Barracuda141

125- Ayala 133- Crookham 141- Bartlett 149- Van Ness 157- Messenbrink 165- Haines 174- O'toole (Unless Starocci comes back) 184- Keckeisen 197- Buchanan 285- Kerk

Webster & Scoles are nice pick ups. I like Chris Moore too. However, lets not act like Poeta is lighting the recruiting trail on fire. If he was really crushing it, maybe one high end transfers like Illinois boys Caliendo & Hamiti would've decided Champaign, IL was a great fit. Also of note, Poeta failed to recruit 3 of the last 4 blue chippers. No Nasir Bailey, Davino, or Mendoza. Next question, how is attendance looking at Illinois home matches? Not great is the answer. It's frustrating to turn on Big Ten Network and see mostly empty bleachers. 569 fans vs Minnesota 1757 fans vs Iowa 563 fans vs UNC & Central Michigan 1258 fans vs SIUE 338 fans vs Navy

I didn't say he didn't get a facility. Someone suggested the reason why Illinois didn't get Davino or Mendoza was because a decision had to be made between getting a facility and securing NIL deals for Davino & Mendoza, which by the way isn't true. I simply stated that he, Poeta, should be able to do both.

Welcome to the Big 10. Figure it out Poeta. Somehow Iowa can figure out how to fundraise $30+ million for a new wrestling facility. Somehow Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State can all figure out how to raise a boatload of money for improved facilities in addition to competing for recruits in the NIL era. It's part of being a head coach today. If he can't mange to work the phone and bring in enough money to be competitive, then Illinois needs to bring in someone who can. Illinois as a state qualified 32 for the NCAA tournament last year #2 behind PA and this year qualified 22 for the NCAA tournament, 4th most this year. U of I qualified a pathetic 3 this year, two of which were done Day 1.

I mean..that's the reality of today's D1 world. Figure it out Poeta or just resign yourself to being a mid to bottom tier Big 10 team. The choice is yours.

There's been no uptick in recruiting under Poeta. It looks like a continuation of the Heffernan regime. Lost out on Ben Devino to Ohio State and Seth Mendoza to Missouri. Can't keep talent instate which has been a constant issue since Mark Johnson left. If Poeta can't figure it out in the next two years, he needs to go. Find somebody that can turn a top 5 hs wrestling state into a perennial trophy contending team.

John Smith should be held accountable for Okie State's recent failures as a team and whether him or his staff haven't been able to develop the talent in the room. With that being said, Fix should also be held accountable for his lack of development. Being in an elite division 1 room with one of the greatest wrestling minds of all time and he's ADDED NOTHING to his offense. In 4 finals matches, he's scored 0 takedowns. He's regressed in just about every aspect of his wrestling. He used to be a savage on top. Now? Not a feared rider/turner. So yes, John Smith needs to be held accountable..and so does Fix. Now for the "abuse" directed at Daton. Athletes get booed all the time so I'm not sure why people are disappointed in the boos. People are booing his boring style, not him as a person. If he doesn't want to get booed, then be offensive and aggressive. Nobody is booing Vito, Austin Gomez, Messenbrink, Aaron Brooks, etc. Why not? They're being offensive and exciting. When you back up, have a defensive mindset, only look to counter, take zero committed shots, etc. you're going to get booed. Also, people boo other athletes all the time. Who cares? That's what happens when people pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to watch a product. Fix is older than Tua, Trevor Lawrence, and the same age as Justin Herbert and Justin Fields. He's a grown man. If those athletes are preforming poorly, they get booed too.

Illini will have another noncompetitive match against Minnesota. Might win 174 and that's it. Pretty embarrassing actually to watch them stink so badly after watching Mark Johnson's Illini in the early 2000's. Them vs. Northwestern will be the only competitive dual for them. And I'm sure all of about 200 fans will be there to watch.

Lets not and say we did. Why would we want to essentially combine 149 & 157 just so we can add a 220ish weight? That makes zero sense. We would be eliminating some of the best wrestlers from NCAAs and welcoming in some of the worst. There are already enough complaints about the UWW weights and how little sense they make. NCAA weights are way way better imo UWW NCAA 57kg-125lbs 125lbs 61kg-134lbs 133lbs 65kg-143lbs 141lbs 70kg-154lbs 149lbs 74kg-163lbs 157lbs 79kg-174lbs 165lbs 86kg-190lbs 174lbs 92kg-203lbs 184lbs 97kg-214lbs 197lbs 125kg-276lbs 285lbs

Correct, it's not like they are irrelevant. Iowa is a top 3 team every year and can challenge PSU in a dual almost every year. Now if they had fallen out of the top 5 and weren't showing any promising signs, then yes, Brands should be on the hot seat. That's just not the case. Can't fire a coach just because they aren't able to dominate the wrestling landscape like they did through the 80's-90's. We're witnessing an all time great, Gable 2.0, at the helm of PSU.

