2023-2024 Season

[Big Bird]

It's nearly September and while there is still a lot of work to be done, the 2023-2024 roster looks set. NDSU still needs to finish adding 2 coaches to the staff, which has taken far too long.

There aren't a lot of uncommitted big boarders left in the 2024 class, but there are some available and having a full staff would better allow NDSU to rebuild this team, since they didn't add anyone via the portal.

As far as the upcoming season and roster, it will be young and in all honesty, probably not very good. Much of the lineup lacks both depth and upside. I don't expect any tFr to burn their redshirts and I'd expect a lineup along the lines of:

125- Zach Silvis/Ryan Henningson/Carlos Negrete. I don't want Negrete starting. He's the most talented guy, but his effort is abysmal. We know who Henningson is, which leads me to hoping Zach Silvis will be the guy. He's coming off of a 1-1 showing at the U20 Greco Roman World Championships. I don't think he'd be a qualifier, but I'm tired of watching Negrete and Henningson is a far below .500 wrestler.
133- Fernando Barreto. He's a source of optimism for this upcoming season. My hope is that he can step in and be an immediate qualifier.
141- Gavin Drexler. Another source of optimism and a guy who should be a really good long term starter.
149- Kellyn March will be the leader and highest upside guy. They have quality depth options with Schumm, Radenz, and Peterson too. Hopefully March can contend for a low AA.
157- Landen Johnson. He's young and looks promising but has a funky, weird style. I'm not sure what his ceiling is, but hopefully he hits the ground running.
165- Brendan Howes. He's young and my expectations are pretty low.
174- Gaven Sax. A veteran and probably a fringe NCAA qualifier this year.
184- Lathan Duda. I think he'll struggle here, but he'll get an opportunity after barely wrestling thus far.
197- Spencer Mooberry. Hopefully he got stronger but I don't mind watching him. He's generally active and looking to score, he's just pretty thin.
HWT- Devon Dawson. I think he'll really struggle, but I've only seen a handful of his matches online.

If Silvis were to start, that'd be 5 rFr starting, and they didn't wrestle very much last year. With their limited match counts at the NCAA level, it's hard to tell how they'll do. Throw in that Duda and Dawson have very minimal D1 matches under their belts, and this team is full of unknowns. Hopefully the class of 2023 freshmen can get more in-season matches in than the 2022 guys.

IMO, the season can't start soon enough. This has been the worst offseason in program history, and the near term future doesn't look all that bright. My hope is Coach Blanc adds to the staff ASAP and they fill out the 2024 class with some upside. Hopefully he can turn this around quickly and rebuild this team to be a middle of the B12 squad soon.

[KSBisonFan]

It's nearly September and while there is still a lot of work to be done, the 2023-2024 roster looks set. NDSU still needs to finish adding 2 coaches to the staff, which has taken far too long.

There aren't a lot of uncommitted big boarders left in the 2024 class, but there are some available and having a full staff would better allow NDSU to rebuild this team, since they didn't add anyone via the portal.

As far as the upcoming season and roster, it will be young and in all honesty, probably not very good. Much of the lineup lacks both depth and upside. I don't expect any tFr to burn their redshirts and I'd expect a lineup along the lines of:

125- Zach Silvis/Ryan Henningson/Carlos Negrete. I don't want Negrete starting. He's the most talented guy, but his effort is abysmal. We know who Henningson is, which leads me to hoping Zach Silvis will be the guy. He's coming off of a 1-1 showing at the U20 Greco Roman World Championships. I don't think he'd be a qualifier, but I'm tired of watching Negrete and Henningson is a far below .500 wrestler.
133- Fernando Barreto. He's a source of optimism for this upcoming season. My hope is that he can step in and be an immediate qualifier.
141- Gavin Drexler. Another source of optimism and a guy who should be a really good long term starter.
149- Kellyn March will be the leader and highest upside guy. They have quality depth options with Schumm, Radenz, and Peterson too. Hopefully March can contend for a low AA.
157- Landen Johnson. He's young and looks promising but has a funky, weird style. I'm not sure what his ceiling is, but hopefully he hits the ground running.
165- Brendan Howes. He's young and my expectations are pretty low.
174- Gaven Sax. A veteran and probably a fringe NCAA qualifier this year.
184- Lathan Duda. I think he'll struggle here, but he'll get an opportunity after barely wrestling thus far.
197- Spencer Mooberry. Hopefully he got stronger but I don't mind watching him. He's generally active and looking to score, he's just pretty thin.
HWT- Devon Dawson. I think he'll really struggle, but I've only seen a handful of his matches online.

