Coaches on the HOT-HOT seat

[El-Jefe]

Well lets put it this way. The 2 guys i know pretty well is not very high on wrestling like they were in H.S. I am not going to put them out...Kind of felt bad for them now...Maybe they just need a break who knows....

Just some friendly advice: if you're gonna make an accusation like "coach makes them hate the sport," then you can expect questions. If you're not ready to answer those, then you should reconsider making that accusation.

Also, what you're describing sounds like burnout. That's not nearly the same as "coach made me hate the sport." I love my boss and would go far and beyond for him, and I suffer burnout from time to time. That's why God invented vacation.

 

[nitlion6]

No idea if Iowa wrestlers like Brands or not. I don't really care. If Brands sometime in the next 4 years finds himself on the hot seat it will have nothing to do with how the athletes feel about him. It will be entirely related to an entire decade with 0 NCAA team championships.

 

[Flying_Tiger]

Brands seat is warm right now. If these things occur, as the late Glen Fry would say "the heat is on"

Current status: Iowa 5th, no individual champions for second consecutive year (104 F - average hot tub)

Spencer Lee to Penn State (116 F - average Death Valley High temp in July)
Iowa fails to win 2017 Big Ten Championships (134 F - world record high temp)
*Iowa fails to win the 2017 NCAA championship (180 F - average Finnish sauna temperature)
Iowa fails to have an individual champion for a third consecutive year. (212 F - boiling point)

* add 10 degrees if Iowa would of won with Burak's points.
* add 10 degrees if Virginia Tech places ahead again.

 

[dunkej01]

Wow that's pretty hot!

Time to call flo and the marketing department to do another introspective video.

 

[El-Jefe]

Wow that's pretty hot!

Time to call flo and the marketing department to do another introspective video.

Suggested theme song:

 

[nitlion6]

Brands seat is warm right now. If these things occur, as the late Glen Fry would say "the heat is on"

Current status: Iowa 5th, no individual champions for second consecutive year (104 F - average hot tub)

Spencer Lee to Penn State (116 F - average Death Valley High temp in July)
Iowa fails to win 2017 Big Ten Championships (134 F - world record high temp)
*Iowa fails to win the 2017 NCAA championship (180 F - average Finnish sauna temperature)
Iowa fails to have an individual champion for a third consecutive year. (212 F - boiling point)

* add 10 degrees if Iowa would of won with Burak's points.
* add 10 degrees if Virginia Tech places ahead again.

Well Tiger,
Not sure where Spencer ends up, but I now believe it is either State College or Columbus, not Iowa City.
Iowa is not winning the B1G title next season.
Iowa is not winning the NCAA championship next season.
If Tomasello stays at 125 I don't think the Hawks win an individual title next year.
I believe Virginia Tech finishes ahead of the Hawks again.

I guess the saving grace will be the Hawks will finish far enough back that Burak's missing points will not be the difference between where they finish and winning the title. Whew! That was close to the perfect storm.

 

[James P. Whitters III]

I believe Iowa could win both the BIG and the NCAA next year, but I probably wouldn't bet that way. Next year will be the last time in the near future Iowa has any hope of a team title imo. The recruiting simply isn't there. I don't think the university will put any heat on Brands, as he runs a solid program and is well liked. There are certainly a fairly large group of frustrated fans, but most are looking for change not involving swapping out the head coach. I expect Brands to walk away long before he is fired when he does leave. He is not a Spring chicken at nearly 50, and I don't see him hanging on past his prime like a coach to the North. I'm guessing 3-4 more years without a title and Brands will "fire" himself.

 

[nitlion6]

I believe Iowa could win both the BIG and the NCAA next year, but I probably wouldn't bet that way. Next year will be the last time in the near future Iowa has any hope of a team title imo. The recruiting simply isn't there. I don't think the university will put any heat on Brands, as he runs a solid program and is well liked. There are certainly a fairly large group of frustrated fans, but most are looking for change not involving swapping out the head coach. I expect Brands to walk away long before he is fired when he does leave. He is not a Spring chicken at nearly 50, and I don't see him hanging on past his prime like a coach to the North. I'm guessing 3-4 more years without a title and Brands will "fire" himself.

They most certainly could win some team titles next year. They will have a solid lineup with potentially 8 AAs. For it to happen though the stars will have to align perfectly. The Hawks will need to be just about perfect and a few others (PSU, both OSUs) will need to collectively under perform.

