Down goes Iowa... at home

[minnhawkeye]

I wish the NWCA would have told Iowa had to wrestle VT that way maybe the Hawks would have showed up to wrestle. You know some dislike for someone seems to get even the low talent to perform above their talent.
To show you how old I'm many years ago my dad told me if you going to bet on sport teams never bet against the New York Yankees, Norte Dame and Mpls Lakers and heck look at it today would lose most of your bets on them. Simple times change and have to accept it and work to somehow catch up.
Been a Hawk fan for 35 years and had a very enjoyable ride and yes this is hard on this old boy but it is what it is. Funny in a way to me anyway why did it take Penn State College since 1953 to wake up and find a coach that could recurit and use all the talent you have in your state high school wrestling? Guess it just gave Iowa a few more titles. I do admit it is going to be a battle to stop you guys if Cal can keep on getting all the talent. Hawks will hang around should always be in top 4, which is hard for us to take but it is what it is.
Congrats on winning the dual event and will send a congrats ahead of time for NCAA title because the way I see it only way you can lose it is if something or someone destdroys New York and dam we don't want that.Good luck and see you in Iowa City dang this was long didn't know I could type this long.

 

[nyc10007]

I wish the NWCA would have told Iowa had to wrestle VT that way maybe the Hawks would have showed up to wrestle. You know some dislike for someone seems to get even the low talent to perform above their talent.
To show you how old I'm many years ago my dad told me if you going to bet on sport teams never bet against the New York Yankees, Norte Dame and Mpls Lakers and heck look at it today would lose most of your bets on them. Simple times change and have to accept it and work to somehow catch up.
Been a Hawk fan for 35 years and had a very enjoyable ride and yes this is hard on this old boy but it is what it is. Funny in a way to me anyway why did it take Penn State College since 1953 to wake up and find a coach that could recurit and use all the talent you have in your state high school wrestling? Guess it just gave Iowa a few more titles. I do admit it is going to be a battle to stop you guys if Cal can keep on getting all the talent. Hawks will hang around should always be in top 4, which is hard for us to take but it is what it is.
Congrats on winning the dual event and will send a congrats ahead of time for NCAA title because the way I see it only way you can lose it is if something or someone destdroys New York and dam we don't want that.Good luck and see you in Iowa City dang this was long didn't know I could type this long.

Very gracious! If someone destroys NY, I'll be very upset, since I live there/here. Hope you have a great time at Nationals. Should be something special. I know I can't wait.

 

[Cali_Nittany]

Re Iowa's golden days, I recall a conversation with Hachiro Oishi, National Assistant Coach of the Year in the 90's at PSU, and I asked him "Why is Iowa so good?" and he looked at me like I was stupid and he told me "Because they get the best kids."

So that's apparently, the recipe: Get the best kids in the country together in a room, and they'll make themselves that much better going against each other every day. Throw in a little coaching, and the rest takes care of itself.

Sounds too easy, but maybe there's something to it . . .

I took jogging at PSU thinking it would be a pretty mellow way to fulfill the PE requirement. Hachiro was the instructor. Our "jogs" would often consist of running from Rec Hall to Beaver Stadium and then running stairs in the stadium. As a warm down he would teach us wrestling moves. He always had a smile on his face. Great guy.

 

[AgSurfer]

Re Iowa's golden days, I recall a conversation with Hachiro Oishi, National Assistant Coach of the Year in the 90's at PSU, and I asked him "Why is Iowa so good?" and he looked at me like I was stupid and he told me "Because they get the best kids."

So that's apparently, the recipe: Get the best kids in the country together in a room, and they'll make themselves that much better going against each other every day. Throw in a little coaching, and the rest takes care of itself.

Sounds too easy, but maybe there's something to it . . .

There is another reason why Gable's teams were so dominant, especially back in the 80's. Gable would get on the mat with his guys and he was still tougher and better than anyone they would ever meet in live competition. I heard stories about how he would go against the Banach brothers and beat the crap out of them. From what I've read, the Penn State guys get the same from Cael.

Brands is probably somewhere in his mid 40s, and I'm sure he is still a pretty tough hombre, but I wonder if he can get out and completely dominate his guys like Gable and Sanderson. Anyone know about this?

 

[lionlover]

"Funny in a way to me anyway why did it take Penn State College since 1953 to wake up and find a coach that could recurit and use all the talent you have in your state high school wrestling?"

If you research the past PA college rankings, you would generally find 5 to 6 teams in PA finish in the top 25. There was something like 14 Division I schools in PA. How many D1 Schools split up the talent in Iowa?

Also, how long did it take Iowa to win their first NCAA championship? PA won two before Iowa had one. In wrestling the head coach means a LOT. When you got Gable, you hit the lottery. We got Cael and hit the lottery. It's no big mystery. @WildTurk

 

[lionlover]

There is another reason why Gable's teams were so dominant, especially back in the 80's. Gable would get on the mat with his guys and he was still tougher and better than anyone they would ever meet in live competition. I heard stories about how he would go against the Banach brothers and beat the crap out of them. From what I've read, the Penn State guys get the same from Cael.

Brands is probably somewhere in his mid 40s, and I'm sure he is still a pretty tough hombre, but I wonder if he can get out and completely dominate his guys like Gable and Sanderson. Anyone know about this?

@AgSurfer

If you want to believe Randy Lewis:

Gable: The Punisher

It was 1972. I first heard of Dan Gable when I was in 7th grade. People told me that he was the best wrestler in the world. Nobody could beat him. At the time, I was a three-time state AAU age-group champion, and a national AAU age-group champion. My career record at the time was 60-0. I remember thinking, if I was as big as Dan Gable, I could beat him.

