University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Wrestling Coaches, Athletes Preview Season at Media Day
11/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Head Coach J Robinson
On the upcoming NWCA All-Star Classic:
“One of the things wrestling tries to do is get some interest in the beginning and one way is to have an all-star classic. It started in 1957 after the season, where they’d bring in the two best guys after the season. That didn’t work. Now they’ve come up with using it as a preseason thing to get people talking about wrestling and about individual match-ups. The object is to get the number one and number two guy against each other early. It doesn’t count officially as far as results go but the object is to get people excited about wrestling and use it as a kickoff. We’ve got three guys going this year and we’re pretty excited about all three of them. It’s going to be in Oregon, which is an interesting situation because last year they decided they were dropping their wrestling program, so there’s a big push by the coaches association to bring this to them, to showcase the best wrestlers in the nation and hopefully use that to get the administration to change their minds about the state of wrestling in Oregon, which traditionally has a great tradition and it’s something that they want to go forward on.”
On exposure of NWCA All-Star Classic:
“I think it’s a great way to kick off the season. It gives the guys something to look forward to. It’s always good when you have something to train for. The guys that are going have had a little different training regiment than the others. Marty (Morgan) has been running them through some special practices. It helps with their focus and helps the younger guys, being able to see the older guys going to the All-Star Classic, knowing someday down the road they want to be going to the classic themselves. There’s a lot of positives that come out of it other than showing up and wrestling.”
On pushing individuals to win another national championship:
“When we recruited this group five years ago, one of their goals was to win a national title. We came back two years ago and we were ranked number one in the country and much of us sophomores, we overachieved by beating Oklahoma State twice but in the actual tournament we fell a little bit short. I think the following year there was a little more focus to win it as a team. As a result, a lot of our individuals didn’t get to where they want to be. We have a lot of seniors this year, where this is their last chance to be an individual national champion. Every year your team changes, it adapts, it moves from place to place and you have to come up with a different idea to get them to the same place. For us as a team, there’s a different way to go about it. If we push five or six guys into the finals, we’ll win the team title. So it’s just a different way to get to the same place, but allows these guys to focus on themselves a little bit and get that one prize that’s eluded them for the past four years.”
On motivation to repeat as national champions:
Two-Time All-American Dustin Schlatter:
“I think it propels us into the next year. We’re all in the right frame of mind. It just comes off as a great feeling, and something we want to repeat. But at the same time, even though we did win nationals, there was a lot of individual disappointments. I think a lot people didn’t do as well as they probably could have and I think that we want to have the same emotions and the same accomplishments as a team but individually, meet the goals we set of ourselves.”
Two-Time All-American Mack Rieter:
“I think coming off of what Dustin said, everyone of us has the goal of winning a national title. We figure that if we take care of what we need to do, the team score wont matter. If we put six, seven or eight guys in the finals, have eight or ten all Americans, it is not going to be a team race. We should be head and shoulders above everyone else anyways. I noticed the way they said it also, we have focused a lot more on individual success this year.”
On last year’s national championships:
“That Friday, we had some upsets and a lot of us went down but it was a battle of the team race. A lot of us had to win in order for our team to get the title. I don’t think we want to be in that position this coming year. We want to be in the position where we are all in the finals and we don’t have to worry about that. We can worry about winning our own titles and the team title will take care of itself at that point.”
Head Assistant Coach Marty Morgan:
“Just quickly, I’ll give an update. The training cycle is going well, we’ve been on a training cycle for about six weeks now. Some of it has been flexible, some has been official. It’s just been to get the guys into shape and to start to get their weight down. We’ve got three guys in the all-star classic in a couple weeks from now. For those guys, we put them through a little extra workouts to try and get them ready to go. We’ve been out recruiting and we’ve put together a really strong recruiting class as well, which will be announced the middle of next week. It’s been a good fall, we’ve put in a lot of time and hopefully the team is ready to go again.”
