Completely Useless Idle Speculation: Feldman v. Ferrari
- Thread starter The Pitchfork Rebel
- Start date
It's confusing to me. The freshman that showed improvement against Kerk, and the athleticism to go with a fully healthy Kerk could win a title this year. The guy that he was last year could lose in the blood round.
The guy he was last year **did** lose in the blood round ... albeit to Trumble who finished 4th.
Ferrari is a bad matchup for Feldman. Every bit as athletic and a little taller. He's gonna drop to a knee in neutral, and Feldman will have difficulty breaking thru that to score. Ferrari is very good at looking busy on top, and could get a RT point too.
Schedules aren't out yet, but they could meet 5x this year or not at all. Both teams are going to the OKST national duals. Both teams typically go to CKLV. Then there are regular season duals, B10s, and NCAAs. The more times they meet, the more likely Feldman figures out Ferrari's style.
I don't think much changed from freshman to sophomore year. He lost a close match to Kerk once that year - the other time Kerk dominated him. Probably had a lot more to do with Kerk than Feldman.
There are levels. The first one - getting to be a top 20ish guy is hard, but easier than the next. Pushing AA is another. Title contender is another. An awful lot of guys stall at one of those levels for one reason or another- everywhere.
Expanding on this:
Feldman was the 9 seed in 2024, then the 12 seed in 2025. What changed?
+ Added: Steveson, Trumble, Kueter, Luffman, Mullen (all seeded above Feldman)
+ PItzer healthy
- Subtracted: Bastida, Elam, Taylor, Ghadiali (all seeded above Feldman in 2024)
So IMO the weight got better, but Feldman stayed the same, relative to the field.
HWT loses a number of top guys for 2026: Kerk, Steveson, Hendrickson, Schultz, Trephan all graduated. So did Heindselman. But Bastida, Taylor, and Ghadiali all return, and Ferrari bumps up. (Plus our guy!) If Feldman wants a podium-level seed, he'll need to be improved in the regular season.
I wasn't even really considering who came and left but that's a great point. He may not have truly regressed, just didn't make any meaningful gains while other, higher level, guys returned. I know he's a buckeye but I'm rooting for him to connect some dots and reach his potential.
True, but he stagnated relative to the field where some others did improve.
The 2 that stick out to me are Heindselman and Luffman. Heindselman was the 11 seed in 2024, then the 6 seed in 2025. He lost to Feldman at 2024 NCAAs, then won the rematch in 2025.
Luffman went 14-12 in 2022, shirted in 2023, went 8-3 in 2024 before missing the 2nd half of the season with injury, and then got the 8 seed in 2025. Luffman's seed may have benefited from NCAA Math (he went 0-2 vs Feldman but still got seeded 4 spots higher) -- still, he did improve to get into that range, where Feldman was already in that range and didn't upgrade.
Feldman also went 0-3 vs Kueter last year.
Feldman is not a likely candidate to beat Ferrari. Someone posted most likely either a very boring 2-0 or 5-0 win for Ferrari, every time they wrestle. This is probably one of the safest and most accurate prediction for the upcoming season.
I guess it's just me, but I think only Bastida has any realistic shot at AJ. Although a boring wrestler no doubt, AJ at 230+ is more authentic, skilled, stronger and faster than anyone else in the weight class. Notably so. Sure he may get there with a fair amount of 3 point victories, but it really isn't that close.
PS - it hurt to write this, but the truth often hurts.
PSS - I hope I am wrong.
PS - it hurt to write this, but the truth often hurts.
PSS - I hope I am wrong.
More authentic? Like, a more real piece of work?
Trumble definitely has a shot. Kueter probably does too.
As far as those qualities go -- perhaps. He'll definitely brag about them more than any other HWT. Either way, they didn't help him much against Buchanan.