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Purdue getting some love on Flo


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Flowrestling's mid-season awards article posted today. 

 

Their Coach of the Year pick? Tony Ersland, Purdue. They had this to say:

 

While things like the Hodge and Freshman of the Year are a little easier in March because we have the final NCAA results, something like Coach of the Year is a little less straightforward. There are several ways to look at it, from giving it to the coach of the title team to a guy earning it for an unexpected team trophy or first national champ, as well as factoring in dual performance and how a program improves throughout the year.

 

There's no question Tom Brands would be a justified choice if Iowa wins its first national title in a decade, and on the other side if Penn State overcomes their bevy of injuries Cael Sanderson could be a wise choice. Wisconsin's first team trophy since 2010 would likely get Chris Bono some discussion and likely be the result of Tristan Moran going from preseason #11 to high All-American, plus a Seth Gross national title after transferring in.

 

But right now I'm looking at some other coaches in the Big Ten in Tony Ersland of Purdue and Matt Storniolo of Northwestern. Right now Ersland has the edge there due to the Boilermakers' 21-13 win over the Wildcats in Evanston, though Sebastian Rivera and Yahya Thomas both missed that dual. Purdue started the year unranked and is up to #10 in our tournament rankings, while Northwestern went up from 16th to 8th.

 

Similarly Virginia Tech has climbed from 18th to start the year to #11 now, and that's without the services of NCAA champ Mekhi Lewis while also suffering season ending injuries to Korbin Myers and Brent Moore. They're second in our dual rankings and begin their ACC schedule this Friday against North Carolina.

We should also mention Mark Manning after Nebraska won CKLV and Chris Ayres taking Princeton from 15th in the preseason to #8 right now. Coach of the Year is also tricky because it singles out the head coach for something that also includes the work of his assistants and the accomplishments of their athletes.

While Sanderson and Brands are tremendous coaches, I'm more partial to the somewhat backhanded description of "most with the least," and to this point in January that is Ersland. He's taken Devin Schroder from 12 to 6, Kendall Coleman from unranked to sixth, Dylan Lydy up eight spots to #4, and Christian Brunner jumping five spots up to fifth.

Finalists: Tony Ersland, Matt Storniolo, Tony Robie

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