About the weight classes that are still up in the air:
“I think they are still pretty wide open. The 197 pounds, we have several guys that are in the mix. We will use the Bison Open and the UNO Open to start to determine who is going to be the starters. We have a couple of guys who wont be at the Bison Open due to minor injuries probably Brent Eidenschink, but we will still have Justin Bronson and Chris McPhail wrestling at 197. Heavyweight, everyone is obviously waiting to see what is going to happen between Ben Berhow and Joe Nord. Just from watching them over the past year they both have improved greatly and we are just going to leave it up to how they compete against other heavyweights at first. If by chance they meet each other in these tournaments, we will wrestle possibly use them as wrestle-off. The way we pick our team is based on how guys do in competition against other heavy weights.”
On the loss of Cole Konrad and how it might affect the team’s leadership:
Two-Time NCAA Qualifier Manuel Rivera
“As far as leadership, we have a lot of seniors on the team this year. There are a lot of guys filling in that role but of course we are going to miss having Cole there at the end and everyone. I think whoever gets the heavyweight spot will do well. They have been training with Cole the past year and a half so I think they will be ready to go.”
On the Big Ten Conference:
J Robinson
“I think the Big Ten is always pretty solid right now. Looking at it national ranking wise, Michigan and Ohio State both have four All-Americans. I think Iowa has re-grouped a little bit with some transfers coming in with Coach Tom Brands. I think you have three pretty solid teams right there. Then in the Big Ten, as far as dual meets go, you always have to be ready to wrestle every week because every Big Ten team can usually put out a pretty good team. But I would say right now, those are probably the three best teams to push for the actual Big Ten title and putting us in the mix there of course.”
On the competition within the Big Ten, especially at 149 pounds:
Dustin Schlatter
“I am pretty excited how deep it is, getting a chance to wrestle. I am looking forward to wrestling Jordan McLaughlin from Iowa. There is a lot of hype that goes with it. I would kind of like to silence that hype. We have not wrestled for a couple of years now but growing up in high school, we had a pretty strong rivalry going so it is something I have been looking forward to for awhile now.”
On scoring more points this season:
“That has been one of the biggest things I have been working on in the off-season, creating an opportunity to score more. Maybe shutting down opponents a little bit and keeping the score close, figuring out ways to score more and keep tacking throughout the match. So that’s the plan and what I am working for.”
On the upcoming NWCA All-Star Classic:
“One of the things wrestling tries to do is get some interest in the beginning and one way is to have an all-star classic. It started in 1957 after the season, where they’d bring in the two best guys after the season. That didn’t work. Now they’ve come up with using it as a preseason thing to get people talking about wrestling and about individual match-ups. The object is to get the number one and number two guy against each other early. It doesn’t count officially as far as results go but the object is to get people excited about wrestling and use it as a kickoff. We’ve got three guys going this year and we’re pretty excited about all three of them. It’s going to be in Oregon, which is an interesting situation because last year they decided they were dropping their wrestling program, so there’s a big push by the coaches association to bring this to them, to showcase the best wrestlers in the nation and hopefully use that to get the administration to change their minds about the state of wrestling in Oregon, which traditionally has a great tradition and it’s something that they want to go forward on.”
On exposure of NWCA All-Star Classic:
“I think it’s a great way to kick off the season. It gives the guys something to look forward to. It’s always good when you have something to train for. The guys that are going have had a little different training regiment than the others. Marty (Morgan) has been running them through some special practices. It helps with their focus and helps the younger guys, being able to see the older guys going to the All-Star Classic, knowing someday down the road they want to be going to the classic themselves. There’s a lot of positives that come out of it other than showing up and wrestling.”
On pushing individuals to win another national championship:
“When we recruited this group five years ago, one of their goals was to win a national title. We came back two years ago and we were ranked number one in the country and much of us sophomores, we overachieved by beating Oklahoma State twice but in the actual tournament we fell a little bit short. I think the following year there was a little more focus to win it as a team. As a result, a lot of our individuals didn’t get to where they want to be. We have a lot of seniors this year, where this is their last chance to be an individual national champion. Every year your team changes, it adapts, it moves from place to place and you have to come up with a different idea to get them to the same place. For us as a team, there’s a different way to go about it. If we push five or six guys into the finals, we’ll win the team title. So it’s just a different way to get to the same place, but allows these guys to focus on themselves a little bit and get that one prize that’s eluded them for the past four years.”
