And the grandparents probably heard that crap from some unreliable poster who was looking for excuses in regards to the ass kicking.
Iowa Wrestling is Dead
- Thread starter NLhawk62
- Start date
I’m guessing the grandparents got their info from a guy on the team and not these boards, eh?
To be crystal clear, I 100% believe he is trying his ass off. No one on this planet wants Iowa to succeed more than the Brands do. Of that, I am certain.
Also, Iowa actually has very good coaching and has done a very good job getting people on the podium. That, by definition is really good coaching. However, I get that everyone at Iowa has such a ridiculously high standard that it is basically 1st or bust.
Look, Iowa puts guys on the podium at a much higher clip than anyone but PSU. On top of that, until a couple of years ago Iowa was actually ahead of even PSU in that category.
I get that the Brands rub some people the wrong way. I also get that the program is so incredibly storied that where they are now is not acceptable to many. I am not really even arguing with that stance. I am simply against putting all the blame on Brands because PSU is so damn good and just hiring unprovens just because you don't like Brands...
Another undertalked about thing with the recruiting is that during this period when Brands returned to leaning on in-state guys, a couple of the guys he didn't recruit have ended up being better than the guys he did.
Ryder Downey has a win over Robb and just beat Chittum. Evan Frost looks like a potential freshman AA at a weak weight for Iowa. How much better would we feel if we had 4 potential years of AA production at those two weights moving forward?
Ryder Downey has a win over Robb and just beat Chittum. Evan Frost looks like a potential freshman AA at a weak weight for Iowa. How much better would we feel if we had 4 potential years of AA production at those two weights moving forward?
Weren’t the Frost brothers committed to ISU before they moved up here for their senior year? Don’t really classify them as in state guy. Now Downey is a different story. He’s a typical Gable recruit.
They were committed to Columbia and flipped to ISU after they were here. Could be wrong though.
It’s no longer a 3 team race for great recruits. Recruits used to be lucky to get a spot in the Iowa room, and dam lucky to get a spot in the lineup. Now recruits have a lot of options across the country. Iowa is on every recruits top 5 cuz of reputation but as you can see Iowa isn’t getting the majority. The draw isn’t there like it was, need to find it again.
Same flu bug that seems to hit every year but skips our opponents?
By my memory only so take that with a grain of salt, I believe Chance was all in on PSU but it was not mutual. I don't believe he committed before the parting of the ways, but if he did commit, it was not accepted. I really like Chance though. His is a success story we should all celebrate. When he hit rock bottom at Lock Haven, I thought it was over, but credit to Scott Moore and others (and Chance himself) for getting him back to center mat. From a distance, he is doing great things with his club. He would make a great middleweight assistant coach somewhere. 49-74
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Based on what I have seen we may have passed it on to Michigan.
he definitely committed. 7/4/13
He decommited 11/6/13 to commit to OSU.
I have no idea why this happened tho.
I wasn't sure, but I do know that his personality became known and he was asked to find another home.
Agree, the Stockholm syndrome is strong around here.
How would he do!??? He'd take a doormat like Virginia Tech and turn them into a national contender, duh!!
Brands at VT Year 1:
16-4 Dual Meet Record, placed 42nd as a team at NCAAs with 7 points, 5 NCAA qualifiers, 0 All-Americans
Brands at VT Year 2:
1-15 Dual Meet Record, placed 29th as a team at NCAAs with 18.5 points, 3 NCAA qualifiers, 2 All Americans (5th Faust, 8th Hoffman)
Edit to clarify: This is not to say Brands wouldn’t have likely made VT much better if he’d stayed. Rather, just refuting the notion that VT became a national contender while Brands was there.
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Disingenuous response and you know it. Everyone that he could redshirt did that second season and they were poised to really make a big splash the next season.
The sad part is, he would have actually had to focus on recruiting so much more if he stayed there so it would have been pretty interesting to see how well he would have done if he stayed…
Oh 100%. I think Brands WOULD have turned VT into a good program, maybe great. But, he left long before you could credit him as having done so, as it took another 6 years before they reached anything near a national contender. He definitely had a great start going with Slaton, Leclere, Metcalf, & Borschel in redshirt.
It would be nice to have that level of wrestlers in the Iowa High School ranks again, minus Metcalf of course. Is Cory Clark the last NCAA champ from the state of Iowa?
Drew Foster won one for UNI since then. I don't know if I’m missing one since.
Those citing Penn State's dominance as the primary factor in Iowa's performance under Brands should be reminded that if Penn State didn't exist, Iowa would've won 5 titles under Brands instead of 4. Every other year we still would've finished behind someone else.
Brands' legacy is leading Iowa to perennial top-4 finishes. That's nothing to shake a stick at, but it certainly wasn't the original goal.
