Hero Hendrickson: Cowboys Win First Outright Conference Title Since 2020 in Final Match of Big 12 Championships

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Originally published at: Hero Hendrickson: Cowboys Win First Outright Conference Title Since 2020 in Final Match of Big 12 Championships

Sunday night got a little hairy, but the Pokes take home the team hardware thanks to Hendrickson’s win.

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Hendrickson is a legend. In terms of “one year” Cowboys, he has to be up there with Cade Cunningham - who else?

I wonder if we’ll ever find out what happened to his arm/wrist - visibly it looked like he just hit it on Schultz’s shoulder. Hopefully it was just a stinger and not some kind of weird wrist fracture.
Outside of Wyatt it was a painful final session. My biggest takeaway is that David Taylor is a first year coach and he didn’t have the right approach to get his guys ready for Sunday night. That’s not a knock on him, just an observation of the learning curve for a new coach.
The future is bright orange, though!

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Completely agree, except I think the adversity of Sunday might help us at Nationals. We definitely will not be going in with a “big head.” Hopefully this drives us to dig a little deeper.

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Oof, that was painful to watch. 6 guys in the finals with a result of one very close win. I also agree that this could be what they need to really perform at the NCAAs. Let’s hope. Go pokes.

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I have a different take on the final round. These guys were absolutely prepared by DT. What happened is that with the exception of Wyatt, the rest of our guys faced opponents who were as good or better wrestlers than our guys. It shows that there is now parity in the Big 12 thanks to NIL and unlimited transfers. Never before would you have 6 Cowboy finalists but only one champion. That was shocking.
During the entire season I never thought that we had anyone on the roster capable of winning an NCAA title. We have a group of potential All-Americans. After the Iowa dual I thought we are not going to finish second at NCAA tournament. Teague Travis doesn’t have the endurance he needs because he hasn’t wrestled enough. But great to see him out there instead of Carter Young. I believe DT has these guys wrestling at their full potential. But the rosters we will see going forward will have potential individual champions. Too bad we missed out on Bo Bassett because he could be the best that anyone has ever seen. I feel maybe 4th place trophy at NCAA. If we catch some breaks, could get 3rd. The talent of UNI really surprised me. It’s been a terrific season with so much new blood. Cowboy wrestling is back and Iowa needs to be concerned in a few years from now. If DT is named Big 12 coach of the year, that should land some transfers. Hendrickson and Hamiti will be missed.

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Is Cade Cunningham a great one year Cowboy? He was a great individual talent, got Big XII Player of the Year, but he didn’t get the Wooden Award. We accomplished nothing in the Big XII or the tournament. Our record wasn’t even that good. I guess in this era where our team has sucked consistently, he’s a bright-ish spot. I’d put Hendrickson way above that.

I’d probably even have to put Jaylen Warren above Cunningham. He saved that offense and probably would’ve won us the Big XII if he’d stayed healthy. I’d say he uplifted his team more than Cunningham did.

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Warren is a great call. I get what you’re saying about Cade, but he was drafted 1st overall, brought hype to Stillwater, and look at Rutgers missing the tournament with two projected top three picks. It could have been worse.

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I appreciate the perspective, and I don’t want to take anything away from the other guys. They were all great matches. But I still think we should’ve gotten 3 Bout of the final round - Jamison, Hamiti & Surber stand out. Hamiti and Surber in particular could/should win that dual most of the time in my opinion.
I agree with you that on the whole DT outperformed expectations and found a way to get the most out of the team without true superstars. I don’t expect any of these guys to win their weight class at NCAAs.
But, I have to imagine even he would say he’ll change some things about his approach for the next tournament - going into the final round with 6 chances and only getting 1 just isn’t great.

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Yes, but unfortunately, the hype didn’t go anywhere. It was similar to Trae Young at OU. Temporary bump. Probably got into the tournament on their name recognition. Didn’t build into anything greater. I’d rather have him here than not, but it was ultimately just a fun little blip on the radar.

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Made it to the Big 12 championship game in the tournament. Made the tourney at least. That’s more than we can say about our 2024 football team. Don’t you agree?

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You think Surber’s guy was better than him. He had plenty of chances to win that match, but made a few errors in the crazy scrambles.

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Hey champ,

Every year under Boynton except that year was the 2024 football season. Most years in the Gundy era are at least “crap out in the second round of the tourney” level.

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Did Boynton ever go completely winless in the conference?

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Hey champ,

Boynton lost 10 conference games every year but one. Gundy’s never lost 10 conference games. Yes, that’s as stupid as the comparison you just made. You win half your conference games in basketball and it’s probably a good season. You finish 4th in the conference every year and you’re a perennial tournament team. You do that in football and people are calling for your job. It’d be almost impossible to lose every conference game in basketball, but the 4 win season he ended with is just as bad without any success to speak of.

