I wrote this on November 6.....Let's revisit these and see how we are doing:

1) Do we get an individual title this year? Haught has a legit shot at it, you can never count DMF out of anything, and Sully and ZZ have the talent to contend.

Analysis: We have Haught and DMF solidly in the hunt and ZZ not that far behind. At his best, ZZ has the best all-around wrestling ability. Of course, Sully's out of the mix. Grade: Incomplete.

2) Does Gus' senior year echo Sal's? Gus, like Sal, has has a rocky career as a starter at VT, and failed to qualify the last two years. Does he pull it together and crush it like Sal did last year?

Analysis: Gus has surpassed Sal and effortlessly qualified. Grade: Incomplete, but he looked great against Mueller/

3) Redshirt freshman- If there's a complaint I've had with the last two years, is that we have focused primarily on the top 10 guys in the room and paid little attention to open tournaments and the development of other guys in the room. The flip side of this and that Moore, Norstrem and Dunn aren't where they need to be. Among both of them, they have few quality wins (mostly Moores) and a few losses to top 60 guys. Getting these guys ready for first team competition is essential, which leads us to....

Analysis: After writing this, Norstrem, and later Dunn, started to slump. After the holiday break, Moore began to seriously ramp it up. But all three qualified, Grade- B+ (Moore A, Dunn B, Norstrem B-).

4) Developing redshirts- This year's freshman class is impressive with Lewis and Manley leading the charge and Borst, Smelzer, and Darber not too far behind. We need to make sure that these guys continue to develop and see meaningful competition. Hopefully, our redshirts compete in the Scuffle and we look for ways to further their development.

Analysis: We competed in the Scuffle! Of course, Lewis is poised to make the same impact next year that Hidlay made this year. He also got a chance to work out at the OTC. Borst and Manley wrestled well...and both will likely be needed next year. Grade- A

5) 157 and 174- There will be some tough losses in both of these classes early on, the key will be learning from them and developing as the season progresses.

Analysis: Bolen took his lumps early on, but finished very strong and beat Ramos. BC won the job, forcing Blees to go to 149 and win the spot (boy, I didn't predict that). BC got injured and he failed to qualify. Grade A- (I'm including Blees performance in this grade)

6) Nailing the 2019 recruiting cycle- the 2018 class, so far is a base hit, and not the home run we have been yearning for. Mitch Moore is a blue chipper and Cody Howard will surprise. We need to knock 2019 recruiting out of the park. Sam Latona is a good start, but we need to get several more studs aboard.

Analysis: Rokie disagrees with me on the importance of this. We've got decent depth at most weights (although I'd like some depth at 125 and 285). I still think getting a high profile recruit is extremely important to the staff to communication to the AD and SERTC donor the importance of a well-fund program. For 2018 Moore was already in the fold, I think Cody Howard will eventually surprise, but Graf, Florence, Gerardi, and Hart are all under the radar guys. Sam Latona is a good start for 2018, but you have to think staff will be paying lots of visit to Graham HS, as they have quite a few guys that could help us. Grades: 2018 C, 2019- Incomplete

[Post edited by HokieLifer2 at 11/06/2017 2:50PM]