Xmas32

Thoughts from the dual: 125--Man Caleb Smith is wrestling at a high, high level. I think Davis from Penn State is starting to get figured out a bit. We also can't discount that Smith is a grad transfer going against a true frosh. Smith was able to use some horsepower there to get the reversal and NF. 125 is wide open so Smith has just as good of a shot as anyone for potential AA honors. 133--Would've liked to see Van Dee go neutral in the 2nd as he kind of got the starch taken out of him by the PSU backup with that ball and chain ride after dominating the 1st period. Was nice to see a ride out but I'd be lying if I wasn't thinking bonus points there for Van Dee. 141--Brutal call there against Hardy when he should've been given a TD with about 30 seconds left. Who knows if Hardy would've been able to hang on and erase the riding time point but I would've liked to see him have gotten the opportunity. 149--Didn't love what I saw from Ridge. Seemed a little tentative against Kasak but ultimately he did what the elite guys do whey they don't have their A game which is gut out wins. 157--Haines is on another level now and I don't think this version of Robb is going to be able to beat him sans Haines making a couple mistakes. I thought Robb honestly wrestled pretty well and defended like heck but when a dude is shooting bullets at you non stop for 7 minutes eventually you're going to get hit a couple times. 165--Incredible defense out of Taylor, need him to get his offense going. Messenbrink just brings it man, what a gas tank. I'll be excited to see how he does next year at 157 once Robb graduates. Taylor at 157 is going to be a huge PITA for a lot of dudes with how tough he is to score on. Hard to not be excited for the future with him. 174--Welp, what are you gonna do haha. Good Starroci showed up and that's what happens. 184--Man, I can't imagine coaching Pinto. He's got brute strength and is mega explosive and almost impossible to stop. I worry about his gas tank tho. He definitely seems to fade late in matches but shoot, he's tough to score on. Truax had him in a bad way when he hit that double into a bear hug on Pinto and Pinto just noped out of it. 197--Brooks is awesome and Allred has regressed a little bit. No notes. Just tip your cap to Brooks and move on. He and Hidlay from NC State are on a collision course and it should be a great finals match with those two. HWT--It didn't matter who NU sent out here. Both guys were giving up bonus points. I understand why they had Nash go out there because he's just so much bigger and was less likely to give up a pin. Kerkvilet is going to be a really tough out for anyone and he appears to be on a mission this year. All in all, Nebraska is firing on all cylinders right now, they've looked great for the better part of a month. I just hope they aren't peaking too soon. They close out with Arizona State next week who have a few top end guys before rolling into the Big Ten conference tourney which is always a total meat grinder.

Big time test this weekend in Happy Valley. Penn State is freaking loaded.

I'm really rooting for Christo as well. Stuff is electric no doubt. Needs the command.

Per Evan Bland of the OWH, Nebraska starting rotation is: Fri vs Baylor: Brett Sears Sat vs TTU: Will Walsh Sun vs OU: Caleb Clark What do you think @Loebarth?

If folks are interested in such things, I saw a line last night of Baylor -130/Nebraska +100 for Friday.

That's fair, I agree, getting the W over Baylor would be ideal. TTU will be tough and OU? Who knows. They're picked to finish in roughly the middle of the conference.

I watched a ton of Baylor last year and they were pretty stinky. I know Mason Marriott was their Friday night guy last year and he really struggled. Obviously new year new me and all that jazz but I'd be fine seeing him on the bump on Friday if it comes to it. Texas Tech should be a wagon, tons of talented bats. I'm guessing Nebraska will see either Zane Petty or Kyle Robinson. OU still has Spikerman who has been in school for seemingly 10 years. Pitching wise, they were pretty hot and cold.

