The problem with this team? Confidence.
That’s what North Carolina wrestling coach C.D. Mock thinks is the issue. That’s why his team hasn’t had success in recent dual matches. That’s why it lost to Maryland by three, 18-15, and that’s why it lost to Navy by one, 19-18 . But he also thinks that the difference between winning and losing those duals is a simple change. The change from “trying” to “doing.”
“You don’t try to believe, you just believe,” Mock said. “That’s the problem: they’re trying to believe.”
No one believes they are losing because of a lack of skill. The matches wouldn’t be as tightly contested as they are if that were the case.
“We have talent. We have enough talent to win matches,” Mock said, “We have some holes. A lot of teams have holes.
“We have five solid experienced guys and with five solid experienced guys, if they do their job, you can win matches.”
Wrestling is such an individual sport, so dependent on one man’s skill pitted against another’s, one man’s grit against another’s, that any doubt is an instant disadvantage. And once that doubt is erased, the change is visible.
It happened to one of the Tar Heels in the span of a little more than two minutes. Sophomore Nathan Kraisser was in a sophomore slump. He lost to Maryland, a match he said he should’ve won. But when he stepped on the mat against Navy on Saturday, there was no doubt in his mind that he would pin whoever stepped on the mat to face him. And he did, in two minutes and nine seconds.
After the match he admitted that what Mock said was true, his confidence hadn’t been where it needed to be.