Nineteen years later, I would find out I was wrong. In 1991, I was thirty years old and I wrestled at 149.5 pounds, the same weight-class that Gable won the Olympics (without giving up a single point!) in 1972.

I wrestled a dual meet against the 1989 world champion Russian, Boris Budaev. I was pounding him 13-4 and ended up sticking him. One week later, I asked Gable if he wanted to wrestle. At the time Gable weighed about 160 and was 41 years old. I was up to about 163. Gable said yes but wanted to warm up a bit. I just sat there and watched him. Gable went through a 45-minute session of drilling and stretching, moving around, getting ready to tangle with yours truly.

By this time his shirt was drenched. He was ready to go to war. I warmed up in about 30 seconds. I slapped his hand and asked him if he was ready. Gable said, “go” and I jumped across the mat and threw him with what I would call a Steven Segal-type judo throw and headlock. He went right to his back.

Two seconds later, Gable scored a reversal. For the next forty-five minutes he tortured me. What he likes to do is put you on your back, bar your arm and torture you. Then he will sort of let you off your back, but he will keep the bar arm with just your shoulder down. Sort of like isometrics, only diabolical. Finally, he will let you go and when you get back on your feet, you can barely feel your right arm.

Then, he’ll take you down again and start on your left shoulder. Pain must balance. When you finally get back on your feet both shoulders are numb. Your arms are useless. Death is a fleeting moment away.

After that “workout” somebody asked me how I did against Gable. I said “Oh, he beat me about 50-5.” They said “no way.” I said “way.” Actually the score was 50-4!

I’ve spoken with hundreds of people who went one-on-one with Gable in the room and they all say the same thing. Unless you have actually wrestled him, you can not understand what it is like. I have wrestled the best in the world �" having competed against 27 world and Olympic medalists and countless others in practice. Nothing is like wrestling Dan Gable.

 

[T J]

PSU passed Iowa when they hired Cael and brought him East into the middle of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the nation - and the numbers since Cael's arrival prove that very dramatically regardless of whether you want to compare Cael's post-PSU record to Iowa or to his pre-PSU record at Iowa State. The reality imho is that "Iowa has not been Iowa" since the late-1990s (e.g., the way Iowa fans like to view themselves -- e.g., the ultra-dominant Iowa of Gable's era including the Championships Zaletsky won with Gable's teams [the fact is that Z was originally named only interim coach and Gable originally only said he was taking a sabbatical due to injury, not permanently retiring. Gable only decided to permanently retire from coaching after the 1998 season]).

In any event, most Iowa fans are "living in the past" in regards to how they view Iowa wrestling and Tom Brands (e.g., the second-coming of Gable) - since Cael Sanderson came to PSU, Cael Sanderson is quite clearly the current coach pulling a "Gable", not Tom Brands. One of the most amazing parts of the whole story was Cael's great ability to be a visionary and forecast for everybody what was about to transpire -- the Iowa fans at the time (e.g., 2009 after Brands had just won his 2nd consecutive National Title and would win his 3rd that year) thought Cael was just spinning a yarn when he laid out his rationale for going to PSU, but the reality is that Cael knew, and still knows, PRECISELY what he was doing and how he was going to get there. He essentially laid out exactly how he saw things unfolding and laid down the gauntlet to Iowa in 2009 - "stop me if you can".....well they have been completely unable to stop him and Cael is putting more distance between himself and "the field", not less.

Dominant coaches in wrestling are nothing new, before Gable it was the Good Doctor at ISU and before that it was all Okie State with a tiny little bit of Oklahoma. Cael has become ascendant and the Iowa fans who like to beat their chest regarding the accomplishments of Gable are "living in the past", not the here and now, as yesterday's dual very clearly demonstrated.

Iowa's big problem now is they don't have a Coach who wrestled at Iowa State.

 

[Qued18]

Okie St then Iowa and now PSU is running college wrestling. Very impressive program you got out there in Happy Valley. Looking forward to the BIGs as I live 10 mins from Carver. I've seen some historic moments in wrestling history there. i dont see Iowa pulling off the upset but look forward to the battles the best in the B1G have to offer.

I think PSU will crown 4-5 champs
Ohio St 1-2
Iowa 1-2

 

[amalone]

I think WildTurkey should take his own advice and go back to HR and be a lover, not a hater. What precisely he is going to "love on" about Iowa Wrestling over there after this debacle, I have no idea and don't particularly care at least he won't be here...

Iowa's big problem now is they don't have a Coach who wrestled at Iowa State.

Touche.

 

[FineMaterial]

On the Iowa message boards, some folks thought Grothus could upset Jack. Reality was, he couldn't lay a finger on him.

Upset? Brody was an automatic NC when he makes weight. Keep up!

 

[Franklin_Restores_TheTradition]

Upset? Brody was an automatic NC when he makes weight. Keep up!

Please go back to HR and have another glass of the Kool-Aide. (TIC )

 

[NittanyLion84]

I took jogging at PSU thinking it would be a pretty mellow way to fulfill the PE requirement. Hachiro was the instructor. Our "jogs" would often consist of running from Rec Hall to Beaver Stadium and then running stairs in the stadium. As a warm down he would teach us wrestling moves. He always had a smile on his face. Great guy.

I took wresting, with Hachiro as the instructor and just like your story, he put us through the ringer like he was trying to prepare us for trying out for the varsity team. I agree hell of nice guy.