Could get ugly for Iowa or it could be really close as PSU sends 3 freshmen out into a sold out hostile arena. Some awesome matchups for sure at 125, 141, 157, and 165. With it being at CHA though, I'm guessing we see a young PSU stud get "carvered". Let's all put it on TV and blow the Iowa vs. Iowa State numbers out of the water. 125- Davis vs. Ayala. -Great matchup out of the gate. I wouldn't be surprised to see Davis win here as I think he's likely to finish higher in Kansas City. My pick is the 15k+ fans in attendance play a role on the young freshman and we see Ayala pick up a late takedown for the win. 3-0 Hawks 133- Nagao vs Schriever -Don't really see a competitive match here. Nagao looking for bonus here. 4-3 PSU 141- Bartlett vs Woods -Woods the clear favorite from neutral, also underrated top game. Controlled decision here. 6-4 Hawks 149- Kasak vs. Rathjen -Coinflip match that Iowa needs if they want to stay in this dual. Edge Kasak. 7-6 PSU 157- Haines vs. Franek -Haines has looked vulnerable this year. Had to pull a few matches out of his hat after being down late. Think it might be weight cut related and we see Haines up at 165 next year. That being said, winners win. Haines dec. 10-6 PSU 165- Messenbrink vs. Caliendo -Messenbrink by dec. 13-6 PSU 174- Starocci vs. Kennedy -Kennedy looked great against Ruth. Starocci is putting together a hodge campaign and a whole other animal though. Kennedy will just be trying to limit the bonus. Starocci by major 17-6 184- Truax vs. Riggins -Riggins has lost 7 of his last 10 matches. Truax will be looking for (and finding) early termination for sure. Tech. 22-6 PSU 197- Brooks vs. Glazier -The other hodge candidate in this dual vs the breakout star of the Hawks. As great as Glazier has been, he won't be able to stop a top 5 guy in the world from bonus. Brooks by major 26-6 PSU 285- Kerk vs. Hill -With the dual out of reach, I don't think Tom sends out Kueter. It wouldn't matter if he did. Too big, too strong, too good on top, Kerk looks for early termination and finds it. Tech. 31-6 PSU *Looks like a blowout but realistically 125, 141, 149, 157, and 165 could go either way and it wouldn't be crazy to see Iowa winning 5 weights.

Agree to an extent. After 25-26, it's either working with Poeta or not. Still doesn't seem like there's been a noticeable uptick in recruiting. Yes, he secured Webster, which is awesome and an absolute must have. But not much else. In fact, Poeta and Co. have secured the commitment of a whopping 1 ranked recuit on the current Flo boards, #15 144 Ryan Bennett. Need to secure Domenic Munaretto, Seth Mendoza, Aaron Stewart, Kai Calcutt, etc. If they can't do that, Illinois needs to find someone that can. Recruits Poeta can't seem to close Ben Davino #1 132- going to Ohio State Tyler Guerra #8 138- going to Indiana William Denny #15 150- going to NC State Colin Kelly #3 175- going to Wisconsin Dillan Johnson #1 heavy- going to Wisconsin

At this point, Illinois under Poeta is the same as it was under Heff, very disappointing and a below average Big Ten 10. Blown out by Pitt, Mizz, and Ohio State. This will be another blow out and possibly a shut out. The only quality wrestlers are Webster, Ruth, and Luffman. The rest are about .500 wrestlers. Looking at the rest of their schedule, who are they favored against? Michigan State and that's it. 125- Ayala techs. Cardani 5-0 133- Teske dec. Madrigal 8-0 141- Woods maj. Pucino 12-0 149- Webster dec. Rathjen 12-3 - Could see Voinovich 157- Franek maj. Roberts 16-3 165- Caliendo dec. Moore 19-3 174- Ruth dec. Kennedy 19-6 -Would be interested to see if Iowa send Arnold out here or at 184. 184- Riggins dec. Connell 22-6 197- Glazier maj. Pettigrew 26-6 285- Luffman dec. Hill 26-9 -I'm guessing we see Kueter wrestle once this weekend as he works his way into wrestling shape. Either here or against NW, my thought is NW.

My picks. 125- DeAug dec. McCrone 3-0 133- Ragusin dec. Bouzakis 6-0 141- Mendez maj. Lemley 6-4 149- Gomez dec. D'Emilio 9-4 157- Lewan dec. Wilcox 12-4 165- Amine dec. Hepner 15-4 174- Griffith dec. Welsh 18-4 184- Bullock dec. Shumate 21-4 197- Geog dec. Striggow 21-7 285- Davison dec. Feldman 24-7