After Midlands, I boldly declared that there was no way that the Iowa Hawkeyes were going to pull Abe Assad’s redshirt to take over the spot at 184 pounds. The Hawkeyes promptly pulled Assad’s redshirt for the next meet and he went 2-0 in his debut weekend. That’s good, but it’s too early to tell whether this decision made sense.
Now, I do not have a source for the inner workings of that wrestling room so I need to recognize a few things that I have no idea about. First off, how good has Abe Assad looked in the practice room compared to Cash Wilcke and Nelson Brands? If he’s been putting it on them in practice, then it’s not the craziest idea that he should be starting immediately. Also, did Assad want his redshirt pulled? He may want to go four hard years and be done with it, or he may think that taking a redshirt later on is the best thing for him. He may not think about either of those things, but he sees that Iowa could win a National Championship for the first time in a decade, and he wants to be one of the members that helps the team accomplish that. I can definitely understand the appeal of being a starter for a National Championship team, so I could totally understand that from Assad’s perspective.
But it seems incredibly likely that Assad will be better at the 2024 National Championships than he will be at the 2020 National Championships. So was it a good decision to sacrifice a better year later for a good year now?
I didn’t think the move would happen, partially because I didn’t like the idea of it. I think Cash Wilcke has proven that he’s good enough to be a blood round guy (Round of 12). He might be lower and get eliminated a little earlier or a little higher and be a low-level All-American. Can we really expect any more from Abe Assad?
So far, he’s 17-3 this season, but his competition has been lacking for most of the season. His early season losses were to a wrestler from Grand View and a guy redshirting at Iowa State who is not an elite recruit. Even with subpar competition, he wasn’t blowing a lot of guys out of the water. Although the competition took a jump up at the Midlands, Assad won two of those matches in sudden victory so it was not a dominant performance. He’s likely going to be having a lot of close matches, and as a true freshman, he may be getting better as the season goes on.
He’s currently ranked ninth, and looking through that list of the eight guys ahead of him, it’s going to be really tough for him to break through. I think he has to All-American to definitively say it was a good decision.
I may not totally agree with it, but I get it, and if Iowa is at the top of the podium at the end of the National Championships, I won’t be complaining about a redshirt.
I’ll be too busy celebrating.
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