Iowa vs Minnesota

Mcdonough got lucky not to have to wrestle Nickerson (sever injury probably should not have wrestled more sand than brains) or Escobedo! He had a cake walk to the finals he would get killed by both Oliver and Stieber period. Evans needs a haircut and a meal he looks like he is smoking crack give me a break Iowa is washed up they will never be as good as they were the decline started at last years NCAA's they cant hang just accept it

The BTN shows a few measly NCAA wrestling events a year. Let's be honest, it's not like BTN and NCAA are behind wrestling promoting it like they could. The announcers don't even attend the matches. They sit in a studio in Chicago and talk as if they are there. Pathetic.

The Big Ten is the only reason why most people in America can see wrestling on television. It is hard to say they are holding the sport back. They are the biggest thing advancing the sport right now. In fact, I think the BTN should bid for the rights to televise the NCAA championships. They would broadcast 3 days of matches, instead of the pathetic situation of only the finals being shown on tape-delay.
National Duals can change things if they get more media attention. If the mainstream media and TV ignore it then it doesn't do much good. But if it gets televised, it will make a huge difference. We have to get ESPN or a network to broadcast the Final Four! This is where JRob is correct: TV won't show the NCAA tournament but they might show National Duals. Ordinary people can understand it a lot better.

The older coaches did so much more for wrestling as a sport than the current younger crop of coaches. Guys like Dan Gable, Bobby Douglas, and JRob saw how wrestling was decimated in the 1970s through the 90s and wanted to do something to help it. They became ambassadors for the sport. Whenever Dan Gable calls meets on IPTV, like the Okie St. dual, he goes on and on about viewers calling the station and giving them money so they will broadcast more wrestling. Bobby Douglas went all over the country and got more minority kids to get into wrestling. His legacy at Arizona State is still going on with Jenkins and Robles winning championships last year. Robinson does whatever it takes to get more people interested in the meets. He has made snide remarks in the press about opponents to get fans riled up. He was part of what was billed as Beauty and the Beast at Hilton Coliseum which had gymnastics and wrestling going on at the same time. He just wanted to draw bigger crowds.
The younger coaches like Cael Sanderson, Tom Brands, and Tom Ryan never knew wrestling when it was a bigger sport. Maybe that is why they arent promoting the sport, just looking after their own teams.

Coach makes some good points but I disagree with his point on Penn State and wrestling as a whole. I think that far too long the kids best interest have been neglected and coaches have taken advantage of kids. That has hurt wrestling.
Having kids rested and healthy is the most important thing and the sport will benefit when their best interests are placed first and foremost.

i gotta get one o dos fo my wife.... hahahaha lol hey the sport needs a dissn mouth piece for every team, you want ta put buts in dos dear bleahes baby, den get a unedumacated moufpiece talkin like dear aint no tomorrow badmoufin everybody on dodo other side, u know like me... Plus I think minnesota could beat penn state anytime they really wanted to... OK so there...

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Hundreds of college wrestling programs have been dropped in the past 25 years. Many of the schools with the biggest and richest athletic departments in the country don't have wrestling. The SEC, most ACC schools, all but 3 Big12 schools, and Pac10 schools like USC and UCLA, among others, don't field teams. Other than the Big10 Network, the sport is never on tv in most of America. This is the path college wrestling has been on for years! Something needs to change.
Maybe a national dual isn't the answer, but it's worth a shot. JRob had to talk Brands into doing it even though he isn't a fan of it the way it is now. I think he's right about head-to-head matchups among the best teams. Anyone who watched last year's Penn St.-Iowa dual at Rec Hall or this year's Iowa-Okie St. dual in Carver Hawkeye would have to agree. Those events had buzz. I think JRob didn't go far enough in calling out Cael. Penn St. doesn't match up with any great teams outside their conference. He should have a home-and-home annual series with Okie St. and Cornell. Those types of meets get attention. It's like the Alabama-LSU game in football. People talk about it for days before. That's what wrestling needs.
And to the Anonymous Cowards who say JRob's jealous of Cael or doesn't deserve to speak his name, you guys are morons. Who has more rings as a coach? (If you also count his rings from being Gable's assistant, Sanderson will never catch up with J) Cael couldn't get it done at Iowa State and had to run away from Brands and Iowa like a little girl. The only reason he won last year was the previous coach left him Molinaro, Wright, Ruth, Wade, and Pataki.

tell the ncaa to take a walk wrestling will run on with out the ncaa and do good.

He has lots of business experience with his real estate empire and overpriced camps.

JRob's right. If collegiate wrestling is going to grow and ever hope to reach the audiences that it SHOULD reach, the sport has to be run less like a club and more like organized, conference-based sports like football and basketball.

