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Last year the wrestling team had a lot of huge losses off the mat. I don't know how close you followed but they either lost or redshirted AA candidates in Howe, Rutt, Graff, Medberry and Thielke. My memory is bad but I think Cole Schmitt was also lost midway through the year (academics?). They also lost top recruit Destin McCauley after the whole Pritzlaff/Davis problem. They obviously knew most of those guys were going to redshirt last year but didn't anticipate losing three of them for good. They also lost Devin Peterson but that was his own problem for not qualifying and having to go JUCO.

This year, Thielke decided to redshirt He should make a huge impact next year. He needs to get reacclimated to collegiate style wrestling after focusing on greco for so long. They'll also have little Jordan and Ruschell's brother coming off redshirt as well as Keegan Genngrich from Hortonville. Hard to say what type of an immediate impact guys like Ruschell and Genngrich will have but I think they are the types that will continually improve while at UW and push for AA status as upper class men.

It's kind of tough to think about how good the wrestling team would be next year if the Davis/Pritzlaff problem hadn't happened. Howe ended up getting hurt at trials and is redshirting. He'd be back with all of the current talent, Thielke, McCauley, the recruit that left for Northern Iowa and is starting for them.

I'm not as anti-Barry Davis as many UW fans and I don't blame him for everything that went down. It seems clear that Pritzlaff and Davis had a break down in communication and that is really costing the program now. Can't wait for Davis to step down though. UW is a sleeping giant in wrestling if they make the right hire. I'm thinking about starting a "Hire Ben Askren for UW wrestling coach" thread.

He outrecruited Wisconsin while he was wrestling for Mizzou. Askren has a wrestling academy operating around Hartland. He is still fighting but he is keeping in wrestling through his academy and clinics he runs. He gets around to a whole lot of high school events around the Milwaukee area.