Saying that Ayala was surprised he made the finals is concerning. He is a blue chip recruit who was the 3 seed in a wide open weight class. The PSU guys are surprised if they don't win, they absolutely believe the they will win when they take the mat. Figs didn't seem surprised either.
Replacements for Tom…
- Thread starter CAhawki
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I thought you were leaving. You should be more concerned with Lehigh's program being mediocre.
Kueter obviously has some great potential but he would probably struggle with another young guy like Feldman. As you said he needs the weight and one thing I noticed in his matches this year, is he didn't really have much in the way of his own shot. It was mostly counters or mat reversals. If he jumps right back into football and is mostly off the mat making progressions will be hard.
Jesus Christ man this is straight delusion. This is the first time that I can ever remember not spending one second paying attention to Nationals. I found out Ayala made the finals bc of a FB post Saturday morning.
I had zero desire to watch the same bullshit I’ve seen for the last 14 years. Brands refuses to change and is perfectly comfortable letting Cael run roughshod over his ass, annually. He fvcked around and let the Penn State locomotive get going down hill. This is the result.
Agree with this.. It's gonna be really hard to go from football shape to wrestling shape every year in such short time. All love to Ben Kueter but I think it's best to have a full time Heavyweight.
Lol on all that. We are closer to 5-7th as a program than competing with Penn State. You said we had a decent season, well that's already several levels below what is expected. It's a culture and style thing as well as coaching....all areas we suck at right now. The only way I'd let Tom stay is if he gutted all assistants and got ones that know how to wrestle in 2024. Oh and if you haven't also noticed the HWC is an absolute joke compared to what they have in state college.
Iowa is one of the two best jobs in the entire country. You’re telling me we wouldn’t have a good shot at some of the biggest names out there?! The game has passed Brands by. We need someone in touch with reality.
And the only coach in the state of Iowa to not coach a National Champion!So you guys want to get rid of the only Coach that hasn't fallen out of the top 5 for damn near 17 years and is the last one to top PSU at NCAAs a few years back.
he did make a comment during the broadcast (maybe semis?) that might indicate otherwise. Him or dc was talking about the two former isu wrestlers being the most dominant coaches elsewhere. Burroughs said something along the lines of he would love to coach at nebraska but if it’s not open you go to where you think you can win
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Pumped about ayalas season. My fear is that 125 is very young and quite a few of those freshman sophomores obviously coming back to 125. It just seems based on history. Those programs develop their kids better than Iowa does. Stanich and Davis and the SU kid I believe all our freshman or sophomores. Again, just basing it off of history. I think those three alone are going to develop a lot faster than ideas improvement.
my ideal scenario would be this: after the olympics/trials, bring in jordan burroughs or david taylor as an assistant with the 1-3 year plan to transition to hc if all goes well. it’s hard to bring some straight from senior level to a head coaching job no matter who they are. i think jb is more realistic.
i like ramos being thrown around for head assistant but not sure head coach makes sense.
now if i’m tom and want to stay coaching for a few more years then bringing on j’den cox to replace an assistant is my top priority. mark hall is a great assistant option too and i think it would be hard for anyone to argue that those two wouldn’t be a huge upgrade over telford and morningstar. nothing against those guys personally but we need some fresh perspectives and name recognition for recruiting.
i like ramos being thrown around for head assistant but not sure head coach makes sense.
now if i’m tom and want to stay coaching for a few more years then bringing on j’den cox to replace an assistant is my top priority. mark hall is a great assistant option too and i think it would be hard for anyone to argue that those two wouldn’t be a huge upgrade over telford and morningstar. nothing against those guys personally but we need some fresh perspectives and name recognition for recruiting.
year in and year out Iowa does a better job from 125-141 than any other program.
You’ve always seemed like a great guy so this really surprises me.
Just kidding. That sounds about right. Not a fan of Hawks, or the guys out their busting their ass, just a bandwagon fan of winning. 😂
Well, I wish I could say you always seemed like a great guy but that was never the case.
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The Drama Queen has returned!!!
