Yes. I don't think people are seeing the big picture here. This would be a different squad if not for the gambling fiasco. In spite of that, Brands has been able to piece together a flawed but still very good team. And, yes, this meet was much closer than the score indicates.
A few thoughts:
1. I am as disappointed as anyone with how lackadaisical our wrestlers looked. It was kind of odd to watch and hard to explain. I've always been a big supporter of Tom and Terry, but for coaches that emphasize and preach intensity and aggressiveness as much as they do, it's astonishing how at times their wresters look exactly the opposite. Could their constant drum-beating be causing a paradoxical opposite effect?
2. Our recruiting has been just fine. That said, I do wish that the coaches would cherry pick a little more when it comes to some of the uber blue-chippers. Wrestling recruiting is hard to track and not that transparent, so it's difficult to get a read on it, but I would hope we would have pushed hard for guys like Dean Hamiti, Ridge Lovett, etc. We are seeing more effort there and are throwing in our hat more often, but even more is possible. We have a great product to sell. Of course, with NIL and the portal it's a different world now anyway. Getting and keeping are two different things.
3. This talk of Spencer Lee taking over as coach is laughable. Spencer could indeed be a great coach down the road, but he's far from done and will be a beast at freestyle for the foreseeable future.
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