If Silvis were to start, that'd be 5 rFr starting, and they didn't wrestle very much last year. With their limited match counts at the NCAA level, it's hard to tell how they'll do. Throw in that Duda and Dawson have very minimal D1 matches under their belts, and this team is full of unknowns. Hopefully the class of 2023 freshmen can get more in-season matches in than the 2022 guys.

IMO, the season can't start soon enough. This has been the worst offseason in program history, and the near term future doesn't look all that bright. My hope is Coach Blanc adds to the staff ASAP and they fill out the 2024 class with some upside. Hopefully he can turn this around quickly and rebuild this team to be a middle of the B12 squad soon.

Thanks for the update, Big Bird.

I follow wrestling from a distance and don't know a ton about our guys.

Why has filling staff openings taken so long? Did we hire the wrong HC? Is it funding? Why haven't we backfilled some weights from the portal?

[Big Bird]

All of your questions are fair.

No clue on the staff openings. I would imagine it's a combination of NDSU not paying well and Coach Blanc looking for the right fit. I hated the look of advertising it on social media after it had been open for a while, as it seemed a bit desperate IMO. I love the addition of Hayden Hidlay as an assistant coach, but he is very inexperienced and I would imagine they want a much more seasoned candidate to fill the associate head coach role. Also, it would be great to have someone with very strong upper Midwest ties who is a good recruiter. Coach Blanc has been at NDSU for a little while now, so I'm sure he has some Midwest ties, but Hidlay has none and NDSU has to be able to pull quality kids from MN, ND, WI, IA, IL, and NE to succeed. Operating with 2 official coaches all summer, especially when the contact period with 2025 recruits opened is not ideal. Two guys to recruit, plan the upcoming season, train guys, get settled in their new roles (and new city/part of country for Hidlay), and live their lives is a recipe for disaster at the D1 level.

As far as the portal, my opinion is it was a combination of several things. The coaching change happened far later than most changes normally do (Thanks Oklahoma) and it was the worst timing possible. The portal was still open but several guys were already committed or had strong leanings to other schools/staffs. The coaching change also opened up an extended window for NDSU guys to enter the portal, so you had the portal close for all entries except for NDSU guys and grad transfers. Another negative was coach Blanc held out for the guys to return to NDSU, which wasn't going to happen, and in the process more guys committed elsewhere. Who knows if any of those guys would've had interest in coming to Fargo, but it wouldn't have hurt to offer big scholarship numbers to some of those portal guys.

I don't think it's fair to say we hired the wrong HC. The timing of the OU hire was a worst case scenario for NDSU, and that set NDSU up horribly. NIL compounded this all and led to two stars leaving and getting paid very well. Those departures, along with the guys that followed Kish, created a number of holes. The plan appears to be to build with HS kids, which is a sound plan, except that many top 2024 guys are already committed, so they better nail 2025 (which they're attacking with 2 coaches as opposed to 4 for most schools...so maybe they better nail 2026 recruiting, which will then take those guys a few years to develop...). I was on board with the hire, but I do think things have gone too slowly/conservatively on multiple things. Going forward, I hope Coach Blanc adopts what Troy Nickerson is doing at Northern Colorado and supplements his blue chip recruits that they then develop internally, with some transfers each year. We can't afford to bottom out for multiple years, and the portal offers a chance to avoid that while the staff gets their bearings and networks established in the region.

[BabyBison4U]

It's nearly September and while there is still a lot of work to be done, the 2023-2024 roster looks set. NDSU still needs to finish adding 2 coaches to the staff, which has taken far too long.

