Again, in my opinion. You are trying to make something out of nothing. You must be easily offended. I am not, but even if I were, I saw nothing wrong with this evening. Wrestling is an emotional sport... Wow, really sad how hard some work to find fault. I hope you can find solace in life, because you must be often offended.
Soldier Salute Session #4
- Thread starter Hawkfan019
- Start date
This seems to be your opinion and not many others. Luckily the staff could give a shit about what you think. Get over it, wrestling is a tough sport.
I respect your opinion. Nothing tonight “offended” me. I’m only offended by people who are easily offended. Have a wonderful evening.
We finally agree on something. Good luck handling life's many "real" adversities.
Let's see here .... on one side we have Tom Brands. Let's have a look at his resume:
An intense competitor, Brands' wrestling career with the University of Iowa included a record of 158-7-2 and an undefeated season in 1991 where he was 45–0. He was a four-time All-American, three-time NCAA Champion, three-time Big Ten Conference Champion, and Outstanding Wrestler at the 1992 NCAA Tournament. His twin brother, Terry, was also an Olympic medalist and a standout at Iowa.
Internationally, Brands won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in freestyle at 136.6 pounds; a gold medal at the 1993 World Freestyle Championships in Toronto; two World Cup gold medals (1994 and 1995); and the gold at the 1995 Pan American Games. He won four U.S. Nationals titles (1993–96) and made four straight U.S. World or Olympic teams (1993–96). He was named 1993 USA Wrestling Athlete of the Year, 1993 John Smith Outstanding Freestyle Wrestler, and 1993 Amateur Wrestling News Man of the Year. He was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member in 2001.
Brands served 12 seasons as assistant coach for the Hawkeyes, from 1993 to 2004. Brands was named National Wrestling Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year in 2000. He also served as head coach at Virginia Tech for two seasons. In the spring of 2006, Tom Brands returned to the University of Iowa as head coach. Brands led the Hawkeyes to national titles in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2021. Under Brands, Iowa also captured conference titles in 2008, 2009, 2010, were the 2015 co-champions with Ohio State and were the 2021 co-champions with Penn State.
During Brands' tenure as head coach, 8 different wrestlers have won individual national titles, and Iowa has won over 200 dual meets.
On the other side we have you ... you don't know shit compared to the guy above.
How would you know anything about whether the coaches handled this poorly or not? How would you have any idea what is going on behind the scenes with Lee or Ayala? You don't so stop being a drama queen.
Case closed.
I’m just glad I learned wrestling is a tough sport tonight.
Glad we could help. There is an obvious need for an intervention
How do you know this? You don't - maybe it's good for the team. Maybe other guys don't like Ayala - who the hell knows? The casual fan has no idea, so stop speculating about crap you have no factual data on.
Even the best need a little push sometimes. Spencer Lee is ready to wrestle and I love it! Exactly what the tissue paper open needed
Sister…. You don’t know the half of it!
If your kid gets curb-stomped you probably shouldn't go whine about it online. If this is a real post by her, then she should be embarrassed. Spencer Lee is a legend and after he wins it all this year, he'll be in rare air as a 4 time champion. Drake has a long way to go to even be a footnote in the conversation.
I always heard you had to be tougher than your sister and faster than your mother to get out of Fort Dodge.
Er… something like that….
Ok I thought he just used his chest to get up and stood over him. Which I’m cool with. Turns out he used his face haha. Which is a bit much but no biggy. This stuff happens between teammates in all sports all the time ya just don’t see it. I also would of been perfectly fine had Drake gotten up in a hurry and gotten in Lee’s face. Actually I wish that’s exactly what had happened. Big fan of Spencer but don’t take that shit Drake. Give it right back to him. Great stuff.
If he leaves over this then he was never meant to be ... would be an all-time puss move.
Not trying to be a defender but I am. Gobblin knows his shit. Thinks could have gone better. Even a pin and no drama. Per his usual. Idk shit though
Please list all the times Spencer has been healthy enough to go live in the room since Drake has been on campus. Then consider the fact that Drake is also coming off a significant surgery and it makes reasonable sense.
