Williams is the bigger question. Tom talked about him starting to get ready for next season now, must not have officially quit yet.
Article: On Tom Brands' future, possible changes for Iowa wrestling | Leistikow
- Thread starter maxpain
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I think Robie will sell his soul to be in the mix with the big boys each year. I don’t think he feels like he has a lot to lose.
Changing assistants won’t move the needle. It’s still the same program with the same face. Either rip the bandaid off or continue into irrelevancy.
Really don't want R12 guys to fill holes. That's not doing jack sh*t for us. This experiment didn't work. Need new hole fillers.
I think he has the potential to be a solid wrestler for sure. I just think people were really making alot of him being part of the package deal. Just dont put him that level. I personally have always liked the kid, and always kind of felt a little bad that he always got lumped into the conversation.
The Brands era ended with Bassett (and Melvin) decommiting. He had a chance to have a Spencer like impact on the program by getting commits and transfers, like Lee did with Desanto. That’s all gone now.
Iowa goes to the portal/transfer lottery, which has been a disaster, save Mikey C and Buchanan.
Going to have to see what type of incentives the athletic department comes up with for wrestling season ticket holders, like they had to do for football in 2014 (might be the wrong year) with the concession credits. Otherwise I’m out!
Iowa goes to the portal/transfer lottery, which has been a disaster, save Mikey C and Buchanan.
Going to have to see what type of incentives the athletic department comes up with for wrestling season ticket holders, like they had to do for football in 2014 (might be the wrong year) with the concession credits. Otherwise I’m out!
DeSanto, Eierman, Lugo....
With everything being on TV or online less and less people have been going. Is some it performance related sure but not all of it. DT got hired and has done a good job now the fans think it's so easy and that anyone can do it. Hence some of the names we see.
He's still young and has age level medals. He may not be considered "elite" but he's a dang good prospect, especially, if he's a career 25 pounder.
This sounds like excuses. There are multiple other sports at Iowa where attendance has never been higher.
I would agree overall Iowa's transfers over the last 10 years have been an extremely net positive to the program - not only on the mat performance but also in the general sense. Lugo has carried the Hawkeye name back to Miami and looks to be doing really well. Eierman always felt like he should have been in Carver. Mikey C is the face of the program along with Drake and PK, Buchanan excelled and is excelling here. Parco, who didn't "work out" because of injury is in the area coaching, as mentioned DeSanto has grown leaps and bounds in black and gold, and so on. Teemer was also hurt, which just happens sometimes, and I don't think that is one that can be attributed to outdated training methods.
I think the transfer issue is coming down to 3 points: the failure of them this year, the number of them this year, and next, and the absolute need of them for next year because of failures in recruiting. Until this year, I would say Tom has done a spectular job with transfers, bringing in guys most would say are Hawkeyes through and through.
Hopefully Peterson makes the podium and maybe Bailey sneaks on as well, depending on his fingers...
Likely but can only make recommendations to donors. He cant make donors spend or negotiate their dollars if they find it too unreasonable. But, then maybe a general deal has already been worked out as I think it was always a threesome.
Well BO brings with him a RELENTLESS style that is ALL IOWA(at least suppose to be)! So his training/style you have to believe will at least rub off on some wrestlers and possibly the entire team!
I guess we shall see? I believe he already won an age level world gold? I mean he aint his brother BO but no one is!!!!
AGAIN,
AND again, we shall see as he has PA states this week and a few more years!!! Still it was mostly about BO, then Melvin, and lastly Keagan, with a pipeline into McCort!!!
100%. Brands isnt open to having another outside guy coach things he doesnt believe in. Plus there just isn't any excitement in the program. Every recruit see Brands as getting next season but then what.
Articles like this are the confidence builder some think as if this is putting out a fire. The fact Chad felt the article had to be created means we can all sense and feel the end is coming sooner than later....
2&3 is why Beth is going to give them another year. They wont leave on their terms unless they resign after NCAA next season.
Sadly, Iowa will not be in the top back in 3 anytime soon. I'd venture to say Iowa wont even be top 3 in BIGs the next 3 seasons.
There isn't a quick fix unless they bring in 2 NCAA finalist/champion types in the portal but why would they come Iowa City?
Deluca/ Ludington show Tony Ramos type year 2 transformation and turn into real players, not just blood round hopefuls. .
Kueter gets fully healthy.
Out of all those Kueter getting healthy is likely the only thing that will happen and that feels iffy given he hasnt.
Outside the conjecture from watching the results of his wrestling, has there been any statement from anybody in the know that he is not healthy? He himself said in December that he is healed, something along the lines that he's never felt better. Can't the results be attributed to some mental aspect, as in a collapse of aggression? Timidity?
Perhaps I missed some statement or allusion from someone who would know.
They only save $250k on buyout by waiting until next year. U of I will easily lose more than that in season ticket sales dropping off from this year to next with Tom staying. It’s 100% not the buyout that is preventing a change.
The article even says that the buyout is not the issue.
The only way keeping Tom on is going to benefit anything long term is if they got a possible replacement like Nolf on staff to transition to after the contract runs out. It's either transition plan or clean house and go for a big gun like Burroughs.
All of those guys were pre-covid, pre current era of the transfer portal, pre NIL. So just a dumb post. And they were all very good for Iowa. And haven’t wrestled here for three plus years.
Now do the last five years. It’s Mikey C and Buchanan, and well we know the rest. Woods definitely regressed at Iowa and got injured, which happens to just about everyone nowadays.
