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NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 16, 2018

Cleveland, Ohio

285 pounds

KYLE SNYDER

Q. Kyle, you get a rematch again with Adam Coon. Just what's your reaction to that going up against him in the final?
KYLE SNYDER: I'm excited about it, you know. I'm not going to lie. I was hoping somebody might be able to take him out on that other side so I didn't have to wrestle him. But now that it's here, I always embrace the challenge. It's going to be an epic match, round 3. First one went to Coon, second one went to Snyder, and then we'll see what happens tomorrow night. But I feel -- I know I'll be excited. I'm ready. Body feels good. My mind is strong. I feel more confident about this match than I did the second match, and than I did the first match, and I felt confident in all three of them.

Q. What did it feel like to actually wrestle a guy your size in Kasper, and how does that prepare you when you say you're getting ready to -- you called Coon the biggest guy you had ever wrestled. How does this match help with that?
KYLE SNYDER: It doesn't really help with it. Yeah, I don't think wrestling Kasper helps me wrestle Coon. The only thing that helps wrestling Coon is wrestling someone that's 300 pounds, you know? Which I don't really wrestle those guys that much. But I know I watched the film, there's a couple things that I can do better and I will do them better tomorrow.

Q. It was a tough semifinal round, 0-4 to start, you and Miles rally. Lee has kind of slipped away from you. I was wondering if you have a reaction to that.
KYLE SNYDER: Yeah, not happy about it. I thought that we put ourselves in a really good position after the first day, and then wrestled pretty well in the quarters. We had two close matches that we dropped and then a couple other close -- Joey was close, Nate and Lee, they go back and forth, and then Mic. So I'm happy with all my teammates. I love them. They're doing everything they can do, you know. But just stinks that we're losing right now. But I don't know what, maybe if Penn State doesn't win their finals tomorrow, we still have a chance. I don't know what that is like or how to calculate the points. We're still going to wrestle hard.

Q. How does Coon compare size-wise to Tervel and Taha AkgÃ¼l.
KYLE SNYDER: Well, Tervel used to weigh like 265, 270, so then that was pretty similar. But I don't know if you've seen Tervel lately, but he's pretty jacked now. He probably only weighs like 230. So that doesn't really compare.

And then Taha is very similar to Coon. They don't wrestle the same way, but their body types are similar. Taha is like 6'5", 270. Coon is probably 6'6", 285 or whatever. So those two are similar. So yeah.

Q. How disappointing is it for you as a team to be in the situation you're in after having such high hopes?
KYLE SNYDER: I mean, it's not that disappointing. We still have a lot of wrestling left, and like I said, I don't know exactly -- if I knew that the tournament was over and we couldn't win, then I would be a little more disappointed. But I don't think that's the case. I still think we are able to wrestle back, and I know it's going to take some help from guys like I-Mar and Zahid and that 15 seed kid from Lock Haven. So if all those guys step up and then we can control 184 hopefully with Myles and Bo, so we need some people to step up, and then Hidlay, too, so all those guys are Buckeyes tomorrow, so our teams looks pretty good.

Q. Adam, it kind of looked like you were surprised how deep you got on that first shot, and you kind of just stalled out and gave up that first takedown. What went through that sequence?
ADAM COON: I got in there real deep, kind of like you said, it surprised me a little bit. I figured his feet would move back a little bit farther, give me a little bit more room to kind of explode through, and I just got caught in too deep of a squat position type of thing, so I just had to kind of regain my balance and drive through. He had heavier hips so was able to crush me down, so I just had to bail out, escape, and just pick up the pace after that.

Q. With your love for Greco-Roman wrestling, more surprised that you don't do upper body throws type of thing. Could we see that tomorrow night against Kyle?
ADAM COON: Well, it all comes down to how he wrestles, if he's going to let me get over-unders or get those underhooks to pick him up a little bit, yeah, I would love to get some Greco in there. But he's a smart wrestler, he knows I have that Greco style, so he's going to try and make it his match. He's going to get a lot of hand flighting and he's going to attack the low legs for sure.

Q. How much are you looking forward to the rubber match between you and Kyle?
ADAM COON: It's going to be a fun match. I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's just going to be fun. I'm going to be excited going into it. It's just nice to face a top opponent like him.

Q. You and Dhesi, very similar opponents. He's gotten the better end of you since a couple years ago. What adjustments or did you put anything from those matches in your game plan tonight?
ADAM COON: Definitely pulled a lot of stuff from those matches, trying to figure out what it's going to take to beat him. I had to make sure that my feet were moving because he's got those low shots. He knows how to hit those corners real quick, so it was nice -- I felt like my feet were moving even though I kind of got stuck on that one shot. But yeah, those were the big things, making sure I was working my ties, working into him as well as moving my feet.

Q. What does he present the biggest challenge, Kyle Snyder, when you wrestle him?
ADAM COON: He's just a solid wrestler all around. That's why he's won multiple world championships and an Olympic championship, just because he's such a solid wrestler, and I've just got to sort of find any sort of chink in his armor, which there's very few, if any at all. So I've just got to find a way. That's the biggest challenge, just find a way.

Q. Do you think there could be a more epic match to end your college career on?
ADAM COON: No, I'd say this is a fun one. I mean, there's not many people that are still in college that have multiple world and Olympic medals. As I said before, I'm looking forward to the challenge, and I'm going to leave it in the Lord's hands to let us leave it all on the mat, and we'll see who comes out the victor tomorrow night.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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