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Really? Last time I checked we have an abundance of fans that are just fine with being .500 in the conference (Michael13, Robert28, you) for example. Not seen a single one of you calling for Gundy’s job even when he goes 3-6 in the conference as long as he’s 6-6 overall. Like I said, OSU football is the best job in the country to have if you want to get overpaid for middling results.

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Hey champ,

You just said Sark was successful everywhere and had 9 years of being far less successful than Gundy. He went 9 years without double digit wins. Your double standard is ridiculous. You are not just a non-serious “fan,” but a non-serious person.

I think the OSU fan is ok with Gundy just making a bowl when his baseline is 9-10 wins and the 6 or 7 win years are the down years and we also have a chance to exceed 10 as he’s done three times. 10+ wins is a strong season and at least puts you in the conversation for something bigger. Yes, last season was a debacle, but he’s earned the benefit of a doubt. Maybe if we hadn’t just won 10 and got to the CCG and recently won the Fiesta Bowl in a 12 win season, maybe we’d worry he was slipping off. If he doesn’t bounce back this year, he’s probably in trouble. He probably needs to win 8 to keep his job is my guess. Then get back to doing what he does. No more losing seasons.

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Maybe you missed what I posted. I said comparing Sark to Meacham or Grantham is a poor example. I never brought up Gundy in comparison with Sark. That’s something you decided to do. Sark was not the HC at Bama. He was a coordinator. There’s a big difference. My point was Saban had an eye for successful COORDINATORS. I trust Saban’s judgment a lot more on who would be a great assistant than you, Gundy, or anyone else in the country.

We hired a D2 DC for that 9-10 win program you’re talking about. Tell me how that worked out? I don’t think 125th and 132nd is very impressive. So we go and hire a guy that got worse on defense? Did you forget about 2022 like it didn’t happen? Tell me what happened after that 5-1 start? How did we finish off the season? Everyone told Gundy he needed to hit the portal after 2021 and he didn’t listen. It’s just common sense.

When you lose one of the best DC in the country and most of your production you gotta find other ways to be successful. It literally took the BoR and many others to force Gundy to recognize his hate for the portal isn’t going to change the portal. Sure, Gundy will say “we have to adapt to the changes”. However, it means nothing when he does nothing about it :man_shrugging:.

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Hey champ,

Why is comparing Grantham to Sarkisian a bad comparison? They’re both people Saban took on as analysts. Yes, after Sark failed in the NFL (another place he wasn’t successful), Saban took him on as a coordinator. Grantham went from Saban’s analyst, also had two poor seasons in the NFL, but Saban’s not coaching anymore. Saban valued both of them enough to bring them in as analysts, we don’t know that Saban wouldn’thave hired Grantham since he was in the NFL. I brought up Gundy because you claimed Sark’s value was being successful everywhere, and 1.) I found it hilarious to learn that you think Gundy is exceptionally successful since he’s head and shoulders over Sark 2.) You double standard should be pointed out.

2022 (who was the coach at Texas that we beat?)… hmmm, what changed? Did we have any major injuries? It’s like our QB got hurt or something. Yes, it’s not good that we were so dependent on Sanders, but that’s a huge blow to a team when you have a top QB in the league and he goes down.

Also, let’s not praise the BoR too much… didn’t they hire a president that had no idea how to allocate funds, at best, and was straight up crooked at worst?

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Sarkisian was initially hired as an analyst. Then was deemed worthy enough by Saban to make him the OC. Do you really think that Saban would’ve made a fired DC his new DC had the position been open? I highly doubt it.

That’s the difference between a coach with a championship mindset and mediocre mindset. Saban hires the best available if possible. Gundy hires people for the “good enough” crowd. Sometimes, he doesn’t even do that. The firing of almost the entire coaching staff is evidence for that.

I will say in Gundy’s past a time or two he’s made some great hires. However, his consistency in hiring people that won’t help him make that next step into the ranks of football is overwhelming. Name me one coordinator from the Gundy tree since 2012 besides Knowles that’s went on to sustained success?

Gundy’s only been at one place his entire HC career. So to say he’s head and shoulders above Sark still isn’t a good comparison because we don’t know how well Gundy would’ve done at similar places. If you think other places that Sark has been to would’ve put up with some of the stuff Gundy does. Then you’re more naive than what I thought.

I told you before that OSU is the greatest head coaching job in college football to be overpaid for middling results. One thing I do know about Sark is he never went winless in a conference as a HC in college. Especially in a conference with no BB schools.

Who didn’t recruit any portal players before the 2022 season started? Who thought it would be a good idea to have the team rely solely on QB performance and not strengthen other areas of the team? You clowns are simply doing the typical thing us realists would predict you would do. Makes excuses for the people being paid a lot of money for their failure to properly plan, prepare, and execute. Always blaming the players :man_facepalming:.