I hope one day college wrestling can reach the level of college football or basketball. People just do not understand the sport, somehow have to make the mainstream understand..but then again were wrestlers and we never fit into the mainstream n ive always liked that. I just feel that these national champs, n others, should be getting more recognition for waht they have accomplished then they do by the maintstream

Best coach out there. Love how he handles his phone while interviewing.

Maybe I'm missing the point but I think what J is trying to say is that the NCAA does not recognize the national duals as an event right now. If we get all the top teams there and generate enough revenue then the NCAA will want a piece and wrestling will have a bargaining chip. Also to those who say that J is just jealous of Cael or isn't in the same class...PLEASE, J Rob and his coaching record along with what he has done for this sport plays second fiddle to no one (not incl Gable).

J Rob's assessment of what would be good for the sport would carry more weight if it were based on pertinent analogies and accurate facts. In fact, his comments are so ridiculous that it seems be foolish to take time responding, yet the sheep like comments below make necessary some rebuttal of reason.

First of all, rooting habits of people who watch football and similar sports (aka baseball, soccer) are not centered on the individual because without the coordinated and simultaneous efforts of a team, even the most herculean effort on the part of a star player would be useless. In other words the best pass is useless unless someone is there to catch it. Even then, individuals and often not the team are of primary importance to following fans- in the wearing of jerseys which are never sold generically to the media outlets who are as likely to talk about the upcoming Superbowl as a battle of Brady vs Manning as they are Patriots vs Giants. Despite JRob’s assertion, even in football the individual athlete is rooted for, but his further error is in his failure to recognize the tremendous differences between these sports.
Wrestling is a completely different sport, more akin to gymnastics, swimming, boxing or (dare I say) it’s closest modern evolutionary half-sibling – mma. Some of these fine sports have team scores and dual type competitions but they all reach their pinnacle with events in which individual achievement takes center stage and the team scores accordingly to the individual success or failure of their members. In sports like football, the individuals have success or failure through the team. In sports like wrestling the team has success or failure through the individuals.
The success of wrestling will not be dependant on imitating sports who such fundamental differences, but rather in recognizing and believing in the greatness of the sport as it is, has been since before the Grecian games, and can continue to be as exemplified by the success once held by boxing and now increasingly enjoyed by mma. The individual stories and drama of personal sacrifice, effort, struggle, competition, success and defeat is our strength. Team dynamics add to the intrigue but are by no means paramount.
It is also significant to note that wrestling is already increasing in coverage and thus appeal without this new dual tournament agenda. Whether due to an overspill of interest out of the mma crowd, increased media outlets, and eastern venue, or its own intrinsic appeal, last year’s national championship received unprecedented coverage. Additionally, individual performances from that event and others have received increased attention on sport highlight reels on numerous occasions. One could easily claim that a team dual only a month from NCAA’s may easily take away from our growing premier event and thus hurt wrestling more than help it. Is the popularity of international wrestling dependant upon dual championships?
Later, JRob insinuates that other sports like basketball and football don’t make up their own schedules and wrestling coaches need to change their approach to scheduling. How is this true? The process for other teams, like basketball, seem to be exactly the same as for wrestling: conference dates are schedules by the conference with changes possible if mutually agreed upon; non conference competitions are scheduled by the coaches or administration and always are dependant upon team considerations like traditional rivalries, schedule strength, training period peaks/valleys, and so on…; and in the end one prepares for the NCAA sanctioned championship. The only ones breaking the traditional way of scheduling is the wrestling coaches association who are fixated with this new two week team championship.
By the way, all this is coming from a person who loves dual meets, remembers when the VA Duals used to be the National Duals, until ( I think) these same people decided to remove it from VA, and likes dual tournaments in general. Furthermore, I believe there are some accommodations for a National dual Tournament that might make sense – this one however does not for many reasons beyond the scope of this diatribe.
JRob probably thinks this new format will be good for wrestling, but I believe much more sustainable and factual arguments can be made that this year’s new format is a big step in the wrong direction. If JRob (and others who are worse like RK) would cease grandstanding maybe they could at least come to recognize that others simply disagree and trust their own reasons and who can blame them. Coaches deciding to opt out may well be doing so for the benefit of their team’s goals (is that so bad), for the benefit of the individuals on their teams whose dream it is to stand on that podium in March (what each athlete should expect from their coach) and/or for the benefit of wrestling at large. If JRob’s arguments are the best that can be offered, those who are cooked up this plan aught to rethink their efforts. I suspect he is simply trying to defend his decision, make others look bad for theirs, and even manipulate those who have thought better to fall in line next year.
Enough time wasted… debate away…

Great observations and points. Gotta have a final 4