On motivation to repeat as national champions:
Two-Time All-American Dustin Schlatter:
“I think it propels us into the next year. We’re all in the right frame of mind. It just comes off as a great feeling, and something we want to repeat. But at the same time, even though we did win nationals, there was a lot of individual disappointments. I think a lot people didn’t do as well as they probably could have and I think that we want to have the same emotions and the same accomplishments as a team but individually, meet the goals we set of ourselves.”
Two-Time All-American Mack Rieter:
“I think coming off of what Dustin said, everyone of us has the goal of winning a national title. We figure that if we take care of what we need to do, the team score wont matter. If we put six, seven or eight guys in the finals, have eight or ten all Americans, it is not going to be a team race. We should be head and shoulders above everyone else anyways. I noticed the way they said it also, we have focused a lot more on individual success this year.”
On last year’s national championships:
“That Friday, we had some upsets and a lot of us went down but it was a battle of the team race. A lot of us had to win in order for our team to get the title. I don’t think we want to be in that position this coming year. We want to be in the position where we are all in the finals and we don’t have to worry about that. We can worry about winning our own titles and the team title will take care of itself at that point.”
Head Assistant Coach Marty Morgan:
“Just quickly, I’ll give an update. The training cycle is going well, we’ve been on a training cycle for about six weeks now. Some of it has been flexible, some has been official. It’s just been to get the guys into shape and to start to get their weight down. We’ve got three guys in the all-star classic in a couple weeks from now. For those guys, we put them through a little extra workouts to try and get them ready to go. We’ve been out recruiting and we’ve put together a really strong recruiting class as well, which will be announced the middle of next week. It’s been a good fall, we’ve put in a lot of time and hopefully the team is ready to go again.”
About the weight classes that are still up in the air:
“I think they are still pretty wide open. The 197 pounds, we have several guys that are in the mix. We will use the Bison Open and the UNO Open to start to determine who is going to be the starters. We have a couple of guys who wont be at the Bison Open due to minor injuries probably Brent Eidenschink, but we will still have Justin Bronson and Chris McPhail wrestling at 197. Heavyweight, everyone is obviously waiting to see what is going to happen between Ben Berhow and Joe Nord. Just from watching them over the past year they both have improved greatly and we are just going to leave it up to how they compete against other heavyweights at first. If by chance they meet each other in these tournaments, we will wrestle possibly use them as wrestle-off. The way we pick our team is based on how guys do in competition against other heavy weights.”
On the loss of Cole Konrad and how it might affect the team’s leadership:
Two-Time NCAA Qualifier Manuel Rivera
“As far as leadership, we have a lot of seniors on the team this year. There are a lot of guys filling in that role but of course we are going to miss having Cole there at the end and everyone. I think whoever gets the heavyweight spot will do well. They have been training with Cole the past year and a half so I think they will be ready to go.”
On the Big Ten Conference:
J Robinson
“I think the Big Ten is always pretty solid right now. Looking at it national ranking wise, Michigan and Ohio State both have four All-Americans. I think Iowa has re-grouped a little bit with some transfers coming in with Coach Tom Brands. I think you have three pretty solid teams right there. Then in the Big Ten, as far as dual meets go, you always have to be ready to wrestle every week because every Big Ten team can usually put out a pretty good team. But I would say right now, those are probably the three best teams to push for the actual Big Ten title and putting us in the mix there of course.”
On the competition within the Big Ten, especially at 149 pounds:
Dustin Schlatter
“I am pretty excited how deep it is, getting a chance to wrestle. I am looking forward to wrestling Jordan McLaughlin from Iowa. There is a lot of hype that goes with it. I would kind of like to silence that hype. We have not wrestled for a couple of years now but growing up in high school, we had a pretty strong rivalry going so it is something I have been looking forward to for awhile now.”
On scoring more points this season:
“That has been one of the biggest things I have been working on in the off-season, creating an opportunity to score more. Maybe shutting down opponents a little bit and keeping the score close, figuring out ways to score more and keep tacking throughout the match. So that’s the plan and what I am working for.”
Players Mentioned
HWT
/ Wrestling
197
/ Wrestling
197
/ Wrestling
HWT
/ Wrestling
HWT
/ Wrestling
141
/ Wrestling
149
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