Will ISU even score today against Iowa?

[Clark]

This is one of the stupidest excuses out there. Brands has been at Iowa for over 5 years, that means none of his wrestlers are transfers from VT. Honestly, each time I read this, all I see is butt hurt.

It's a legitimate excuse for why there wasn't a dropoff when there was a coaching change unlike at ISU. It's not a good excuse however, for why in his fourth year he's forced to play a bunch of freshmen and has a team this bad.

[Chipper]

This is one of the stupidest excuses out there. Brands has been at Iowa for over 5 years, that means none of his wrestlers are transfers from VT. Honestly, each time I read this, all I see is butt hurt.

sar·chasm ('sär-"ka-z&m) : The giant gulf (chasm) between what is said and the person who doesn't get it

[Gitwitit]

Iowa is only ranked #4 right now, and ISU won one match. What would the top three teams do to them?


Sorry, but KJ is not cutting it. His wrestlers are not agressive, and quite frankly, look weak compared to their opponents. I mean come on....you get a kid like Meeks who never lost in high school (Iowa's biggest schools) and he comes to ISU and appears to get worse? I realize he is wrestling better competition now, but this kid was dominant in high school. Now, he just looks lost out there. I have a feeling he would not look that way had he gone to Penn State, Iowa, etc. Just a hunch.

I'm not sure who the top coaches are now that might be available to hire, but something has to change. This has gotten to the point of embarrassing now. I hate that Cael left, but can't really blame him for it either. Financially, it was a much better situation for him and his family, plus it appears Penn State was committed to winning. I don't see that here at ISU any more, and that is too bad. This used to be a proud, traditionally strong program. I remember those days.....I was going to school at ISU then. Of course, back then, ISU was winning national championships in Men's Gymnastics too, and look what happened to that program.

KJ has to go. He is not moving this program forward, and is certainly not going to bring it back to a level of national relevance.

Meeks should have been redshirted and he would have been had he gone to a school like Iowa, Penn St, Minnesota, etc. Iowa brought in Cory Clark and Thomas Gilman this year who had high school careers very similar to Meeks and they are both being redshirted but competing unattached. They will be solid next year after having that one year under their belt.

Meeks will still have a good career but it's definitely not fair to him the way it has started.

[Go2Guy]

Thanks for correcting the other poster. Wrestling as a whole is increasing nation wide. The youth programs as well as ALL college levels are starting to see an increase in athletes and programs the last few years. Just because some conferences don't have wrestling doesn't mean the sport is dying. With the popularity of UFC (wrestlers are starting to make an impact in large #'s) more kids will gravitate towards this sport.

It just blows me away the Big 10 has every team - except Indiana - ranked in the top 25. That's a dominant conference for wrestling and a sad reality of what happened to the old Big 8 wrestling powerhouses!

[Primetime26]

Meeks should have been redshirted and he would have been had he gone to a school like Iowa, Penn St, Minnesota, etc. Iowa brought in Cory Clark and Thomas Gilman this year who had high school careers very similar to Meeks and they are both being redshirted but competing unattached. They will be solid next year after having that one year under their belt.

Except our Dakota Bauer beat Gilman.

[Wesley]

Except our Dakota Bauer beat Gilman.

That's what we want to hear. Good results. Any more?

[LindenCy]

Meeks should have been redshirted and he would have been had he gone to a school like Iowa, Penn St, Minnesota, etc. Iowa brought in Cory Clark and Thomas Gilman this year who had high school careers very similar to Meeks and they are both being redshirted but competing unattached. They will be solid next year after having that one year under their belt.

Meeks will still have a good career but it's definitely not fair to him the way it has started.

I agree. I hate to see Meeks rack up some losses that he would never have if he had gotten the chance to redshirt.

[cyfan9]

Except our Dakota Bauer beat Gilman.

Was this in high school or in some open this year? Either way didn't know that. Good news to me!

[Primetime26]

Was this in high school or in some open this year? Either way didn't know that. Good news to me!

It was one year ago today!

[GoCubsGo]

According to the Register, Iowa had 35 takedowns to ISU's 3 takedowns. Ouch. It sucks that this is the year the NCAA tourney will be in Des Moines. I was hoping that by year 4 of the Jackson regime we'd be able to be competitive in front of the hometown crowd, but this might be ugly.

[cloneswereall]

After what happened this weekend, I really don't think KJ is going to survive this season. It's really too bad that the AD didn't support the program enough 5 years ago leading to CS leaving.

[PammelGuy]

I'm not going to dump KJ now but if a change needs to be made we need a huge "jump start" to the program. If I couldn't get Gibby I would go for the "reverse Gable" and try to grab, Brands, Ryan, Steiner etc. Or..... give Reiland a chance to move into the college ranks. After being a Cyclone for 40 years I never thought I would say it but we need some Hawkeye mentality right now.

[Cyclone06]

Has anyone watched Meeks wrestle in the past? I have always got the impression he wrestles not to lose and because of that I find it hard to see how he will have much success at this level. Atleast the success everyone on this board is expecting. Seems like he is scared on the mat which is odd because of his past successes, but I have a good idea as to why, and it is sad.

[LutherBlue]

Way too early to be questioning John Meeks's ability. He is a tremendous talent who ideally would not be wrestling this year and just lost to an elite upperclassman. Don't give up on John Meeks two dual meets into his first year.

[mikem]

After what happened this weekend, I really don't think KJ is going to survive this season. It's really too bad that the AD didn't support the program enough 5 years ago leading to CS leaving.

Sigh...There really isn't anything Iowa State could have done to match what Cael was offered at Penn St. They spent more money on wrestling program and facility upgrades, than we do for volleyball, wrestling, and maybe even women's bb combined.

I have avoided this stuff until I was able to type unemotionally about what I saw the first two meets. The greatest fear that I had coming into this season has been confirmed. We are very undertalented compared to who we expect to compete against.

Now, I can live with being undertalented, it is going to take time to catch back up, and losing a kid that would have been the centerpiece of the team hurt immensely.

The problem that I have is not the dual meet losses, I am more of a tournament snob in that respect. It is that if you are going to be undertalented, you have to be relentless. The way that people talk about the kids in the program, they should be wrestling like slobbering dogs for 7 minutes. Instead, we are passive, and allow ourselves to be dominated.

That will ultimately be what pushes KJ out. The problem is that there is no money for wrestling at Iowa State, and the whiners in these threads that don't pay attention to wrestling are not the ones that are going to help with that. They see us getting beaten by schools that they have never heard of and go all ****** and bash bash bash.

The problem that most of us that actually understand what the program is facing see that if we are to compete, we have to invest in the program. KJ never got that chance here, but whoever comes in next will face the same thing unless all of the bitchers and whiners and pos like queso actually put their $$$ where their whiny mouths are.