That was a great dual to watch. Easily the best Nebraska has looked collectively all season long. Yuge test this week going to Happy Valley. My .02 on Hutmacher, I think this is pretty much what we all expected right? Davison is legit, 4x NQ, 2x AA. To expect Hutmacher to even be competitive against a guy like that I think is wishful thinking. My stretch expectations for him (assuming he actually gets the nod which to me is still a reach) is NCAA qualifier is his ceiling and that would be a tremendous accomplishment. It doesn't matter who goes on Sunday unfortunately because Kerk, the PSU HWT is dismantling dudes. Whoever gets rolled out there is giving up bonus points. As for Sunday versus Penn State, I just want to see the guys be competitive. Unfortunately, I think we might see a little ducking on both sides.

Big one tomorrow night for the boys. Hosting Michigan at 6pm on BTN. Should be a dynamite atmosphere in what should be a really close dual. Assuming both teams roll out their 'A' lineups we should get Ridge/Gomez at 149 which should be an awesome matchup. Wrestlestat has it as a 16-16 draw but I think both squads with have a couple of changes. If nothing else, for the love of all things I hope Robb beats Lewan at 157. I hate the way Lewan wrestles.

Seems reasonable, keep taking care of business at home and as others have mentioned, steal a road win or two.

Iowa/Indiana are probably the 2 big favorites to win the Big Ten going in and Nebraska catches both squads at home which is great.

Skers are hosting Illinois today at 2pm. Streaming available on BTN+ https://huskers.com/news/2024/02/2/huskers-welcome-illinois-on-sunday Nebraska should win pretty comfortably. Assuming both teams roll out their usual lineups, the best match will be at 149 with Lovett wrestling Kannon Webster who is currently #8.

I, too, was a little surprised it didn't get any Oscar buzz at all. From what I've read, the reasoning is the movie came out super late in the awards cycle plus A24 the production company threw their support behind a couple other films.

+1, your comment on the casting is something I've read in a few other reviews as well and it's a fair critique. I hope you enjoy the film once you get around to watching it!

You have to watch Road House simply because Kelly Lynch is throwing 98mph gas in it. Man, she is so good looking.

I prefer to call it 'Le c$%k' as it makes me feel fancy.

I've gotten the chance to experience them a couple of times at friend's houses and every time I'm like, "Man, this would rock." It's kinda like the heated steering wheel and (to me more important) cooled seats. Do you need them? Absolutely not. Is your life better when you have access to them? Yes.

I'm snobby about plush towels, high quality bedsheets and a mattress, plus I'll spend an obscene amount on really good pillows. Look man, I just like my sleep! To me, the height of luxury would be heated floors in the bathroom.

Skers welcome back Coach Ersland and Purdue today. Dual starts at 1pm CST today. On BTN Plus https://huskers.com/news/2024/01/18/huskers-travel-to-minnesota-welcome-purdue

Totally get where you're coming from about Mizzou. That being said, Mizzou has a really salty tournament and dual team. From 157 up their team is full of absolute hammers and multiple time AAs. The only guy who isn't is Whitling at 184 and he was a super stud recruit. They finished 5th last year and brought back everyone I think so I get why they are ranked where they are. Definitely check them out if you can, if nothing else to see Keegan O'Toole at 165 who is an absolute animal.

