It’s no secret that Earl Hall didn’t have the start to the season that his coaches expected.

The 133-pound senior began the year 9-3, placing second at the Cyclone Open, losing to then-No. 4 Eric Montoya. He followed the second-place finish by losing to two unranked wrestlers at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, failing to make it to the second day of the tournament.

His poor performance came to a head when coach Kevin Jackson called out Hall at his weekly press conference after Cliff Keen.

It turns out Hall was wrestling with pneumonia.

“Slow start at the beginning of the season, stuff happens,” Hall said. “I’m not one to make excuses, I was feeling bad and things, but I had to dig deep regardless because nobody cares at the end of the day if you’re sick or how you feel because KJ was at the Olympics and he had the flu. If he can do it, if Michael Jordan can play in a full game with the flu, why can’t I wrestle for seven minutes?”

Hall never told his coaches he was feeling sick until he was at an individual workout with volunteer assistant coach Angel Escobedo. At the beginning of the practice, Escobedo told Hall that he was going to go hard for 15 minutes straight.

Hall complained of fatigue after the first two minutes.

“I was like, ‘Coach, I’m really tired,’” Hall said. “He was like, ‘Dig deep, be tough.’ And that’s the thing too, you complain to your coaches. Most of the time it’s like, ‘Don’t complain, be tough.’ And in the back of my mind, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m going to shut up and keep grinding.’ But you can’t go out there with pneumonia, I’ll tell you that much. It’s tough.”

They eventually brought him to the trainer and he was later diagnosed with pneumonia.

He had no idea.

They got Hall healthy, and he’s gone on a tear since.

It all started at the Midlands. He lost a match early in the tournament, and after that he opened up his offense to what Iowa State wrestling coaches and fans are used to seeing.

“He wasn’t sharing with us that he wasn’t feeling his best,” Jackson said. “Now that he’s feeling his best, I think he’s really connected to his offense, and getting after scores and getting after points. I think you’ve seen that after that match at Midlands. I was really happy with how he came back from there.”

The dual meet after Midlands, Iowa State hosted Arizona State. Hall won his match by major decision, 14-4.

The night before the meet at North Carolina, Hall told Jackson that he wanted to wrestle first to set the tone.

Hall was wrestling a freshman — he was determined to dominate.

And he did. Hall won by technical fall, 18-2 in 2:01.

He threw his opponent multiple times, he turned him — he did everything Jackson expected him to do at the beginning of the season.

“We saw the best of Earl Hall,” Jackson said. “When that Earl Hall shows up he’s going to be very difficult to beat. He did everything that we talked about that we, and our fans, haven’t seen.”