Iowa Style?

[Greenwave]

Iowa Style, left when Gable left.  

[CHROMEBIRD]

50 minutes ago, Greenwave said:

Iowa Style, left when Gable left.  

Yeah, no.

[Mr. PeanutButter]

1 hour ago, BAC said:

Personally I just don't think its about "Iowa Style" or non-Iowa Style, its that they just don't have the right coaching staff to elevate their guys to the highest level. 

Brands is an effective coach, no doubt, but he's just one guy, with a very specific stylistic approach and knowledge base.  The problem is that he hasn't surrounded himself with enough complementary ideas and perspectives to compete effectively against top programs with more dynamic and varied coaching staffs.  

I don't think having 2 Brands brothers is much better than just one.  They are pretty much clones of each other, and neither brings something to the table that the other doesn't already bring.  After that you have Morningstar and Telford, but they're both Brands wrestlers/disciples, and neither was known for their on-the-mat creativity or diversity in technique, so its hard to see how they broaden the coaching staff's knowledge base.  Same with Dennis, the HWC coach.

To be sure, one good thing the Hawks have done in the last couple years is revive the moribund HWC, which now has several former AAs.  But even there, its all just former Brands wrestlers. 

It is, in short, all Brands.  All Brands, all the time.  

The net result is that if you're a new Hawk recruit, the teaching and technique you get is going to be largely limited to what's in Brands' head.  The potential solutions to challenges you face will be largely limited to Brands' preferences.  If the Brands don't know something or aren't good at something or don't care for a solution or approach that others like very much, you probably won't learn it.

That's just extraordinarily limiting.  They've effectively walled themselves off from the rest of the universe of coaching perspectives.  There are SO many schools of thought out there, so many ideas and techniques, but they just aren't penetrating the Iowa/Brands bubble unless the recruit already knew it when he got there.

Call it Iowa bashing if you want, but I don't think I am, as I think this is pretty much factual and hard to refute.  Just look at all the examples of PSU guys losing to Hawks, only to get coached up to flip the series in their favor: RBY-DeSanto, Cass-Kerk, Kemmerer-Starocci, Rathjen-Kasak, and so on.  There's almost no examples going the other way.   There's examples of Iowa improvement, but then they hit the "Brands ceiling" -- the limits of what Brands knows or can solve -- and others pass them by.  That's why there are so few if any recent Hawks who pierced the highest levels who weren't already sui generis when they arrived.  

It will stay this way until they either get rid of Brands, or Brands gets over himself long enough to bring other coaching perspectives into the fold.  I don't see either happening anytime soon, nor do I see any Iowa fans raising any of these concerns, so don't expect anything to change.

The only part I disagree with is the last bit. Lots of Iowa fans have been raising similar concerns about the limitations of the current coaching staff. I don't think it's a majority, but I hear and read calls for a change very often. I myself would like to see a change, at least to the variety of assistants

[BAC]

50 minutes ago, Mr. PeanutButter said:

The only part I disagree with is the last bit. Lots of Iowa fans have been raising similar concerns about the limitations of the current coaching staff. I don't think it's a majority, but I hear and read calls for a change very often. I myself would like to see a change, at least to the variety of assistants

Fair enough.  Haven't been over to HR/Rivals in a while.  When I have in the past, there's usually a lone dissenter who gets shouted down by sycophants.  Maybe that's changing.  

I do wonder though -- what's the resistance to change internally at Iowa?  Is it Brands' ego, i.e. that he thinks he knows better than everyone else, so if a coach isn't preaching his sermon he doesn't want them around?  Or is more an Iowa cultural thing -- the "us vs. the world" mentality that they've cultivated for decades, which has an isolating effect? 

The interview Metcalf gave about his interactions with Gilman on this latter point -- and how they changed and evolved post-Iowa-bubble -- is pretty eye-opening.  It makes me think its both:  an insular culture, of which the Brands brothers are active proponents.  And M*/Telford have never coached anywhere except at Iowa under Brands, so they don't know any better than to sing that same tune.  

Whatever it is, it's a shame because Tom Brands is, though I hate to admit it, otherwise an excellent coach. 

And honestly, if there's anyone who ought to move on, its Terry Brands, who deserves better.  To me, his greatest accomplishments as a coach are (1) the way he elevated the Chattanooga program when he was HC there, albeit for only a couples years, and (2) his national freestyle coaching work, especially for Cejudo.  Of course he's at Iowa by choice, but to me, he's totally wasted there. He's too good to be his brother's echo.

 

[Husker_Du]

10 hours ago, pokemonster said:

I've wondered if their embarrassingly small stature 

@BobDole . to the moat with this one. 

[pokemonster]

13 hours ago, Husker_Du said:

@BobDole . to the moat with this one. 

I'm just teasing Mr Willie!