There aren't a lot of uncommitted big boarders left in the 2024 class, but there are some available and having a full staff would better allow NDSU to rebuild this team, since they didn't add anyone via the portal.

As far as the upcoming season and roster, it will be young and in all honesty, probably not very good. Much of the lineup lacks both depth and upside. I don't expect any tFr to burn their redshirts and I'd expect a lineup along the lines of:

125- Zach Silvis/Ryan Henningson/Carlos Negrete. I don't want Negrete starting. He's the most talented guy, but his effort is abysmal. We know who Henningson is, which leads me to hoping Zach Silvis will be the guy. He's coming off of a 1-1 showing at the U20 Greco Roman World Championships. I don't think he'd be a qualifier, but I'm tired of watching Negrete and Henningson is a far below .500 wrestler.
133- Fernando Barreto. He's a source of optimism for this upcoming season. My hope is that he can step in and be an immediate qualifier.
141- Gavin Drexler. Another source of optimism and a guy who should be a really good long term starter.
149- Kellyn March will be the leader and highest upside guy. They have quality depth options with Schumm, Radenz, and Peterson too. Hopefully March can contend for a low AA.
157- Landen Johnson. He's young and looks promising but has a funky, weird style. I'm not sure what his ceiling is, but hopefully he hits the ground running.
165- Brendan Howes. He's young and my expectations are pretty low.
174- Gaven Sax. A veteran and probably a fringe NCAA qualifier this year.
184- Lathan Duda. I think he'll struggle here, but he'll get an opportunity after barely wrestling thus far.
197- Spencer Mooberry. Hopefully he got stronger but I don't mind watching him. He's generally active and looking to score, he's just pretty thin.
HWT- Devon Dawson. I think he'll really struggle, but I've only seen a handful of his matches online.

If Silvis were to start, that'd be 5 rFr starting, and they didn't wrestle very much last year. With their limited match counts at the NCAA level, it's hard to tell how they'll do. Throw in that Duda and Dawson have very minimal D1 matches under their belts, and this team is full of unknowns. Hopefully the class of 2023 freshmen can get more in-season matches in than the 2022 guys.

IMO, the season can't start soon enough. This has been the worst offseason in program history, and the near term future doesn't look all that bright. My hope is Coach Blanc adds to the staff ASAP and they fill out the 2024 class with some upside. Hopefully he can turn this around quickly and rebuild this team to be a middle of the B12 squad soon.

Thanks for the insight.

[Portlandbison]

Looks like Mooberry is wrestling at 184. At least according to his ndsu nil merchandise.

https://ndsu.nil.store/collections/spencer-mooberry-184

[PaBizon]

Looks like the BiZon have completed their coaching staff by adding two assistants. Scott Mattingly and Ceron Francisco are now on the staff.

[Big Bird]

Looks like the BiZon have completed their coaching staff by adding two assistants. Scott Mattingly and Ceron Francisco are now on the staff.

I didn’t see either having the title of associate head coach in the gobison article and all 3 assistants are listed as “assistant coach” on the team site.

[NDSU_grad]

I didn’t see either having the title of associate head coach in the gobison article and all 3 assistants are listed as “assistant coach” on the team site.

I would think Hidlay has to be associate head coach, if Obe designates one.

[totoinfl]

Looks like the BiZon have completed their coaching staff by adding two assistants. Scott Mattingly and Ceron Francisco are now on the staff.

All yall are much closer to the wrestling program than me. I watch from a distance, but i was there in the 80's when Bucky was rolling. How does this team look for the year given the staff turnover and wrestler departures?

[Big Bird]

Young and not great. Most likely, it'll be a year near the bottom of the conference.

If things break right, they could have NCAA qualifiers at any of 133, 141, 149, 157, and 174 with March having a chance to string some wins together. Very unlikely all 5 qualify as 133, 141, and 157 are manned by untested rFr and 174 is manned by a veteran who hasn't gotten to NCAAs before. If they qualified any of the other weights, I'd be genuinely surprised.