He is certainly well spoken.
POLL: Should this season be Tom Brands last as HC at Iowa?
- Thread starter LIV4GOD
- Start date
He is certainly well spoken.
Just like he did with Platt last year. If he was responsible for putting all that weight on Hendrickson without losing his quickness, then I will credit him and the PSU “training system “ for that. Hamiti had mesenbrink beat the year before, but gassed in the 3rd. Everyone could see the talent, but I couldn’t believe he was still cutting to 165. The thing that got him over the top was moving up to 174, allowing him more muscle and energy, plus getting away from Mesenbrink. He was also a few inches from PK getting his other leg for the takedown and win late in the third at NCAA’s last year. He didn’t do much for the Michigan 165 transfer last year. Taylor hasn’t nailed those 1st two amazing recruiting classes because of his history of developing wrestlers, he hasn’t been coaching long enough to have such a track record. He’s doing it the same way Carl skyrocketed PSU past everyone. With his big name as a recent star wrestler and a lot of money backing him up.
Iowa has had more wrestlers over achieve in their college careers compared to their high school ranking than PSU and OSU before Taylor and it’s not that close. The problem with TnT for years was thinking they could bring in borderline room guys and turn them into champions with development, like Gable was pretty good at. They didn’t realize soon enough that the way to win now was stockpiling top rated guys in high school because times had changed and high school kids were much better trained and developed and closer to their ceiling by the time they arrived at college than in Gables day. They finally figured this out, but by then Carl had jumped us and everyone else by so much catching up is almost impossible. Taylor being the hot new name also affiliated with the PSU machine and plenty of money put him in position to possibly catch PSU in the next 5 years. It’s not development. Development is now the most important as kids through high school in these intense exclusive expensive kids clubs.
Ya, guys like Jax, Blaze, Duke, Vega are really sweating out their development right now
. That’s why they’re beating senior level guys in freestyle while in high school, and all are realistic threats to be NCAA champions as true freshman or high school senior in Jax case. Look, I know you guys want TnT fired, but it would be much easier to use recruiting and stubbornness as a reason, rather than development. They could defend that much easier than their lack of recruiting and retaining several top 10 pfp guys each year, which is the secret sauce at PSU and now OSU.The first time I listened to him as a commentator for wrestling, I knew he had the gift of gab, and could sell ice to Eskimos. His name and personality could be a very potent combination for recruiting if he had great financial backing. He really made his name in freestyle, not folk style. If you could afford Nolf as college head coach and him as leader of the HWC, that would be a powerful combination.
The longer Iowa keeps believing this, the longer and deeper the rut will be.
This thinking is how Iowa ended up where they are. Guys at Iowa finish weaker than they do at PSU. When Iowa has a guy getting better you can pretty much count on injuries derailing them by that senior year. Injuries happen everywhere but there must be something to the fact that they happen in Iowa City to a larger degree. PSU has quite the list of 3 and 4 time champions while Iowa doesn't have a guy healthy enough by that 4th or 5th year to even compete at his former level. Getting great talent is Uber important but knowing what to do with them once they get in the program matters a ton. You also need to ask yourself why Brands needed an extra decade to figure out what even casual wrestling fans figured out from the get go. I realize they aren't smart guys, but are they really that slow mentally?
You think Jax, Duke, and Vega aren’t “sweating” out their development? Of course they are. They want to be Olympic/World champions and they didn’t believe they could get there in the Iowa room, and that’s justifiable.Ya, guys like Jax, Blaze, Duke, Vega are really sweating out their development right now
It's both. Top Ten recruits don't have some date with destiny to be finalists and champs. It's quite the clear the culture, the partners and the practices keep the PSU guys developing and getting better at wrestling.
I think they are 100% concerned about development. They were recruited based on a 10 year plan. They are highly developed now, but they put themselves in a situation to reach the bigger goals they want to achieve. I know its a bit of a foreign concept to some, but wrestling does evolve. They put themselves in a room that is capable of keeping up with that evolution. Yes, they are amazing talents right out of high school. They are also very familiar with the current landscape in wrestling. You dont think they are aware of the fact that there are some high school freshman and sophomores that are developing as well? They've seen it themselves in the club rooms. The next crop is coming up right behind them. They are going to go to a place where they are set up better for their post grad wrestling career. Thats their ultimate goal. Probably not going to the place where guys are a shell of what they were when the stepped on campus.Ya, guys like Jax, Blaze, Duke, Vega are really sweating out their development right now
Performance over result. The more I see Nolf the more I like him as an up and coming coach.
