Penn State Wrestling Show: TWO BJC Duals? Home Schedule Update

we have the future for the Pense wrestling team or at least the the schedule is out we're going to be talking about that on the pens wrestling show and the latest opportunity to watch the future of the nitty lions at work I'm Thomas Frank car Greg pickle our wrestling reporter here he's got all the information he's going to be telling you about all of that today on the show so welcome in Greg uh what's the last couple days weeks been like for penate wrestling what have you been following and uh and generally how you doing welcome to the show I'm doing well Frank it's good to be back and it's uh feeling more like wrestling season outside with each and every passing day that temps are dropping and before we know it uh wrestling season will be here but uh Penn State wrestling uh learned its uh Big 10 uh schedule uh or at least its opponents hasn't learned schedule yet but so we'll get to that but uh the big news this week is u20s are here so a number of either future or in one case a current nitty lion are competing in that freestyle event that really kind of uh for the most part closes out the freestyle portion of the year for wrestling and moves us into uh the folk style or uh as everyone else knows at the college portion of the year so uh looking forward to that but uh I did expect us quite frankly to have a few more schedule nuggets by now and we just don't have them uh teams are really taking their time putting their schedule out so uh we will have to wait on some of that stuff but we do know the Big 10 dates will get into that but before um we talk about that it's definitely like I said u20 season uh and like I said a number of notable nitty lions are getting ready to compete yeah so uh we'll get to the schedule in just a second let's get into that uh Luke little doll I know is one of the headliners in the conversation around um future commit so who are you watching for in this uh this coming weekend yeah so there are a number of uh Fork uh future NY Lions if you will and then one current NY lion uh some of these guys are going to be uh current NY lion as soon as uh as soon as this u20 event ends cuz they are enrolling this year but uh you have Luke Li doll at 57 kgs PJ Duke at 7 kilogram Zack Ryder at 79 kilograms uh Josh bar who is the current NY liion at 86 kilograms and then Conor Conor Mira is at 92 kg so there is a lot to watch over the next uh few days they will start this competition closer to the weekend uh in Spain uh currently as you were recording this on September 4 uh the women's freestyle event is going on and then they'll move into the men's freestyle for the u20 so uh you will have to stick with us at blue white Illustrated dcom for the latest on that but two things I'm really curious about t Frank number one Luke little doll as we talked about on a previous edition of the BWI wrestling show could very well be Penn State wrestling starter at 125 pounds this year so how does he look in what is yet another tuneup event essentially uh for uh his potential uh starting you know to start his career then at Penn State as a starter and then Josh bar is a guy who we saw uh briefly last year he beat one All-American but he mostly red shirted in 2024 or I'm sorry in 20123 2024 so entering 2024 2025 I'm very curious to see what kind of uh you know Outlook he has based on how he does at Worlds uh u20 worlds uh going into the year because I think Penn State will use him this year and can use him this year uh but what he can do in terms of how far he can go uh we'll get a good first look at that at Worlds this weekend yeah so what's the competition level like for these guys do do you know and then what are you hoping to learn about them in this setting and in this situation yeah so it is certainly the best of the best all getting together here for the u20 worlds in Spain uh when it comes to L I'll just go through the list here real quick T Frank when it comes to little doll I think obviously you know uh him winning a title here would certainly uh be the latest step in his possible cementing of a starting job in uh the 2024 2025 Penn State wrestling lineup for PJ Duke and for Zack Ryder uh both of them have had interesting uh and I think you could call it unique uh pass to this point and so I'm just curious to see how those guys look against the best in the world uh they have obviously dominated United States competition so what do they look like when they're against the best in the world that is what I'm watching with those two and then with Josh bar uh the question for me is again we saw him compete in some aspects last year but not many and so what does he look like as he gets ready to return to what we assume is going to be a more full-time role and obviously freestyle is not folk style but what does he look like on the mat uh as he gets ready to I'm assuming uh what he hopes at least is to win a job in the Penn State starting lineup uh and how does that look in freestyle uh as we get ready for the folk style season and then with Conor mirola uh he has won everywhere he's been and I don't think he's going to wrest for penate this year I think he's probably going to red shirt but there is an argument to be made that if he really shines at Worlds and he comes into uh the Lorenzo wrestling complex with a full head of steam maybe he does end up winning a job and so I think with all these guys obviously you're waiting to see how far they go in terms of their bracket but there's also uh you know I think a lot of things we can learn about what their season is going to look like coming up uh based on how they do here because it really truly is the final tuneup uh before the college wrestling season really begins and so that's going to be in interesting fascinating to watch and Greg's going to have all that covered at bluewhiteillustrated.com if uh you want to get in on the wrestling room and all that stuff tell people where to follow the coverage yeah so you can find it on Twitter atreg pickle as you can see with the um the tag there if you're watching on YouTube you can also find us at bluewhiteillustrated.com over in the wrestling room uh and also on the lion Den Message Board we will have updates uh it's going to be going on during Penn State Bowling Green uh but as T Frank and I will talk about a little bit later uh today uh I just don't know how competitive Penn State Bowling Green is gonna be T Frank so I think we'll have plenty of time to follow the wrestling yeah you're G to be pulling double duty and Greg already does so many things already so uh you know appreciate everything Greg does and you know if you love his wrestling content just just know like it's uh he's he's doing a lot for us at blue white Illustrated so one of the things we we haven't done this show every single week because we want to bring you substantive news here on the show and not just conversation and empty chatter cuz I above all I think wrestling people are very like give us the information give us the stuff we want