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Penn State Wrestling: Predicting Max Dean’s 2021 season

By Chris Snyder

PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 23: Max Dean of the Cornell Big Red is introduced during the championship finals of the NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 23, 2019 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Hunter Martin/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 23: Max Dean of the Cornell Big Red is introduced during the championship finals of the NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 23, 2019 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Hunter Martin/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) /
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Penn State Wrestling, Max Dean
Max Dean of the Cornell Big Red wrestles Drew Foster of the Northern Iowa Panthers (Photo by Hunter Martin/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) /

Penn State Wrestling’s Max Dean Expectations for 2021-2022 season

Dean wrestled a total of two full seasons while attending Cornell. And in the 2017-2018 season he earned All-American status by finishing 8th and in the 2018-2019 season he finished 2nd, thus earning his second straight All-American honor.

But, he hasn’t wrestled in a college dual meet since 2019. And based on this I’m going to temper my expectations slightly for Max.

Another factor in play here is the level of competition Dean will most likely face this season.

According to the latest InterMat rankings, the B1G only has three wrestlers ranked inside the top 10 at 197. These are No. 3 Jacob Warner (Iowa), No. 4 Max Dean (Penn State), and No. 7 Patrick Brucki (Michigan).

Dean will have a decent early season matchup in Penn State Wrestling’s home dual against Army. Senior JT Brown is currently ranked No. 20, so hopefully this match will allow Max to get his feet wet again in high pressure situations.

Max is not scheduled to face another top 25 wrestler at 197 until the Nittany Lions’ home dual against Rutgers on January 16th.

However, in the remaining duals after Rutgers, Dean will face a handful of grapplers ranked in the 10 to 20 range.

And here’s where I’m going with this. I fully believe Max Dean has the experience and the talent to win a B1G title at 197. But I have no idea how he would fair against Pitt’s Nino Bonaccorsi or Okie State’s AJ Ferrari, who happened to hoist last year’s title.

Can Dean still hold his own with the best in the country? Did AJ Ferrari increase his deadlift from last year?*

So my expectation for Max is to make the B1G final and a top four in this year’s NCAA tournament. Lofty, but as I said, slightly tempered.

* – I’m sure AJ or his father will let the world know as soon as a camera and microphone are first shoved in their face

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