C'mon Man!
Iowa Wrestling has been on TV and online for a long time, and Carver was still packed. If you follow Iowa Wrestling at all, there is no better place to be from a sports entertainment perspective. When the Hawks are wrestling well and they get a quality opponent in Carver it's a must see in person event. The historical numbers support that clearly.
Fast forward to the present......you have multiple nights where 6 of 10 weights can't manage to get 1 takedown. And those are the Starters. Then throw in the chance you'll have multiple "not ready for primetime" backups that could be in the lineup once you arrive at Carver and that's a recipe for a lot of empty seats. That's a piss poor product to spend money on, whether you're driving from Solon or Sioux City.
I'll support that product from my couch, and tape it so I can fast forward thru the inevitable 5-6 matches where I'll be fortunate to see an Iowa wrestler take a legitimate shot attempt in 7 minutes.
I 100% guarantee you the Iowa Coaching Staff knows the difference when they wrestle in Carver these days, their jobs at Iowa are most certainly in jeopardy. I'm willing to bet they see the difference on the road too. The results in March aren't going to change that.
Ultimately it's up to Beth Goetz to bring that exciting & competitive brand of wrestling back to Carver. If that happens the place will fill up again, no doubt in my mind. Until then...............meh.
Don't get me wrong.. I think you can find enough of my posts that would indicate which way I think the program needs to go, and its unfortunately not with Tom anymore, but I don't think that "transfers" are the problem - other than what I stated this and next year. Anyone in their right mind would have gone out and gotten Real, the issue as you raise isn't the transfer its the training, that affects high school recruits and transfers alike.
I've said this a couple times, but you also have to look at long-term transfers separately from one-year mercenaries. The long-term guys who stay multiple years and are fully integrated into the team and culture tend to be far more successful (Cali, Lugo, ADS, Eierman, Woods), whereas the short term mercenaries aren't fully vested in the team in a single year typically regress or at least don't progress any (Franek, Teemer, Parco, Endene). The obvious exception is Buchanan, but one exception doesn't negate the point.
This is true of PSU, too. Short term mercenaries (Conel, Truax, Hildebrandt) aren't fully vested and don't progress. Long-term transfers are part of the culture and succeed (Dean, Mesenbrink, Kerk). The exception for PSU is Nagao, a long-term transfer who has been unfortunately derailed by repeated injury. PSU's success is not built on the mercenary portal.
Woods regressed? Pretty sure he hadn’t made the finals until he came to Iowa. Our transfer hits far outweigh our misses. Unless we just keep condensing it down until it somehow fits your narrative
Dude: You always have a reason (excuse) for this lame product we've been putting on the mat. They have TVs and online access at Okie State and Penn State and yet those places haven't dropped attendance, just the opposite. Okie State was rocking when they kicked our a$$es all over the f'ing planet. Guess nobody wanted to watch that beating on TV or via the internet. What a joke! The reason our fans aren't going to CHA and the reason I bought a $250 front frow ticket for the PSU dual and didn't attend is because our product sucks right now. We are putting two hours of boring on the mat at CHA, and that's why our attendance is dropping. It's nothing to do with the TV or internet. Ugh, you can come up with some stupid sh*t at times.
I'm sorry that's the coach's job, not a high school recruit's. Yes, a high level athlete like Bo can elevate a room, but we shouldn't be in a position where we need him to make the room.
Yeah, if it wasn't for those fingers he'd be rocking it right now...NOT! I concur the fingers seem to be an issue but what are his TD stats per match? How much offense does he attempt against guys ranked in the top 40? And you want to talk fingers?
Parco in no way regressed, he tore his dam acl. He had a dam good year to that point and was seeded what, 5th at ncca’s? Franek didn’t regress, he landed about where he was expected to. Endene didn’t regress, he did the opposite, nobody knows what transpired but it wasn’t performance based.
Apparently teemer, williams and bailey have put a bad enough taste in people’s mouths to forget all the good transfers.
Learn how to write correctly then, bub. You most certainly didn't specify EITHER. You literally typed portral/transfer, which LITERALLY does the opposite. But, hey lets not let facts get in the way of feelings!
Did you watch his wrestling PRIOR to coming to Iowa? His grip strength was probably his greatest asset. He mauled guys on top by controlling wrists and breaking down guys with relative ease. He didn't just miraculously take 4th.
I try very hard not to ask the, "did you even wrestle?" question, but the way you responded here is beyond clueless. For all of Spencer's injuries, take away his finger strength and he would NOT have even AA'd, let alone won it 3x's and AA'd the other.
You still need to obviously be able to move your body, but I would definitely argue that grip strength is probably the greatest equalizer in folkstyle wrestling..
Desanto got mentally better.. did his wrestling? Did Eirman get better here? just questions, not starting wars
lmao. 100% you are full of ****.
OSU, an OSU, and PSU attendance is up - and you think the Iowa attendance debacle is because of TV / online viewers? lol
I’m not sure how so many posters don’t understand that…
In the past, we’d have two or three R12 guys battling fur a position through January and then think the winner was going to make some noise in March. We like our guys. Always have and always will.
Do you think Brands taking side-eyed pot shots to current portal wrestlers on the team will help attract new ones to the fold?
Doesn’t seem like it.
To be honest…. TnT owe the last ten years of their career to Spencer Lee, imo. Without him, this last decade would have been dismal. And some folks ARE STILL hanging their hats on him saving the program from irrelevancy. I guess some things never change…