I waited for what I thought was the right time to interview Iowa Head Wrestling Coach Tom Brands. The Hawks have been in action and we have something to go on. I always appreciate these interviews with Coach Brands as I always walk away learning more about Iowa Wrestling and I get a lot of feedback from appreciative wrestling fans.
Coach Brands, you just signed an outstanding recruiting class for 2017 that has a lot of fans excited. Any comments?
Tom Brands: Here’s the thing. We add to Kemerer and that class. And last year we signed Marinelli, Happel and Young to add that class to the program. So we have two classes in a row where you some really good, wholesome kids that like to work and are serious about what they need to be serious about. So you have Spencer Lee, Jacob Warner, Aaron Costello, Max Murin, Zach Axmear, and Myles Wilson. You’ve gotta a real good class right there that adds to that theme that I talked about wholesome guys that are about the right things. Right now we have six guys coming in.
I feel as though as a fan that you have momentum going your way. Fans are very excited about your recruiting class. You hit the road this weekend for the Big Ten opener at Purdue. Down the road you have a massive three week run in January when you face Oklahoma State, Penn State, and Ohio State. I never remember seeing Iowa face the top three teams in January in a thirteen day stretch. What will it be like hosting Penn State and Ohio State in back to back weekends?
Tom Brands: Well, that’s down the road. We are certainly excited about that point in our season. We go to Stillwater, Oklahoma on the fifteenth of January and then on the twentieth we are in Carver Hawkeye Arena with Penn State and then Ohio State on the twenty-seventh. Todd Conner is an optimist. You are talking about momentum and that’s good that’s how our fans feel. So what we gotta do, our job is to seize that momentum and run with it. So when you have guys like Sorensen, Gilman, Brooks, and you have Stoll that’s on the mend, that’s momentum. He’s getting better every day and you will see him on the mat sooner than later. What we have to do is take that momentum and run with it. And that’s the bottom line. There are ten weight classes. We’re looking like we are making progress in all of them.
There’s a question mark at 165 and we do not know what we are going to do with Marinelli. But whatever we do whether it’s Gunther or Marinelli or St. John or Logan Ryan or Jeremiah Moody, it doesn’t matter. We have to be performing on the mat. You mentioned the January schedule. What’s more immediate is we are going to Purdue this Sunday. Former Iowa wrestler Tony Ersland will have his guys fired up and ready to go and we need to be ready to go. He has been chomping at the bit to wrestle us and we need to be ready for that. That meet is what we are focused on right now. Then five days late we are going into a beehive at South Dakota State. We went into a beehive at Edinboro a couple of years ago. I remember going in there before a Christmas dual. This will be similar with South Dakota State. They’re going to be rabid and licking their chops. They want us on their turf and they got us on their turf. We are going to have to answer a bell or two there so to speak.
Then on December 10th we have Iowa State at home which is a Cy-Hawk dual and a big deal. I’ve got a quote right behind me that’s three or four years old where Kevin Jackson has stated that they are in our league and they are coming for us and we know it and they know it that the beatin’s coming. If that’s not enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up as a competitor, then maybe we need to find some different guys to compete.
Coach Brands, heading into the season you have four seniors and a junior for returning All Americans and a team that most have in the top four in the country. What are you looking for this coming season for Iowa Wrestling?
Tom Brands: The mission is always the same. We’ve got work to do. We have a job to do and we have to have our guys pushing to be in the upper echelon of their brackets at the top spot. That is the theme that we always march to and that is what we need to have our guys doing. You mentioned our five returning All Americans. Three of those guys were National finalist. When you make the finals, that’s a good feather in your cap. You’re leaving a lot undone when you do not put the exclamation mark on your bracket. You’re leaving a lot undone for the team. That is four team points with a win and bonus points you get more. And it’s an individual title. That is why we do what we do. You talk about a high powered team, well a high powered team wins individual titles and wins team championships. We do not have a national champion and that’s what we are looking for. We are looking to put champions on the top of those stands.
Coach, could you take me through your lineup?
Tom Brands: Thomas Gilman needs to keep getting better every day in all of his positions. He needs to keep an edge on himself, learning to keep his wrestling fast paced. That really helps him. That was the difference between his sophomore and junior year where he became dominant. Cory Clark is dominant is a different way. He’s got to ride hard, forward flat and not get impatient where he’s throwing the legs in from anywhere where he is getting high and out of position and those types of things. They just gotta let it fly and let there best wrestling come out.
Topher Carton looks like he’s the guy at 141. We want to continue to see good things out of him in the practice room. That’s what is going to help in those matches and we need to see that correlation and we’re seeing some good things there and we need to continue to see those things.
At 149, we’ve got another journeyman there in Brandon Sorensen and a guy that has been very solid and we need to keep him going as well. Maybe open him up a little bit more. I think he’s got that on his mind and he’s getting better. He’s a junior with two years left. At 157, Kemerer is a new guy in the lineup. There’s a lot of buzz about him. We just need to keep him relaxed and moving in the right direction as well. I already talked about 165.
At 174, you know it’s like people tend to get a little bit concerned about Meyer’s scores. He’s going to keep working on it, he’s wired the right way and he’s going to keep working on it the right way as well. But I’m not so sure that you’re going to see a guy that is just going to be able to come out and do what Mark Ironside did. I mean there is just some guys that wrestle differently. The fans might get a little bit frustrated and with the dual the other day with the fans kind of urging him on. I’m thinking in my head, let him wrestle his match. Don’t push him out of the things he does well. Don’t rush him into things that are not good for him. I think he knows that and he’s gonna win a little bit different way than how this guy right here, Tom Brands wants him to do. Because we want our guys to widen that gap. We want our guys to wrestle tough in those positions. We’ll keep working on that domination with bonus points.
Sam Brooks, looking good. A little bit slowed up by an injury a little bit but not a major injury. He’ll be there for Purdue. We’ve got Wilke at 197 who can hit a lot of holds and we’ve got to keep bringing him along. He’s come a long ways since last spring. He was one of those guys that was on the stand at University Nationals and that was a big deal for him. So you talk about momentum with him. Steven Holloway at Hwt, we are going to need him, we’re going to need him to anchor this team through this pre-Christmas schedule. And that’s where we are at.
Are there any major rules changes that I do not know about that we need to be aware of?
Tom Brands: Not really. They are emphasizing if you push a guy straight out of bounds, you are the one that is going to get called for stalling. On the edge of the mat, there are three calls that have to be made:
- No call action, which is when both guys are wrestling.
- The guy backed out of bounds to avoid action and is called.
- The guy that is pushing, straight arm pushes the other guy out, he will be called for stalling.
So one of three calls has to be made. It’s silly because stalling is stalling. But that is where we are at right now. What they are doing is trying to make sure that matches are sped up a little bit by keeping both guys in the center of that mat. You are seeing it work because there are not near as many stoppages from wrestlers going out of bounds as there were. But referees also in my opinion need to be more cognizant of the rule that stalling is stalling.
I love your big new screen in Carver Hawkeye Arena that is right over the middle of the mat and the new scoreboards around the arena. That is a huge upgrade. Will they be showing replays of the referee’s reviews of challenges? I can see Iowa Wrestling fans really getting into that.
Tom Brands: We talked to our people a long time ago. We understand that it will not be the official video that the referee will be looking at the head table. But our match management people have said that they will be showing replays and certainly replays during when a coach raises a flag for an instant replay or a coach’s review. Even though it’s not the official angle. So there you have it.
