"Combination" of offensive talent and aggressiveness? Half of our starters haven't had either these last few years let alone the combination of both. And I absolutely concur WRT TnT; they'd still bring it.
Tom and Terry
- Thread starter WEH8ST8HAWK
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No.
I truly love Doug, but no. He's a great personality for that program which makes him very popular but his results have not measured up to expectations. UNI and Iowa have very similar issues with injuries.
Agree. Just love how he relates to his athletes. He should of taken Illini job but his loyalty to uni and the state and his area up there is commendable. The way coaches hop for more money and he sticks for less. Also i just think if he had the resourses iowa has hed be doing a great job. He gets 0 support up there. For what he has to work with i think hes way out preformed his resources.
Sorry. Not the Iowa style today. May have been at one time. But please keep TnT.
They are both top 5 guys to me in hawk history….especially to watch. Never seen so much aggression and determination and will to not just win but to destroy opponents. It was awesome. I just wish a bit more control and class on the sideline and interviews. Also in the room i think they are set in their ways which worked amazing for yrs. Imo that training style and culture they drive turns off most fans and parents/recruits.
Also training structure needs to be way more scientific with training pan, nutrition, stretching, rest…etc. quality over quantity. Hate to say but several smarter coaches in country have figured it out. They need to soon or the gap will be unsurmountable with PSU and other programs.
This is spot on, imo. Thanks for taking the time to post it.
See this vid a while back on how Iowa strength trained.
If they’re still training like this, it explains a lot.
Link
Awesome Schwab gave that talk to his guys and he is a great coach. Do you not think Tom and Terry do the same thing for their guys??
Thanks for posting. Good stuff. I was half expecting a clip of Metcalf hoisting paint cans filled with concrete.
Honestly, wrestling a well trained grizzly bear would be more effective strength training
I too partially agree, but guys like TnT would still struggle to reach the top of the podium in today’s form of the sport. Iowa Style, TnT style, Gable style, whatever we call it, cannot thrive in an era of lunger timeouts, 10-min video reviews, and no stalling called unless the leader is up by 2+ with under 0:30 left in the 3rd. Can’t break a worthy opponent under that kind of system. Gotta have the ultra athletic types w/ feet-to-back skills to overcome all the obstruction.
That style worked well for DeSanto. TnT were basically A+ versions of DeSanto, they would be fine today. There was a lot of skill and aggression attached to their relentless style, not just running down guys late in matches and beating them with conditioning.
And DeSanto never reached the top of the podium. His tenacity and style got him only so far.
Who in today’s era wrestles ‘Iowa Style’ and ends up champ? Nolf is the most recent example I can think of, and there are few others that wrestle like him.
Spencer didn't wrestle iowa style? He never stopped moving forward
aside from him...brooks, vito, nick lee, zain rethrford, snyder
if your standard is tom and terry, then yes, no one wrestles iowa style. but thats a pretty ridiculous standard
Agree with jneffer. I would add in Levi Haines, O'Toole, Keckeisen, Wyatt Hendrickson as modern equivalent to the classic Iowa style. Rotisserie, do you really think that TnT - who went on to win world and olympic medals, would not be successful today?
Look no further than how the USA mens freestyle team uses pace as a weapon against the rest of the world. Burroughs, DT, Snyder, Zain, Vito all have used pace as a tool to beat super high level opponents.
I think you may have glossed over the part where he said, "TnT were basically A+ versions of DeSanto." As good as DeSanto was, he was limited in several positions. TnT were as tenacious(maybe even more if that is possible), but they were also much better in many positions...
Bo Bartlet is Iowa Style. Relentless hand fighting/snaps to low level leg attacks.
He gets taken down some times because of his aggressiveness, just like Tom, Terry, & Ironside did, but most people can't keep up with the pace.
They’d be successful because they are exceptional wrestlers. But I thought we were debating whether ‘Iowa Style’ yields champions in the modern era. It sucks, but let’s be real, whatever style TnT are teaching (wouldn’t we presume it is Iowa Style?) is not producing champions. Spencer is an exception.
Per part of jneffer’s comment, if “moving forward” constantly is what Iowa Style means, then I concede the argument, because he and I are not on the same page about what Iowa Style even means.
Constant pressure & handfighting is one thing, but doing that AND attacking relentlessy is another. Few can do it against the better competition. Brooks was brought up as an example. He fits that first part (constant, heavy pressure) really well, but the one time he tried to build in the other component by going all Nolf on a good wrestler (Amine, I think at Big 10 championships a couple years ago), he gassed and was the one who got broke.
All I’m sayin’ is it has gotten increasingly impossible to break guys when there are now so many options for resting during a match. You gotta have mad skills more than ever to come out on top these days.
The bigger issue is simply that nutrition and training are at an all time high in efficiency. As a result, I think conditioning is also at an all time high. I honestly wonder if Metcalf had something to do with that. He brought it so much into the spotlight and I really started to notice a big change, starting with Palmer that last year. Not to say that I still haven't noticed "gassing" from time to time. But, I think most of those are "one offs" with underlying circumstances.
I will say that I believe a much higher percentage are "peaking" in March now, much better than ever before. Again, nutrition is so important and cannot be undersold. I think the better programs have really adopted a philosophy and approach to maximize that aspect.
When I think of "Iowa Style" Keck is absolutely at the top of the list.
O'Toole not so much.
That is fair. I think that the style that TnT actually wrestled has only been adopted by a handful of the athletes that they have coached. Metcalf and DeSanto as the most obvious examples. So there is a pattern for the classic Iowa style working. That being said, I think what is now viewed as the Iowa style is more constant pressure forward, hard hand fight, good positioning - not high attack rate. Think the Murin, Marinelli, Warner mold. We have seen this style yield success, just not to the level of winning NCAA titles. I think we would all like to see more offense out of our guys. Ayala, Woods & Caliendo in particular should be a blast to watch this year.
In retrospect maybe O'Toole was not the best example. He is always looking to score but does so in a pretty calculated, slick way.
I should correct it. Best in iowa considering lack of university support and funding. I think if he were at iowa with iowa support he coupd do amazing things.
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