Ok having just watched the replay and some of the interviews I have to say I really feel for Hobbs. It seemed like he did everything right just shadowing Nuguse and letting him do all the work. Then boom, Strand gets going and Koech follows right after and they just move away. I have no idea what Strand was doing so far back at NCAAs but I guess that doesn't matter now. Koech was such an unknown but I have to give him credit for running a hell of a race. He got his stride checked a few times early on but it never seemed to interrupt his race of take anything out of his finish. That reminds me of Hocker at his best. Then for Hocker himself he seemed to just get to the kick late and the only question mark was if he realized it and then just battled for third, which it sounds like his post race comments indicate.
As others have mentioned, Nuguse ran into the Jakob problem that when you're leading, you're doing more work than everyone else. I don't really blame him because it's worked well before but he should watch back his race at the Olympics because he had an amazing close and arguably could've won that race with how well he was moving in the final 100. Again, the one I feel the most sorry for is Hobbs because I'm not really sure what he did wrong other than getting beat. His post race comments reflect that but it's gotta sting to do everything right and just come up short. Now it'll be super interesting to see how these guys move on to worlds (and also if anyone can get the wildcard spot at the DL final).
Finally, my prediction contest is screwed! I was pretty confident with my picks a few days ago but to this point I don't think I've gotten a single event totally correct.