Simply not true
Sam Brooks- R12, 8, 4
Nathan Burak- R12, 8, 7, 4
Sam Stoll made huge gains from his redshirt year to his first year in the lineup. Unfortunately, he's gotten injured
Cash Wilcke made the R12 as a freshman coming off a not great redshirt year
Joey Gunther showed tremendous improvement from his redshirt year
I've never been one to deny that Cael can coach, but it is undeniable that PSU has been working with much better talent. Cenzo beat Anthony Ashnault after his senior year of high school, so he was already damn good coming into PSU. Was coming to PSU going to magically cure the tumor on Bo Jordan's foot that has hampered him the past few years? Iowa's coaches can go with anyone, but need to recruit to the level of a PSU and tOSU
You can cherry pick some to prove a point....but GrantG? Telford? St. John? Nick Moore? Ethan L?, These guys should get listed also. Beating Anthony Ashnault is no indication that you can beat Imar. Kemdog and Joseph were pretty equal when they left high school. Kemdog is very good but has a monster in Nolf ahead of him- Joseph is very good but figured out how to take his even bigger monster to his back and pin him. Call it whatever you want, but Iowa (under Brands) has simply not been able to get guys where they need to be on a regular basis if you exclude the first 2 weight classes. Cael has produced the results.