ADVERTISEMENT

Who'd you Rather: Tom or Tom

Who'd you rather have as a Head Coach?

  • Tom Ryan

    Votes: 80 79.2%
  • Tom Brands

    Votes: 21 20.8%

  • Total voters
    101

backdrft76

Well-Known Member
Gold Member
Sep 7, 2012
1,795
5,072
1
The recent discussion in the Transfer thread got me thinking.

Who'd you rather have as our Head Coach if Cael wasn't available? Tom Ryan, or Tom Brands? Those are your only 2 options. If you wanna throw in a "why", I'm sure it'd make for some good reactions.

Personally I'd go Tom Ryan. Yes he's a whiny crybaby that doesn't develop half of his recruits, takes to social media too often to complain, and lets his guys wear robes. But he seems to be genuine, a good coach of character, and a decent role model. Brands on the other hand is too whacked out for me. Too much extracurricular crap is associated with his teams.
 
Between the two? Tom Ryan easily. Their development abilities are pretty equal to me IMO. Yes Tom Ryan has had some busts in his recent classes but he also does have a 4 timer and national champs like NATO, MyMar, almost certainly Moore if 2020 happened and Pletcher 50/50 in 2020. He also had some kids overachieve recently at NCAAs like Ethan Smith, Kaleb Romero and Gavin Hoffman IMO. Similarly, Tate Orndorff AA'ing in 2021 was an overachievement.

He's also a much stronger recruiter obviously and is definitely ahead of the times, looking at his proactively in building facilities and also he's apparently ahead of the NIL game (though that might just be an Ohio State thing) Tom was a lot closer to Cael's best teams also (beating us twice at Big Tens and obviously winning it all in 2015)

For the stuff:
Tom Ryan's teams as you know, notoriously is bad on bottom. But similarly, he hired Logan to slowly fix that issue.

Brands team have "burn out" and injury issues as well as a boring style that is prone to upsets in later rounds of NCAAs and he seems to be good with sticking with old school Iowa training.

Finally and not to be harsh but Ohio State was a similar profile to PSU in that it was a sleeping giant vs Iowa being a "just don't mess it up" scenario when Ryan/Brands took over their programs. Ryan worked his way up from Hofstra and Brands just kind of was chosen to take over Iowa. Multiple people have done a better job at Virginia Tech than Brands did back in the day.
 
It’s not part of the poll but Terry is definitely part of the Brand’s package along with the three inch binder, haters stalking the program and please lateral drop me coach statements. No thanks. I will reluctantly take Tan Tom and his robes and pin chains.
 
635614507065911511-USATSI-8432377.jpg
 
It’s not part of the poll but Terry is definitely part of the Brand’s package along with the three inch binder, haters stalking the program and please lateral drop me coach statements. No thanks. I will reluctantly take Tan Tom and his robes and pin chains.
Easily Ryan. There is a quality of the person after college that comes from Ryan that doesn’t come from Brands. Forget his matside manner and think about his wrestlers. His on the mat results probably fall one podium level short on the average but one step above as people. There is a level of respect among rival coaches that few others enjoy

Tom Ryan.
 
Is this poll evidence of or foreshadowing of the death of tHR?

That tantom is blowing the doors off the poll is an interesting data point
 
I’m sure both are good guys on most levels. Like many here, though, I see the demeanor of the tOSU kids on the mat, win or lose, and it’s close to exemplary. There’s no doubt it’s a reflection of their program’s perspective. With that said I think the Iowa kids are great around their young fans on match nights (days), but are certainly over the top chippy far more often immediately around match time.
 
A few other aspects:

ORTC is not what it once was with Snyder + Stieber, but it's still considerably better than HWC.

Ryan has done a better job of developing coaches, and therefore potential successors.

If I had to pick one for fundraising and relations with big hitter alumni, that's an easy call -- before considering that Ryan is from New York and therefore can more easily relate with northeasterners.

Ryan would also seem much more capable of managing his bosses and adapting to a different campus/local atmosphere.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fronk71
Both came from other programs. Which one left a lesser program better off than when he took over and which one damn near killed off the program he left behind?

Just my opinion, but those singular actions speak volumes of each man.
 
Tom Brands' first day on the PSU job:

"Which bank account is the @PatMineo22 endowment?"
"Coach ... what are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about, the one that goes to Pat for slandering Iowa. It's okay, you can tell me now, I coach PSU now"
"Coach ... there's no such thing"
"STOP LYING, WHERE IS IT!?"
Tom dont like tough slandering
 
I chose Brands but am not really sure why. My instinct is that Brands would be straighter with me. Terry scares me though, so I'd probably go with Ryan, ultimately, who seems like a guy who genuinely cares.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CSauertiegPSU
The recent discussion in the Transfer thread got me thinking.

Who'd you rather have as our Head Coach if Cael wasn't available? Tom Ryan, or Tom Brands? Those are your only 2 options. If you wanna throw in a "why", I'm sure it'd make for some good reactions.

Personally I'd go Tom Ryan. Yes he's a whiny crybaby that doesn't develop half of his recruits, takes to social media too often to complain, and lets his guys wear robes. But he seems to be genuine, a good coach of character, and a decent role model. Brands on the other hand is too whacked out for me. Too much extracurricular crap is associated with his teams.
I'm taking TanTom, only as a placeholder, until the AD quickly sees the error in his or her ways, and fires him, for Casey, Cody, Varner, Taylor, Retherford, Nolf, or any of a host of people tied to our program who would do a better job than either of these two guys.
 
Surprised at how skewed these results are. Ryan is definitely more polished and probably the better recruiter. But Brands is far more genuine IMO. Now if we’re talking Terry…
 
Surprised at how skewed these results are. Ryan is definitely more polished and probably the better recruiter. But Brands is far more genuine IMO. Now if we’re talking Terry…
I think that's the problem with the Brands brothers. I could deal with Tom but Terry would have to go.
 
B_p0t8uUgAAGGaM.png


Friggin Brands is cracking me up.

The smile on his face, if that's what you can call it, looks like he's thinking' sharing a trophy is like kissing your sister', or maybe 'I just crapped my pants, hurry up and take the picture so I can get the hell out of here'.



 
  • Like
Reactions: PASLP2 and danoftw
B_p0t8uUgAAGGaM.png


Friggin Brands is cracking me up.

The smile on his face, if that's what you can call it, looks like he's thinking' sharing a trophy is like kissing your sister', or maybe 'I just crapped my pants, hurry up and take the picture so I can get the hell out of here'.



Just an FYI...

Based on the video/sketch that gif comes from, he's not making that face because he's crapping his pants.
 
Interesting the comments on Terry... there has been a few wrestlers going to Iowa (like Spencer) specifically calling him out as the reason for their selection
 
Interesting the comments on Terry... there has been a few wrestlers going to Iowa (like Spencer) specifically calling him out as the reason for their selection
Which is itself interesting because per their recent BTN doc, Terry doesn’t really roll with guys much anymore due to injury. So, it’s his personality that is attractive to those kids? I could also buy wrestling knowledge too, if he has a way to impart it.
 
ADVERTISEMENT