 

[NittanyLion84]

No idea if Iowa wrestlers like Brands or not. I don't really care. If Brands sometime in the next 4 years finds himself on the hot seat it will have nothing to do with how the athletes feel about him. It will be entirely related to an entire decade with 0 NCAA team championships.

You are right, the lack of NCAA team titles is the main issue. They could replace Brands with Gable and if Cael and company continued to dominate, at some point, the fan base would be after Gable.

 

[Azchief32]

Well lets put it this way. The 2 guys i know pretty well is not very high on wrestling like they were in H.S. I am not going to put them out...Kind of felt bad for them now...Maybe they just need a break who knows....

But how is their bowling avg and do they help your team in the league. What's the name of this team..."Spyker's Imaginary Friends"?

Or do you have to split them up because there is too many? "Brands Burn Outs" and "My Super Secret Sources" with Mr. Lee as the manager.

 

[yekrut321]

I really like what Dresser and Pop have done for their respective schools!! It is good for wrestling for these and other programs to have the success they have been having.

 

[James P. Whitters III]

I have no idea if the fall off of the Iowa seniors is from burnout or not, but it also looks worse for Brands if these guys simply didn't improve and in fact back slid for senior seasons. DSJ,McBono,Evans,Moore,BT. These guys all had less than stellar NCAA as seniors. I guess I call that burnout because if they were still fully motivated and still regressed that says something entirely different about the coaching.

 

[Pennstate1985]

I have no idea if the fall off of the Iowa seniors is from burnout or not, but it also looks worse for Brands if these guys simply didn't improve and in fact back slid for senior seasons. DSJ,McBono,Evans,Moore,BT. These guys all had less than stellar NCAA as seniors. I guess I call that burnout because if they were still fully motivated and still regressed that says something entirely different about the coaching.

Was it burnout or was it sucking down too much and for too long? Brands doesn't seem to have as much upward weight shifting on his team than other coaches do.

 

[HawkTalk3]

I have no idea if the fall off of the Iowa seniors is from burnout or not, but it also looks worse for Brands if these guys simply didn't improve and in fact back slid for senior seasons. DSJ,McBono,Evans,Moore,BT. These guys all had less than stellar NCAA as seniors. I guess I call that burnout because if they were still fully motivated and still regressed that says something entirely different about the coaching.

Moore and McDonough both suffered from significant upper body injuries their final season.

 

[dicemen99]

Moore and McDonough both suffered from significant upper body injuries their final season.

You should have stopped at McDonough.

Moore - injury or not, while he is not an example of regression in his rsSR year, he is certainly not an example of improvement either.

I will point out though that you can find examples of guys who have not improved or who have regressed (whether with injury being a factor or not) in any program - including PSU's.

 

[HawkTalk3]

You should have stopped at McDonough.

Moore - injury or not, while he is not an example of regression in his rsSR year, he is certainly not an example of improvement either.

Both guys were listed and both had injuries so I felt it was worth mentioning. Also it did look like Moore turned a corner as a junior, and I think more than just fans from Iowa thinking he was a legit AA contender as a senior.

 

[jammenz]

Also, what you're describing sounds like burnout. That's not nearly the same as "coach made me hate the sport." That's why God invented vacation.

I'm going to Iowa City for a vacation cause Cael has burned me out.

 

[Dungeon Yankee]

I'm going to Iowa City for a vacation cause Cael has burned me out.

You have been burned out for a while!

 

[nitlion6]

I'm going to Iowa City for a vacation cause Cael has burned me out.

I am certain that as the PSU titles continue to accumulate something on you is burning. A vacation to Iowa City is probably not the place you need to go to learn to cope with that burn.
However, don't forget the t shirt.

 

[nitlion6]

You are right, the lack of NCAA team titles is the main issue. They could replace Brands with Gable and if Cael and company continued to dominate, at some point, the fan base would be after Gable.

Brands has his team regularly near the very top of the wrestling world and does a pretty good job. They can replace the twins, but the power shift eastward is not temporary, and Iowa would be very hard pressed to replace the Brands brothers with equal quality.

 

[NittanyLion84]

I'm going to Iowa City for a vacation cause Cael has burned me out.

I am not sure that you are burned out, but you have certainly regressed.

