By any measure, PSU has been the top dog since 2011. Since he was hired, the only time Iowa has finished outside of the top 5 was in Brands's first year. He is the only one to do this to include Cael. Besides tOSU in 2015, Iowa has been the only team to finish on top (2020,2021). In the last two years, Iowa has finished 3rd and 2nd. By all measures, Iowa continues to be one of the top programs. If we are eating PSU's dust, others overslept and didn't even make it to the starting line on time.
Brands and Iowa are the only team to be held to these standards by outsiders and its own fans. For example, Michigan (another top program) just got beat by SDSU. In this dual, they sat a lot of their starters. Last year, they sat starters against us losing 33-8. Even though you are not a regular poster on here, you probably can imagine the apoplectic shit storm that would ensue here on HR alone. Since it was Michigan, not really a blip. Same with Cornell who sat healthy starters against Iowa State. Yea, their coach caught a rash of shit on Twitter but only because those same guys wrestled in a previous dual that day. Hell, even Cael took the year off in 2015 and redshirted some studs in a reload maneuver which ultimately paid dividends. Their fans knew the score and were good with it. Still, what other sport does this? Brands hasn't and won't. This isn't to say he hasn't strategically sat guys in duals.
Being #1 and producing national champs is the standard and Iowa has fallen short in both categories. Tom would wholeheartedly agree. But shouldn't that be the standard for everybody? If so, why aren't we talking about Ryan at tOSU who has finished 13,9,4 in the last 3 years. Brian Smith at Missouri is lauded as a guru and their teams regularly fall flat at NCAAs finishing 7,9,5. For Brands, those finishes would be fireable offenses.
Wrestling is not like football or basketball where a team can fire a coach, hire a new one, and reload. The only two that have recently done it are Cael and Tom. Elite recruits, real difference makers at NCAAs are rare. Examine Iowa State; they fired KJ and it has taken Dresser 6 years to develop a team that can compete with Iowa and they still lost the dual because Brands ate Dresser's lunch.
Having a large fanbase is great but I don't know how much it contributes to getting recruits. The spotlight is always on and our unrealistic expectations are only outdone by our sense of entitlement. Reminds me of that old saying: "I have met the enemy and he is us." Wrestling is a very small community compared to football or basketball...recruits and parents see these message boards because we are one of the few heavily trafficked wrestling forums. So when a guy wrestles like crap and gets shit on by fans, it's a bad look. For an Iowa or PSU QB, its just another day because they know the deal playing ball for a top program.
Anyways, some light TLDR that is really a response to multiple posts on this forum.