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I don't give a f*ck if Spencer even goes to practice let alone wrestles live matches in the room.
Ayala's mom crying on Facebook that he doesn't wrestle her son in the room is embarrassing given the context of Drake just getting his ass kicked by Spencer.
Respect to both men for their competitiveness. Respect to Drake for wanting the match. Respect to Spencer for dominating. Respect to the coaches for letting the match happen. That was entertaining and competitive which is the entire point of sports.
Anyone bad mouthing either of the wrestlers or coaches over this is a clown unless they have additional info/context that isn't publicly known.
Parents should stay off Facebook and social media, especially right after their child gets beat.
Thanks man! Appreciate it! He’s ok! He’s just now getting back on the grind and it’s important to not over-exert immediately when coming off an injury… I think the coaches were likely happy to get him some mat time and were happy with how he did and that was good for the weekend, with this being his return from injury.
He’s ok and they handled that perfectly. We are leaving Iowa city very happy about the weekend.
I watched the match and clearly spencer is annoyed at something which triggers his more than normal aggressive nature.
No idea what that was but it makes sense that given his “I am done” comment earlier he didn’t want to wrestle this match. My guess is he wanted Ayala to MFF and he said no. This spilled over to what we watched.
My best friend was a teammate and I can think of 3 times when punches were thrown and another when I still accuse him of trying to break my ankle. It to shall pass.
No idea what that was but it makes sense that given his “I am done” comment earlier he didn’t want to wrestle this match. My guess is he wanted Ayala to MFF and he said no. This spilled over to what we watched.
My best friend was a teammate and I can think of 3 times when punches were thrown and another when I still accuse him of trying to break my ankle. It to shall pass.
Let me try and put this as clearly as possible. NO ONE calls out SPENCER LEE!!! NO ONE says sh*t about SPENCER LEE!!!!
Gable, maybe the Brands Bros, and SPENCER LEE are IOWA!!! This young man has given WAY BEYOND to this program!!! What he has done for this program, what he has done in this sport is beyond words!
There is NO ONE that I have ever seen that could have done what he has done! He came out as a true freshman after major knee surgery and dominated! He has not been 100% since his SR year in HS. He WON the NCAAs with TWO torn ACLs
He IS the best wrestler on the planet! He may be the very best wrestler we ever get to see. He has earned ever right to have EVERYONES FULL SUPPORT! He bears the weight of the entire program and has for the last 6 years!
Looks to me like he was challenged, maybe by Brands, Maybe by his teammate? Don't know, don't care, he came out and met the challenge head on and made a statement!
I may be the "lightening rod" here in the cesspool. I have no problem with that. Will back our program, our coaches and wrestlers come hell or high water!!! Good old gobbler has brought good info to the board and I have given him credit for it.
That doesn't mean he gets a pass from me! He called me out, i gave it right back. He said I am the first IOWA fan that he has blocked? I will take that as an HONOR pal!!!
Gable, maybe the Brands Bros, and SPENCER LEE are IOWA!!! This young man has given WAY BEYOND to this program!!! What he has done for this program, what he has done in this sport is beyond words!
There is NO ONE that I have ever seen that could have done what he has done! He came out as a true freshman after major knee surgery and dominated! He has not been 100% since his SR year in HS. He WON the NCAAs with TWO torn ACLs
He IS the best wrestler on the planet! He may be the very best wrestler we ever get to see. He has earned ever right to have EVERYONES FULL SUPPORT! He bears the weight of the entire program and has for the last 6 years!
Looks to me like he was challenged, maybe by Brands, Maybe by his teammate? Don't know, don't care, he came out and met the challenge head on and made a statement!
I may be the "lightening rod" here in the cesspool. I have no problem with that. Will back our program, our coaches and wrestlers come hell or high water!!! Good old gobbler has brought good info to the board and I have given him credit for it.
That doesn't mean he gets a pass from me! He called me out, i gave it right back. He said I am the first IOWA fan that he has blocked? I will take that as an HONOR pal!!!
