Love Smith and Smeltzer. Both are great people and teammates - absolutely root for them to succeed. Both are also good, solid wrestlers. I personally believe Stan would have had a better shot in the matchups this year at ACCT. That being said there is some uncertainty.

1) Could Smith be the guy. Sure. Could he have a Haught like progression - possibly. He certainly wrestled tough against a gauntlet of top competition as a True Freshman. Has now seen and experienced what it will take to be a top guy. A redshirt next season may serve him well in many respects (also think of a possible Bolen like redshirt year improvement). Would absolutely be great to see.

2) The cumulative effect of some recruiting misses at this weight are probably stinging a bit more now. Noah Adams decommitment (went to WVU), the Braxton Amos miss (he is going to be a beast at Wisconsin and is killing it in “side” matches - so weird they held him out during this free year - apparently a scholly distribution issue), and Nick Feldman recently. A transfer or recruit is always a possibility - but without knowing the VT scholarship allocation situation, always tough to gauge.

3) There are about 4 Top 10 ish 197s uncommitted - 3 juniors and a Soph. A few 220 seniors like Skillings and Misita (who has wrestled Feldman very tight) still unsigned.