Based on the fact that his contract has continued to be renewed and significantly sweetened, and his strategy and tactics haven't really changed, I think a rational person could safely assume that that is, in fact, the new bar.
Tom is doing his best, he is who he is, and I have no animosity toward him personally. I wish, like he surely must, that he were simply better, for no other reason that it makes me happier when Iowa wins and sadder when we don't.
(And he's welcome to note that Mo Willems writes better children's books than I do. That saddens me too.)
Brands' legacy is leading Iowa to perennial top-4 finishes. That's nothing to shake a stick at, but it certainly wasn't the original goal.
Based on the fact that his contract has continued to be renewed and significantly sweetened, and his strategy and tactics haven't really changed, I think a rational person could safely assume that that is, in fact, the new bar.
Tom is doing his best, he is who he is, and I have no animosity toward him personally. I wish, like he surely must, that he were simply better, for no other reason that it makes me happier when Iowa wins and sadder when we don't.
(And he's welcome to note that Mo Willems writes better children's books than I do. That saddens me too.)
If Penn St didn’t exist you would have to recalculate all the points at nationals. We could have had guys advance further and score more points if they didn’t have to go through a Penn St guy. So technically we could have outsourced opponents who finished ahead of us. It’s not that simple to bump everyone’s placement up one spot.
It isn’t even just that. How many guys did they finish 2nd on recruiting? Would Nolf have been at Iowa? The butterfly effect is something you can’t really calculate, but I am pretty sure Iowa would have been the #1 program over this time if Cael stayed at ISU.
Now, for all the Cael faithful, I am not saying he wouldn’t have had solid success at ISU. But, he was never going to get near the PSU level being at the #2 school in Iowa for name recognition. The difference between PSU and ISU nationally is huge and he was always going to be second fiddle recruiting instate talent…
This,
Im going to say it again here, Tom is the head coach of IOWA and should be until he wants out! He is a great coach and consistently has Iowa in the top 5 every year, thats really freaking good.
Better recruiting is needed obviously, but from the outside looking in, the team needs is a more motivating and effective group of coaches between the IOWA program and the HWC.
The program as a whole needs to improve, it needs more fire and firepower and thats the athletes and the staff.
Again, lets not forget all the unfortunate events that have occurred to set us back. I also will say Im not making any final judgement until after the NCAA’s, everyone forgot really quickly that we looked really good out of the box this year with a group of guys the were not expected to do much this season.
and if Tom had not gotten the three Iowa kids to go to VT, if Spencer had not decided to come to Iowa. Ifs and maybes do not change reality. You need to COMPETE against everyone and not just acknowledge you can’t compete against the best….unless that is your objective.
Absolutely. If. everyone is happy and content just being in the top five, not a whole lot needs to change.
Lol, the post I responded to was LITERALLY a "what if". Your hate with Brands is so all-consuming you are starting to remind me of Vodka if anything Trump is mentioned.
Your love for Brands is so all-consuming you are starting to remind me of Gollum every time the ring is mentioned.Lol, the post I responded to was LITERALLY a "what if". Your hate with Brands is so all-consuming you are starting to remind me of Vodka if anything Trump is mentioned.
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Plus Cael would definitely grow the popularity of the sport in Iowa. Ames would be putting up a border wall.
I don’t hide the fact that I think he is a very good coach. However, if you look back, I have also been very critical of things I see that I believe he is responsible for. I hate that they seem so ridiculously dependent upon the collar tie and “inside” offense from it. I absolutely want to see them be able to wrestle from space and scramble considerably better. I also do not care for the very visible “I don’t worry about what the other guy does, I just do my thing” philosophy. That only works when you are better than the other guy.Your love for Brands is so all-consuming you are starting to remind me Gollum every time the ring is mentioned.
With that said, I am not close enough to even know if those things are actually worked on or not. So, I can’t 100% indict him, based on what I see from the 20th row.
To be clear, I have even said I wouldn’t fight a change if someone could clearly show me there is a better option out there. I just don’t see it right now…
It’s been a little bit but, when I was there, it would shock most people how little time we worked on anything to do with wrestling from space or scrambling. Our scramble training was essentially a couple techniques to prevent scrambles from occurring (hide your ankles when finishing shots, don’t give space, etc.). Our wrestling from space training was basically just keep your arms low so you don’t allow your opponent to get to your legs by taking an outside shot. This is not an exaggeration, but fact.
And you continue to make excuse after excuse….I think my post was a what if as well. Illustrating that what ifs don’t really mean a thing. Reality is much more important. My responses are about my love of Hawkeye Wrestling and not about the reasons it’s ok we are where we are.Lol, the post I responded to was LITERALLY a "what if". Your hate with Brands is so all-consuming you are starting to remind me of Vodka if anything Trump is mentioned.
