What Could Have Been: Manning, Huskers Lament Early Ending

Mark Manning would have left for Minneapolis on Tuesday, along with his fourth-ranked Nebraska wrestling team, for the 2020 NCAA Championships.
 
Instead, the Nebraska wresting coach sat alone inside a coffee chop, working on next year's schedule.
 
"I get stir crazy," Manning said Tuesday morning. "I don't like to be idle very much. I like to be on the go. This time off is really hard."
 
The cancellation of the wrestling postseason – a result of the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic— is especially painful for Manning and the Huskers because of what could have been.
 
One of the most complete, competitive teams in school history, Nebraska was coming off a second-place finish at the Big Ten championships, and Manning felt his Huskers had a legitimate chance of winning a national title.
 
"To say the least," Manning said, "we were pretty excited about this weekend."
 
That was on Wednesday, when the NCAA released its bracket.
 
"We got seeds," Manning said, "so we knew what the matchups were, and we felt really, really good."
 
On Thursday, coaches held a day of individual workouts throughout the day in the wrestling room at the Hendricks Training Complex. A handful of wrestlers were in the room when word began spreading of various sporting event cancellations, including most conference basketball tournaments.  
 
"We were kind of slowly hearing, 'Oh, they're shutting things down.' And then it finally came out."
 
No more wrestling.
 
Manning called a 4 p.m. team meeting. In the meantime, he phoned a couple of recruits who would've soon been en route to Lincoln, telling them to stay put, because all campus recruiting visits had been, and still are, suspended. He also made calls to athletic department administers to find answers to a question he knew seniors would ask – are their careers over?   
 
"Is there any hope for them? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel?" said Manning, who wasn't, and still hasn't been able to provide those and other answers to related questions.
 
"Then I sat in front of the guys and told them, 'Hey, it (the tournament) isn't going to happen.' But they all knew. Young kids these days, they know before we know, from the social media standpoint.
 
"It was a blur to be honest with you. It's kind of like in coaching, you're juggling so many things. I didn't really have time to compartmentalize it myself. It was just a surreal moment, a surreal time. You spent so much time with these guys since last fall. Every day I see my team, I see my guys. I saw them that day, and now I haven't seen them since. It's an ending that's hard to explain, I guess. It's like, 'Bam!"
 
Manning, never a self-proclaimed bragger, had been telling different people last fall this would be a good season. This team has the right pieces, including courageous competitors.
 
"And I knew their skill level," Manning said. "We could match up with anyone. I knew these guys, they were different."
 
Nebraska won six of nine conference duals, with losses to No. 1 Iowa and No. 2 Penn State, and victories over No. 3 Ohio State and three other Top 25 teams. Then at the Big Ten Championships, the Huskers defeated Ohio State and Penn State by more than 20 points, and finished second for their best finish since joining the Big Ten. And even though Iowa won the tournament, the Huskers had three wrestlers – Taylor Venz, David Jensen and Peyton Robb –win matches again Iowa competitors they had lost to in dual competition.
 
"We were clearly the second-best team in the country after the Big Ten weekend," said Manning, whose entire team had qualified for the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2016.
 
And with a full squad competing in a tournament setting, anything would have been possible. Manning recalls Minnesota winning the national title in 2001 without one competitor in the finals.
 
"But they did it as a team, 10 guys scoring a lot of points," Manning said. "It's pretty impressive."
 
This is the second season the NCAA had seeded each individual weight class 1-33, meaning all 10 Nebraska qualifiers received a seed. Junior Eric Schultz, at 197 pounds, had the highest seed of any Husker, at No. 3. Four Huskers, including two redshirted freshmen and one true freshmen, were set to make their NCAA Championships debuts.
 
"It only takes a couple of little breaks in the NCAA Tournament, and we felt really good about our seeds," Manning said. "We knew realistically you're not going to win every round, every match, but we knew our kids had resilience, and they showed that at Big Ten Tournament."
 
Now, Manning's crew must display a different type of resiliency -- the inability to fill a gaping void, to give a sense of closure to something out of their control.

As for the future, Manning will await word from the Big Ten and NCAA regarding the eligibility status of seniors whose careers were cut short. While Isaiah White is somebody Manning surmises would take advantage of an other opportunity, there's Jensen, who's already been accepted to med school and wouldn't likely return.
 
So in addition to mapping out next year's schedule over coffee, Manning may also have to do some creative roster management, what with six wrestlers joining the program next season
 
"A lot of tough interesting decisions to be made," Manning said. "It's a lot to consider. Hopefully the NCAA sides toward the student-athlete, though."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.