Dual thoughts! 125--Bit of a weird match. Smith had 2 terrific offensive shots and....they turned into 13 points for McKee. Woof. It was good to see Smith out there initiating offense at least and honestly, I wouldn't be shocked if Smith beats him the next time they wrestle. 133--Burwick gonna Burwick. Yawn. Next 141--Hardy kinda is what he is at this point. He got a crafty vet win. I was really impressed by Vombaur, he really pushed the pace the entire match. Was fun to see. Side note, idiotic challenge by Nebraska's coaches. 149--Really solid effort out of Ridge, looked razor sharp out there. Guys aren't going to give him anything and he came out more aggressively tonight it seems like. 157--Ugh, not a great showing out of Robb. I get Blockhaus is a crafty sonofagun (he beat Franek from Iowa recently) but I was hoping to see more of a complete effort tonight. Full disclosure, all the respect in the world to Robb for everything he's pushed through. He's a warrior in every sense of the word and who knows how close to 100% he is. 165--Nice showing out of Antrell, man he's explosive, awesome TD right at the end of the 1st period. If he had been able to finish that TD at the end to secure a MD would've been a cherry on top. 174--Solid win, nice job Bubba 184--Man, this is always such a great matchup. Salazar is tough man. I have no idea how Pinto didn't get awarded a TD early on. Having a challenge available would've been nice. These dudes are a pure tossup. 197--Jesus, the Minnesota guy looked gigantic out there compared to Allred, I know Joles was at HWT last year and cut down. Allred did a really solid job fending off some tough attacks and had a great shot in SV to get the win. HWT--Really good showing out of Andrews. Great leg attacks and he rode Tabor like a dog there in the 1st. Got a little gassy and thankfully, Tabor was kind of a dumb dumb there. That lat drop at the end was sweeeeeeeettttttttt. All in all, hey, it's a road win in the Big Ten. Minnesota has a bunch of scrappy dudes. Some good, some bad.

The team was really hamstrung with terrible QB play. They rolled out Emory Jones (Florida transfer) before making the switch to Bourguet who is a local Arizona kid. Bourguet had a couple of nice games but he's the epitome of a solid backup/low end starter. They wisely leaned on Valladay quite a bit who was a 1000 yard rusher at Wyoming and had a nice season for Arizona State. They were a pretty bad team in 2022, they could sneak up on you at home (I remember they beat Washington in a higher scoring game in Tempe) but if you didn't overlook them, you most likely won by 2 TDs+

I'll be interested to see who they end up getting. I'm guessing a NFL retread of some type, like Ken Norton Jr, maybe Mike Zimmer. Kelley leaving CU is actually a good thing for them because he STINKS

Really, really good. If you know anything about the Von Erichs you know their story is really tragic and the movie does a good job of navigating it without being super emotionally manipulative. Zac Efron was incredible and the rest of the cast was really good as well.

Alright, thoughts from the dual. I agree with everyone else that it was a subpar night. Nebraska looked gassed out there while Iowa was very crisp. 125--Ayala completely dominated. Smith seemed to be able to get to his setups and he had an underhook a few times but he generated zero offense out there. 133--Best performance of the night IMO. Van Dee wrestled outstanding. Great mat awareness, great pace. Just a terrific showing. 141--I don't if Woods is just levels above Hardy or if Woods is just a bad matchup for him. Woods seems to have completely figured out Hardy's funk and unless Hardy can completely change things up, tonight's result is going to be par for the course. For the record, I hate Hardy's style where he lets everyone into his legs and just is able to gumby. 149--Was honestly hoping for bonus out of Ridge. Iowa guy was clearly not going to do anything and I thought Ridge played with his food too much. 157--No real notes, just 2 high level dudes going at it and Franek was a little bit better. Pure toss up match. 165--This was a pretty good 'there are levels to this' match. Caliendo is every single bit of 165 and you can tell Antrell is a little bit undersized (although he looks great out there). Caliendo is just really tough. Good effort out of Taylor and he did a nice job of not getting majored there at the end. 174--Good fight out of Bubba, I think Kennedy is just better and we saw that tonight. 184--Pinto so weird man, he's a mutant athlete, so explosive, so strong. He's got NCAA champ upside but the gas tank isn't quite there and he weirdly has bad mat awareness at times. He looked really close to getting taken down there and losing the MD. Now, I could be wrong and he's just so freaking strong that he knew exactly where he was at and felt he wasn't in any danger. 197--Man, this was bad. Allred looks terrible out there. It's shocking to see him this year versus last year, he's gotta be banged up. HWT--Fun match, as others have mentioned, Nash was gassed out in the 2p. He kept pretty good positioning throughout the match and had a couple good attacks. He's going to be a problem going forward once he gets his sea legs just due to his size and strength. He'll get torched by the top end guys, but I wouldn't be shocked to see him make the NCAAs.