to know things we don't need uh you he gabbing all the time but one of the things you've been following and you we've talked about is like I I thought there be more schedule news for like the last three weeks is what you've been telling me right um what do you think that is what do you think things have been a little bit slower in that particular area of our news cycle when it comes to uh wrestling yeah I'm just spitballing here but my assumption is that the expansion of conferences not just a big 10 but also across uh College athletics has really slowed things down you know when you think about putting out a winter sports schedule uh at places where the women's uh basketball team men's basketball team and the wrestling team may all share the same uh venue but not to mention gymnastics and any other winner sports that some of these schools might have that maybe Penn State doesn't have uh I just think there's a lot of coordination that goes into to it and so I think you're seeing um the byproduct of that which is a delayed schedule you know Nebraska was one of the only big 10 schools T rank who has put on their website that they will have their wrestling schedule out soon but they said it would be after Labor Day obviously we're after Labor Day and their schedule is still not out so well it's still technically true right we are after wrong they weren't lying yeah they were not lying could be October yes uh so Penn State last year it released or it received its Big 10 home away opponents in July and it announced its official schedule the third week of October so if you I think uh over on the lion dead Message Board somebody asked how soon they expected dates to be attached to the Big 10 schedule no time soon no time soon uh for whatever reason closer to Halloween than Labor Day it sounds that is correct yeah for some reason this process takes forever every year I do think that there is a component of a t Frank that is related to the expansion of the Big 10 and some other conferences and just trying to map everything out uh but also wrestling for whatever reason is always the last one to post their schedule so uh I would not get my hopes up if I was a Penn State wrestling fan for dates anytime soon so what is the schedule let's go through it uh talk the home and away stuff that you've got for us here because we do have those nuggets so here to end the show let Let's uh lay that out for pen fans so they know which ones they can go see recck Hall and maybe we could point to some BJC duels uh during this kind of specula or not speculation the info dump you got for us here yeah so the home Penn State Big 10 wrestling matches are going to be Iowa Michigan Michigan State and Maryland and on the road Penn State will face Nebraska Illinois Ohio State and Ruckers so uh the question really just becomes T Frank we've talked about this previously uh if you remember last year the Bryce Jordan Center duel was against Ruckers on a Monday and a lot of people were like this is strange why why is Penn State doing this uh kale Sanderson more or less said that by the time they got around to being able to skip U the Bryce Jordan Center was full on the dates of its uh bigger matches and so I would you would assume Pat craft and kale Sanderson put a plan in place after that last year to uh make sure it didn't happen again uh we'll have to wait and see but my assumption here would be that uh obviously the Iowa match would be the one that you would Point toward re uh Bryce Jord Center rather um but I wouldn't fault them either if it was Michigan but it should be one of those two it should either be Iowa or Michigan at the price Jordan Center and if they wanted to do both if the schedule allowed for it kale Sanderson talked a year ago I guess it was two years ago at this point about being okay with possibly doing uh two Bryce Jordan Center matches so if you're ever going to do it Michigan and Iowa both coming in State College would be the time to do it you would sell it out no questions asked and so I'm really curious to see what they end up deciding um but you know I think it's a very good home schedule after last year was a little mediocre I think it's a good Big 10 home schedule and I'm very curious to see in the weeks ahead here T Frank what non-conference matches get added because Penn State uh we know kale Sanderson usually mixes it up a bit and so the teams that you might expect to be on the non-conference schedule probably won't be and it's always fascinating to see who ends up on the schedule but like I said as we sit here on September 4 uh none of those matches are out yet yes so what do you think of the away schedule and then the new look big 10 how do you think that's affecting the rotation here of of the teams on the schedule and and do you find anything interesting in that part yeah the newcomers don't bring wrestling with them so that was the only good news for the wrestling part of it but again I think that going back to the conversation we had before they all bring basketball both men's and women and they all bring uh men's and women's gymnastics and so I just think the newcomers into Big 10 aren't necessarily affecting the wrestling schedule in terms of opponents but they are impacting it in terms of the way this whole thing is cycling through and being released and being setup and things like that um just because you're adding uh not necessarily wrestling but you're adding winter sports so they have there's a lot of maneuvering and even though Rec Hall is obviously the home of Penn State wrestling there are a lot of places that don't have the luxury of having a specific uh gymnastics and wrestling venue and then obviously a basketball venue so I I do think that plays a pretty big role in how long this stuff is taking to come out but in terms of the road schedule um I think it's fairly uh you know favorable to Penn State obviously a lot of Penn State fans will travel to ruter and Ohio State those are drives for most Penn State fans Ohio State obviously a little bit further but certainly doable Rucker is absolutely doable for anybody that lives in the midd Atlantic um and then Nebraska and Illinois I think it will be good for Penn State to get to those venues they have some kids on the roster from those areas and they uh you know obviously uh love to mix up uh Big 10 competition and Nebraska and Illinois are two teams they did not face um a year ago so I really think that it is a good schedule uh competition Wise It's a good schedule in terms of trying to defend the Big 10 regular season title uh and especially on the home side of it it's a very good schedule for Penn State fans so check all of Greg's workout at bluee illustrate. comom always appreciate people supporting the channel here on the blue white Illustrated YouTube channels we grow this wrestling show uh as we get into the actual season eventually we'll have a lot of stuff to talk about and the guy to go to for analysis and breakdowns and having all the facts Greg pickle always appreciate you Greg thanks D Frank