he's standing still. I hate Carl and PSU, btw.

My personal guess is that Iowa is going to be 5th this year, and attendance is going to slowly fall as younger people weren't alive to see any of the glory years. When CHA eventually gets bulldozed (never thought I'd see the day as a wrestling fan going to 40-50 sold out duals in my lifetime), Iowa wrestling is going to get a 6-7,000 seat shared facility like DeVaney, etc. and will use the future basketball arena for bigger duals like PSU, OSU, nebraska, etc.

Can't compain too much, though...how many other schools have ever had the dominance time in wrestling that Iowa has? Rarified air for sure...only two other schools in history have ever done it.
 




PSU is notorious for sweeping these things under the rug, but then again, most universities would try to do the same.
 


It appears Starocci is being investigated for theft from his teammates, but it appears that Bartlett's wife shared a bit more about "violating teammates?" It doesn't really elaborate and Bartlett's response to his wife's post stated she could have elaborated much more, but out of respect for him did not. Pretty cryptic. Info I got is from Nittany Sports Now website.
 
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Fryowa said:
A few opinions...

I think you're finally going to see Iowa wrestling fan enthusiasm start a slow tank that hasn't happened before. All the stars are finally misaligned.

It used to be that Iowa had a least a 10% chance of pulling a rabbit out of a hat and was the clear #2, but now Iowa is going to have to fight like hell for 4th or 5th and it's more like a .002% chance. What also got Iowa wrestling through some of the second fiddle years recently was an exciting lineup including Spencer Lee, Kemerer, the fireworks of DeSanto not knowing if you were going to see a fist fight, Marinelli, and Cassioppi was pretty dominant for a year or so too.

Those things are all gone now and Carl Sanderson has shown that Gable's smashmouth style of totally destroying yourself physically and mentally in the room all year long worked in the 80s and 90s but it doesn't anymore. Science in training has taken over and he's found the right recipe along with over double Iowa's NIL to boot.

Iowa has no star now and their coaches--while great coaches and personal friends of mine--were too late to the Sanderson style party and now it's too late to catch up. They understand it now seeing what PSU has done, but the money and recruiting isn't there anymore no matter how they change things...that ship has sailed. It's identical to what Gable did in the 80s if you think about it, he found an innovative coaching and recruiting style that worked at the time and everyone else got left behind. Carl is the greatest wrestler and coach to ever do it and he's going to blow by Gable like he's standing still. I hate Carl and PSU, btw.

My personal guess is that Iowa is going to be 5th this year, and attendance is going to slowly fall as younger people weren't alive to see any of the glory years. When CHA eventually gets bulldozed (never thought I'd see the day as a wrestling fan going to 40-50 sold out duals in my lifetime), Iowa wrestling is going to get a 6-7,000 seat shared facility like DeVaney, etc. and will use the future basketball arena for bigger duals like PSU, OSU, nebraska, etc.

Can't compain too much, though...how many other schools have ever had the dominance time in wrestling that Iowa has? Rarified air for sure...only two other schools in history have ever done it.
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Yeah, I've been pointing out for awhile the benefits of Sanderson's coaching style. First, he recruits based upon talent and mindset, not record or battle-minded intensity. Second, he has implemented an almost Zen-like approach for preparation. The result is that his wrestlers stay relaxed and intensely focused, without the mental burnout so often seen in other programs.

Now that he's established a record of huge success with his approach, the rest is gravy. OSU with Taylor is the only program that has a snowball's chance of making them nervous over the next 10 years.

Unfortunately, I think you're right about the coming future for the Iowa program, albeit maybe not quite that bleak. Unless something dramatically changes, we are destined to be in the midst of that "second tier" fighting for PSU's table scraps and batting a handful of other programs for that second spot.
 


#1DieHardHawk said:
Yeah, I've been pointing out for awhile the benefits of Sanderson's coaching style. First, he recruits based upon talent and mindset, not record or battle-minded intensity. Second, he has implemented an almost Zen-like approach for preparation. The result is that his wrestlers stay relaxed and intensely focused, without the mental burnout so often seen in other programs.

Now that he's established a record of huge success with his approach, the rest is gravy. OSU with Taylor is the only program that has a snowball's chance of making them nervous over the next 10 years.

Unfortunately, I think you're right about the coming future for the Iowa program, albeit maybe not quite that bleak. Unless something dramatically changes, we are destined to be in the midst of that "second tier" fighting for PSU's table scraps and batting a handful of other programs for that second spot.
Click to expand...
Us old guys who remember the golden eras are becoming more few and far between every passing year. The only reason the Hawks sell out CHA and have such a rabid following is because of what Dan Gable did and with our team fighting for 4th and 5th place that hype is going to die out exponentially. My son is a rabid Hawk fan and has been to many sold out Iowa duals both home and away, and he's even met Gable. However, he's 18 and only old enough to remember one team title in 2021. In fact...this sounds crazy...in his lifetime there have only been six Hawks to win individual titles...Borschel, Clark, McDonough, Ramos, Metcalf, Lee, and Perry. Almost all of those guys were when he was still in elementary school and he's moved out of the house with a full-time career now. I get it that it's cool and all, but that's 6 wrestlers in over 18 years. That ain't the Hawkeye wrestling us guys in our 40s and 50s remember.
 


Fryowa said:
Us old guys who remember the golden eras are becoming more few and far between every passing year. The only reason the Hawks sell out CHA and have such a rabid following is because of what Dan Gable did and with our team fighting for 4th and 5th place that hype is going to die out exponentially. My son is a rabid Hawk fan and has been to many sold out Iowa duals both home and away, and he's even met Gable. However, he's 18 and only old enough to remember one team title in 2021. In fact...this sounds crazy...in his lifetime there have only been six Hawks to win individual titles...Borschel, Clark, McDonough, Ramos. Metcalf, and Perry. Almost all of those guys were when he was still in elementary school and he's moved out of the house with a full-time career now. I get it that it's cool and all, but that's 6 wrestlers in over 18 years. That ain't the Hawkeye wrestling us guys in our 40s and 50s remember.
Click to expand...
I would say the lack of individual champions is more shocking than the team titles. Other than this past year it's been Spencer Lee and nobody else. A lot of guys we thought would win one or two titles. That's more depressing to me.
 


Fryowa said:
Us old guys who remember the golden eras are becoming more few and far between every passing year. The only reason the Hawks sell out CHA and have such a rabid following is because of what Dan Gable did and with our team fighting for 4th and 5th place that hype is going to die out exponentially. My son is a rabid Hawk fan and has been to many sold out Iowa duals both home and away, and he's even met Gable. However, he's 18 and only old enough to remember one team title in 2021. In fact...this sounds crazy...in his lifetime there have only been six Hawks to win individual titles...Borschel, Clark, McDonough, Ramos, Metcalf, Lee, and Perry. Almost all of those guys were when he was still in elementary school and he's moved out of the house with a full-time career now. I get it that it's cool and all, but that's 6 wrestlers in over 18 years. That ain't the Hawkeye wrestling us guys in our 40s and 50s remember.
Click to expand...
It aint the wrestling us guys in our late 60’s remember either
 


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