 

[minnhawkeye]

The situation is very simple. Pa has best high school wrestling and now has a coach that will not let the talent go elsewhere. With that and winning makes it easier for said coach to recruit other studs from out state.
As far as Brands working them to hard or burn out don't know. What I do know is if Mcdough had not had such a serious injury his Sr. year would have been a 4 time finalist and maybe a 3 time champ Moore looked good his Jr. year than his injury hurt him his Sr. year. Evans was a 3 time AA not as high as would like but when you get screwed like he did in the semis with Perry is hard to get up and come back with team out of race also..

As someone else said "Brands will not get fired" he will step down before that happens.
As of now who else is there that could do the job any better?
Face facts ok is all I ask shit happens in this sport, look what happen to the Altons. Did Cael cause this ?
No injuries just happen for heavens sake this is not ladies ping pong.

 

[NittanyLion84]

The situation is very simple. Pa has best high school wrestling and now has a coach that will not let the talent go elsewhere. With that and winning makes it easier for said coach to recruit other studs from out state.
As far as Brands working them to hard or burn out don't know. What I do know is if Mcdough had not had such a serious injury his Sr. year would have been a 4 time finalist and maybe a 3 time champ Moore looked good his Jr. year than his injury hurt him his Sr. year. Evans was a 3 time AA not as high as would like but when you get screwed like he did in the semis with Perry is hard to get up and come back with team out of race also..

As someone else said "Brands will not get fired" he will step down before that happens.
As of now who else is there that could do the job any better?
Face facts ok is all I ask shit happens in this sport, look what happen to the Altons. Did Cael cause this ?
No injuries just happen for heavens sake this is not ladies ping pong.

Plus on top of injuries, it gets further complicated by weight management and the stamina required for wrestling, which is unlike any other sport.

 

[Flying_Tiger]

The situation is very simple. Pa has best high school wrestling and now has a coach that will not let the talent go elsewhere. With that and winning makes it easier for said coach to recruit other studs from out state.
As far as Brands working them to hard or burn out don't know. What I do know is if Mcdough had not had such a serious injury his Sr. year would have been a 4 time finalist and maybe a 3 time champ Moore looked good his Jr. year than his injury hurt him his Sr. year. Evans was a 3 time AA not as high as would like but when you get screwed like he did in the semis with Perry is hard to get up and come back with team out of race also..

As someone else said "Brands will not get fired" he will step down before that happens.
As of now who else is there that could do the job any better?
Face facts ok is all I ask shit happens in this sport, look what happen to the Altons. Did Cael cause this ?
No injuries just happen for heavens sake this is not ladies ping pong.

McDonough was heathy enough to beat Nico and take 2nd two weeks prior at Big Tens. Was he injured, sure, but there was a lot more to it then that, starting with 4 years of massive weight cutting and the 5-year Iowa grind.

Moore injury? I have yet to see anything credible to substantiate this claim. Just looked spent to me, much like several others seniors that went through the program.

Evans placed 6th three years in a row and showed no improvement. In fact, he got worse from top, his best position. He went from being a beast on top to essentially a stall rider.

St. John, Gambrall, Lofthouse all were AAs past their prime by their senior year and underperformed. Even Ramos and Metcalf were not as good as their Junior years.

Your kidding yourself if you don't think there is an obvious burn out trend and there are lots of people close to division I wrestling that agree with that assessment. You can try to spin it anyway you want, however no other program comes close to having so many broken down wrestlers by the end of their career.

As far as who could do the job any better, well for starters take a look at the top 10 in voting for Intermat coach of the year.

 

[nitlion6]

The situation is very simple. Pa has best high school wrestling and now has a coach that will not let the talent go elsewhere. With that and winning makes it easier for said coach to recruit other studs from out state.
As far as Brands working them to hard or burn out don't know. What I do know is if Mcdough had not had such a serious injury his Sr. year would have been a 4 time finalist and maybe a 3 time champ Moore looked good his Jr. year than his injury hurt him his Sr. year. Evans was a 3 time AA not as high as would like but when you get screwed like he did in the semis with Perry is hard to get up and come back with team out of race also..

As someone else said "Brands will not get fired" he will step down before that happens.
As of now who else is there that could do the job any better?
Face facts ok is all I ask shit happens in this sport, look what happen to the Altons. Did Cael cause this ?
No injuries just happen for heavens sake this is not ladies ping pong.

I think Gable believes Brands does a good job. I also believe as long as Brands has Dan's support Brands is not going anywhere. If or when Dan thinks the Brands tenure has run its course I would imagine he will tell him and Tom will step down.
Thing is Gable almost certainly has a much better understanding of how things really are compared to most and 3 finalists with 6 AA'S (even if they can not score in the finals) is not going to convince Dan his chosen coach is underperforming.