My best friend and my brother were both on my team. We sometimes threw more then just cross faces if you get my drift. Spencer and Drake today was no biggie.....believe me. This is NOT a sport where you want your mom saying anything on social media after you get your lunch fed to you.
Think there's a lot of over analysis here. SL is the toughest wrestler in the land and moms are gonna mom.
Maybe Spencer didn’t like the idea of maybe having to wrestle Ayala for a full 3 periods.
Spencer needs to get annoyed every match!
I’m Spencer’s exit interview he was classy and payed respect to Ayala. So there is that!! Don’t know what is going on but he talked him up. That should be good enough
So, no one is on board with my opinion that Spencer was pissed at Brands and not Ayala right?
<<Animosity between two teammates is not good. Brands needs to get it fixed>>
I'm sure they will work on it--but same thing happened all through the Gable years--I could give MANY examples. Terry Brands/Steve Martin is one that comes to mind, but many, many others.
Social media compounds these situations.
I'm sure they will work on it--but same thing happened all through the Gable years--I could give MANY examples. Terry Brands/Steve Martin is one that comes to mind, but many, many others.
Social media compounds these situations.
How’d you feel about sharter starocci saying mekhi’s greatest achievement was being on the mat with him? Cocky isn’t just in Iowa. Bo is still tweeting about Iowa. Mark hall is playing his air guitar and nolf is pissed some guy from Buffalo is dancing on him. It happens. Ayala was just another wrestler out there. Spencer wanted to treat him like a teammate before the match but after he toed that line, he taught him a lesson and was pissed he had to. Big deal. Why don’t you go ask brands yourself?
In the age of NIL, this^^^ pretty much explains Spencer's post match behavior to me, if the primary reason for the match vs Drake was to have no forfeits in the finals of a tournament's debut. I am sure neither Spencer nor Drake got a cut of the gate.
If the coaching staff encouraged both Drake and Spencer to compete, further considering they haven't wrestled much in the room and both are recovering from injury, I could see Spencer facing additional unnecessary internal conflict / pressure, including winning and wrestling in a way that helps him achieve his ultimate goal versus wrestling in a way not to reinjure his teammate's shoulder.
I can recall instances of a clear starter beating a clear backup only once or twice in a tournament final. Almost always one MFFs to the other when they aren't close and competing for the starting spot. Right or wrong, that seems to be more the norm. Surely Spencer et al are aware of this norm.
Honestly, it would make more sense to me if Spencer's post match comment was directed towards the coaching staff. As someone pointed out, Drake appeared to have exited the screen in a different direction from where the comment seemed aimed.
Just as honestly, I don't know the truth. Might as well speculate that Drake took a dive and all the post match "antics" (Spencer's comment and Momma and Sister Drake's comments) are part of selling the con, in the interest of building the tournament.
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This is absolutely the worst thing to ever happen on a wrestling team. Spencer pushed Ayala in the face and mean mugged him. Iowa wrestling should suspend the program for the year, fire the coaches, and start from square one next year. Can’t have this type of animosity in a program and be successful. There’s never been an example of a successful team when something like this goes on.
#1 I’m on Spencer’s side on this.
#2 I have absolutely no idea what your post has to do with the question I asked.
If truths be told, Terry Bradshaw couldn’t stand Chuck Noll. Both have 4 rings.
I think he didn’t want to wrestle but 1 or 2 Brands talked him into it as they thought he needed a tough match. Ayala was caught in the crossfire.
There’s absolutely no chance they would put a wrestlers health at risk over the finals of the Soldier Solute. None. Zero. Zip. They had a wrestler MFF the semis due to health in Swafford.
Two guys ultimately decided to wrestle. So they did.
Yeah, I think that’s why Gobblin was so upset last night. Felt as coach Brands should have stepped in.
I agree.
Coach Brands has said that wrestlers may not understand how much they can compete with an injury. May've even talked to first significant injury. Along that line, I was extending this concern from view of the wrestlers' uncertainty to reinjury of a similarly recovering teammate, rather than from any consideration of actual medical clearances and associated physical ability / actual risk.
Others here have speculated the importance of avoiding a plethora of finals MFFs.