I knew a kid from Iowa that lost every single time he stepped on the mat his freshman year of high school and then four years later he was a state champ.
winning is what you’re remembered for and ultimately what you’re judged on in sports. To get there it takes effort and the desire to perform better today then you did yesterday.
I think we’ve seen Iowa wrestlers more concerned with results than performance. I think this train of thought can stunt your ability to grow and improve. And I think that’s what is holding back this Iowa team.
I’m officially on the it’s time for a change team, not only because of results, but also performance. I’ve never seen this many wrestlers that are excited for a 3-1 win.
I suspect everyone knows it's both. And clearly they are synergistic - great coaching, kids notice and want to come, recruiting easier. Good recruiting, coaching better/easier as iron sharpens iron. But which is MORE important if you have to pick one. I still say 70-80% recruiting, 20-30% training/coaching. As a hypothetical, which team would do better over 4 years - a team of 10 Jax-like recruits with NO coach, or a team of 10 (insert name of very average wrestler) recruits coached by Karl. Answer to me is obvious. Either way, adding it up, 100-100% on the coach, so not sure why some seem to imply blaming recruiting deficiencies is less damning to Brands.
So the brands defenders can try to gaslight you into believing there isn’t a level playing field because of funding.
How many extra millions were spent to dig a tunnel to carver? How has the dungeon facility translated to recruiting?
When the funding argument is lost, they will blame it on lack of support regarding compliance and rev share.
When all else fails - steroids, injuries.
Or just Burroughs as HC. The guy is a hodge winner too. He may have excelled at freestyle but yeah I think he has the chops to coach folk.
If Nolf wants to coach college I am sure JB would love to have him on staff. Nolf is young though and may want to build his club and keep doing jiu jitsu for awhile before coaching college.
Probably true for some on here, but I think most agree SOME type of changes are needed. I also think some on here underappreciate how some of those things (e.g., compliance Dept., rev share, billionaire donors) have likely impacted Iowa recently. Not
'excuses', but some challenging road blocks at least. I do give Brands credit for not running around offering excuses, even if he deserves some criticism on being slow or unable to adapt. Haven't heard him blaming compliance, Beth and rev share, Endene/Bassett, billionaires, etc.
It will now be three years with no B1G champ.
I just don't know what can justify another year for the Brands.
I just don't know what can justify another year for the Brands.
But but but he'll have to deal administrators and all that...
I bet if you actually looked into this since TnT took over it's not what you're describing... even if we've had more over achievors it's more a reflection of our ****** recruiting and the inverse for them.
Get those two guys in the Iowa wrestling facility..... yesterday. Time for a youth movement
Time to bump this.
Though Tom ain't being replaced, the poll is still up for a few more days.
I know I saw and heard stuff from Terry's mouth that confirmed in me it's truly time for the Brands to go. They had their time. It's over. They are never brining us back to even being competitive with the top, let alone being at the top.
Though Tom ain't being replaced, the poll is still up for a few more days.
I know I saw and heard stuff from Terry's mouth that confirmed in me it's truly time for the Brands to go. They had their time. It's over. They are never brining us back to even being competitive with the top, let alone being at the top.
My thoughts
We don’t have quality backups at a lot of weights.
We constantly have injuries
We rarely get pins.
We rarely get back points. We ride just for the sake of riding and not to try and turn guys.
We seem to get out scrambled a lot.
We seem to rely on the portal as opposed to recruiting of late. I know we have a nice class coming in 27 but that could change. I hope not.
We seem to wrestle not to lose instead of wrestling to win in tournaments.
I just don’t see the current staff, as is, getting things turned around.
Development is still very important. Kids that don’t see kids in your program getting better don’t want to go to that program. So in addition to the recruiting woes, we have also struggled with development and unfortunately they feed each other.
No saying kids don’t notice great coaching, but Carl and now his protege Taylor started collecting blue chip recruits based on their name and star power as a competitor before really having much of a track record as a college coach. Big money also played a big part in their recruiting success.
Here's the tally for those of you who didn't vote. A total of 750 voters. That's quite a bit for the cesspool.
481 vs. 269. About 64% think this should have been Tom's last year, while 36% didn't.
It will be quite telling next year at this point to see how the Brands did.
481 vs. 269. About 64% think this should have been Tom's last year, while 36% didn't.
It will be quite telling next year at this point to see how the Brands did.
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