 

[Onceafish]

The situation is very simple. Pa has best high school wrestling and now has a coach that will not let the talent go elsewhere. With that and winning makes it easier for said coach to recruit other studs from out state.

Getting closer than the average Hawkeye fan to giving Cael some of the credit he deserves, but you're still selling him short.

Thirteen kids who were ranked outside the top 50 coming out of high school have gone on to win individual NCAA titles in the past seven years (which is as far back as I can go with the data on d1collegewrestling.net).

Three of the 15 spent all or most of their college years wrestling for Cael (Matt Brown, Frank Molinaro, Dave Zabriskie). None of the 15 wrestled for Smith, Ryan, Brands or JRob.

(Credit where it's due - four of the 15 wrestled for Rob Koll.)

Cael's success goes way beyond geography and salesmanship.

 

[HawkTalk3]

Moore injury? I have yet to see anything credible to substantiate this claim. Just looked spent to me, much like several others seniors that went through the program.

The Moore injury was real. I don't need to go knee deep into the medical history of a person's private life, but if you want to believe it was because he was spent then I will let you know that you are making a conscious decision to believe a false narrative.

As for McDonough there are plenty of examples of 125 pound wrestlers suffering shoulder injuries their final season. I doubt a trend that has examples in Illinois, Nebraska, Indiana, etc is purely because something Brands or the "Iowa grind" is doing.

 

[minnhawkeye]

As far as who could do the job any better, well for starters take a look at the top 10 in voting for Intermat coach of the year.
Sorry to tell you I'm old school none of them would fit at Iowa. Nice try though.
As for Moore's injury so glad that you a Penn State fan have inside knowledge about Iowa wrestling room.
Yes, McD beat Nico with one arm live with it ok.
Also funny Ramos and Metcalf won titles in Sr. year guess they went down hill.

 

[Pennstate1985]

If Tom Brands retired tomorrow, what specific or type of coach would the Iowa faithful want in a new coach? The same personality? A recruiter, knows how to tweet type? An Olympian? ??

Personally, if I was an AD with alumni support ($$), I'd look at Zeke.

 

[minnhawkeye]

If Tom Brands retired tomorrow, what specific or type of coach would the Iowa faithful want in a new coach? The same personality? A recruiter, knows how to tweet type? An Olympian? ??

Personally, if I was an AD with alumni support ($$), I'd look at Zeke.[/QUOTE

This is all speculation on my part. I believe that Metcalf will be the next head coach for Iowa. When he gives up his Olympic goals I think Tom will hire him as a asst. coach. Then when Tom steps down Metcalf will take over. I look for Ramos to be on the staff also and or McD. This is just by guess no more or no less. Iowa likes to keep it in family.

 

[Real-Lion]

But how is their bowling avg and do they help your team in the league. What's the name of this team..."Spyker's Imaginary Friends"?

Or do you have to split them up because there is too many? "Brands Burn Outs" and "My Super Secret Sources" with Mr. Lee as the manager.

Lol...Awesome Azchief..LMAO....

 

[raslen007]

As far as who could do the job any better, well for starters take a look at the top 10 in voting for Intermat coach of the year.
Sorry to tell you I'm old school none of them would fit at Iowa. Nice try though.
As for Moore's injury so glad that you a Penn State fan have inside knowledge about Iowa wrestling room.
Yes, McD beat Nico with one arm live with it ok.
Also funny Ramos and Metcalf won titles in Sr. year guess they went down hill.

Your "old school" schtick is also getting old and that mentality is what will keep your program from potentially progressing and standing still as it gets passed by more and more programs.

 

[minnhawkeye]

Your "old school" schtick is getting also getting old and that mentality is what will keep your program from potentially progressing and standing still as it gets passed by more and more programs.

Thank you very much for the advice Sir. Will store that in save.

 

[JUBAN]

Don't think Brands will be on a hot seat. Just got a 5 year extension last year. Funny how some of you guys know so much about his wrestlers hating him. Could you find me a link or tweet from any of these so called wrestlers who have said or talked about the hate? Thank you.

MINNHAWK....please understand that this is SPYKER talking out of his ars again.....he knows everyone and everything. Talks personally to each and every wrestler, all coaches, and personally gives helpful hints to Cael, whom apparently has his ear. So not to worry.....if SPYKER says JRob is gonna get canned, take it as the gospel. (TIC)