Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/osu-wrestling-five-thoughts-on-the-southern-scuffle-2/
Five thoughts on the Cowboys’ latest tournament.
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I don’t know about you but that short brimmed hat & vest combination is #Elite. If there is a Uni Heisman in wrestling John Smith wins it EVERY TIME!
Great write-up Seth. It has been an interesting season with the lineup shakeup and #1 class coming in next year. I’ve enjoyed the heck out of watching Dusty Hone wrestle. He doesn’t wrestle like a backup, that’s for sure. He’s beaten a few high ranked guys and shut down Dom Demas. Dude’s got awesome fundamentals and goes for it which is a nice contrast from guys that seem to rely on a limited (albeit explosive when it works) offense. I’d be happy watching Dusty get it after all season, since he’s only a freshman he probably has a high ceiling. If he can hang with the top guys, he could pull off a Mark Branch-like title run and come out of nowhere to snag a title!
Whittlake is another freshman that’s been exciting to watch. He is already hanging tough with top 10 guys which is great to see. Picc looks like a man on a mission and I’ll be sad to see him go at the end of this season. Reece too, though he hasn’t had many signature wins yet, is a gamer. The future is looking bright with the young ones getting this experience!
On another note - what’s going on with the skin checks? Is there an increased emphasis on them this year? I’ve been watching OSU wrestling for 20ish years and have never heard of a skin check violation until this year, and now we’ve seen at least three skin check violations in this season (Reece @ Lehigh, Boo @ Scuffle, plus an opposing wrestle at a dual). I wonder if it’s NCAA-wide or just a string of odd luck?
As I have posted too many times already, I have seen too many instances of a really good Cowboy wrestler not allowed to reach his potential because for the sake of the team he was forced to wrestle up at a higher weight. I hate seeing this going on with Dakota Geer. How many of his matches does John Smith need to watch to realize he belongs at 184? Montalvo can wait for his turn. I think with Sheets we can expect inconsistency. We have seen his potential at times and then at other times he cannot maintain that level. Not sure if he can break on through to the other side. None of us really know what is going on with Joe Smith. His dad just hints at the issues but never clearly discloses fully. One is that he is having trouble cutting weight. I think the other problem might be that he has some lingering injuries that are holding him back. This is another sad situation. Someone who came in with such high expectations a record of great high school level success who looks like he will never reach the level of success that he was groomed for because of earlier injuries. So in some ways this is a team of hard luck and struggle. But as has been said, a great foundation of young talent to build upon with the new arrivals next season. Due to the depth next season I expect some transfers at the end of this season. This is one of those seasons where I have had to lower my expectations for the team as a whole and just consider it a natural consequence of Fix taking Olympic redshirt and Brock not in the lineup along with never knowing how long Boo can go without being injured again. So next season should look nothing like this current one. We take it on the chin for now and then next year we knock em all down. Same holds true for football and basketball teams. Next year OSU prevails across the board.