Is there anyone on here that thinks drake A will develop and improve at greater pace than dsvis psu, stanich LH and fig asu in off season to run table next yr? I see getting same while the pack makes gains…..especially davis
yes i do. it’s not apples to apples with Davis and stanich though because they are true freshman so generally their development curve is different
Honestly I don't. His overall skill set is more limited than them. Well scouted overused slide by and lefty swing single. Very limited mat game. He has gotten a bit better at scrambles. This year was a golden opportunity missed.
Oh I am. Pouring a little salt on the wound. Lehigh never has made themselves out to be better than others. Lehigh doesn’t point fingers or make excuses. Mediocre? Iowa can now join the “Mediocre “ club. A 5th place finish behind ISU is “ mediocre “ and very embarrassing. Adios.
I'm surprised DA made the finals. All year that 3 point stance has been more of a defensive stall tactic than a weapon, a lot of time wasted. I was impressed how he improve his top ride, but almost nil for tilts. As you said all the 25ers coming back seem to have a better arsenal, so he isn't a lock to be back in the finals.
Not sure if there isnbad blood between him and SL, but the whole team needs that tilt in their bag.
Hopefully Drake makes some stride via freestyle.
If you don't stop, he's gonna take his ball and go home again!
Davis still has a ways to go. Uneven from match to match. Needs to improve from bottom. Needs to become more disciplined. He is only a freshman so all that is to be expected. He needs to work with Bartlett on situational awareness. I don't want him to be like Bartlett, but just not get into bad situations as often.
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Because our true SO 125 made the finals. Yea, that would cause me to have second thoughts too. 🙄
The problem/danger with using the "everyone is way behind PSU" reasoning is we lose sight of the fact we shouldn't be okay being mixed in with programs like Michigan, Cornell, ASU, NC STATE, ISU etc... and that's where we are. Heck an argument could easily be made that a couple on that list have passed us if you really watched their guys vs ours.
The other thing that is so noticeable and concerning is the gaps between the individual champions and our guy at that weight...
125 - Figerunna/Drake - we're right there and should be assuming Drake stays at 125.
133 - light years behind with no change in sight.
141 - woods should have been in the mix but he came back weaker and made no improvements from last year so it was clear he wasn't in the mix. No clear plan in sight.
149 - light years behind with no clear gains on the best in sight.
157 - light years behind with no clear gains on the best in sight.
165 - Cali is the best of the 2nd tier which is great, but he's not winning a championship as long as messenbrink or Haines are there.
174 - we'll see, hopefully Gabe is championship material but unknown right now.
184 - light years behind with a high school sr being our best hope in the future.
197 - light years behind with no clear gains in sight.
Hwt - we have a part time undersized hwt and a back up with no clear plan in sight.
Again, this is IOWA. We came to the tourney with best case 1 possible champion and that was in a weak young weight class. The gambling issues didn't change that fact. No one should be okay with that.
Jeff Tramer retired too earlySo about 30 years ago Iowa JUST missed the biggest wrestling recruit possibly ever.
I say we don’t make that mistake again and hire this recruit now as the next head coach of the University of Iowa.
AC SLATER
Well stated. It's unfortunately not just a bad year thing. As you point out the there are a ton weights where we don't have anyone staged to be legit title threats.
cornell has a pretty easy work around for that and doesn’t have to worry scholarship limits
The reason Spencer can tilt people the way he can can’t be taught.
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anon_0pi0cv8t1ggvb
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Unless multiple national champ caliber wrestlers transfer to Iowa, we won't be close to contending for a title. This is just delusional. We'll have two returning AAs on the roster. I appreciate your optimism, but it's completely delusional.
This is a great, objective view on the situation at iowa. This program has zero momentum and it will be more of the same without significant change.
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anon_0pi0cv8t1ggvb
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That ok because they'll just plug and play with Luke Lilledahl and wont skip a beat.
Not quite accurate. Iowa will have Brands as well. Also, after watching 174 are you legitimately going to ignore how Arnold is a likely top contender?
Now, I do agree that Grip is over the top if he thinks Iowa will truly challenge PSU, but he is correct in saying Iowa should be clearly ahead of the rest….
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