Iowas problem is Gable

[PortaJohn]

14 minutes ago, NM1965 said:

So Spencer Lee went to a lesser room for a team that he wasn't a fan of,

Spencer was always a fan of Iowa. I think Brands first talked to him when he was in middle school/Jr High at a tourney and Spencer was wearing Iowa gear.  Also, Spencer came out of young guns.  Coach Jody Strittmatter is a local who wrestled for Iowa.  A lot of connections in that area to Iowa City

Edited November 21, 2025 by PortaJohn

[NM1965]

5 minutes ago, PortaJohn said:

Spencer was always a fan of Iowa. I think Brands first talked to him when he was in middle school/Jr High at a tourney and Spencer was wearing Iowa gear.  Also, Spencer came out of young guns.  Coach Jody Strittmatter is a local who wrestled for Iowa.  A lot of connections in that area to Iowa City

I feel vindicated now! Thanks. 

[PortaJohn]

1 minute ago, NM1965 said:

I feel vindicated now! Thanks. 

Mr. Peanut Butter is also correct.  Two things can be true at the same time

[Spencerlee]

8 minutes ago, PortaJohn said:

Spencer was always a fan of Iowa. 

Another PSU fan posting fake news

[NM1965]

3 minutes ago, PortaJohn said:

Mr. Peanut Butter is also correct.  Two things can be true at the same time

True, two things can be true at the same time. 

[NM1965]

2 minutes ago, Spencerlee said:

Another PSU fan posting fake news

I'm an OSU fan. 

[PortaJohn]

6 minutes ago, Spencerlee said:

Another PSU fan posting fake news

What did I say is fake? Prove me wrong loser

[Smsu150]

2 hours ago, NM1965 said:

If it wasn't for the Gable years, Iowa wouldn't even be what they are now. All that tradition they earned under Gable is the only thing keeping that program at the level it is. Spencer Lee wanted to wear that black singlet just because of Iowa's tradition, for example. You can bet most wrestlers weren't going to Iowa to wrestle for Tom, they wanted to wear that black singlet. It's a symbol, really, a badge of honor. 

Iowa will never catch Cael with Tom at the helm. Never in a billion years. Can Iowa replace Tom with somebody better? Yes, I believe they can, but the real question is should they? Well...probably they should. But I hope not. I enjoy Tom's manic personality and his interviews. I think Cael has a hammerlock on D1 wrestling and it won't go away if Iowa changes coaches. 

 

Penn State looks like the team to beat for the foreseeable future, but I wouldn't say a "billions" years, albeit they will be tough to beat.  Iowa did catch and briefly surpass PSU in 2020 and again in 2021.  We're in agreement about the Gable years making Iowa a marquee program, although  I'm not sure about wrestlers not going to Iowa to wrestle for Tom, who had one of the most dominate Olympic performances on record. His individual wrestling accomplishments and coaching accolades are second to only Cael.  

[Spencerlee]

24 minutes ago, PortaJohn said:

What did I say is fake? Prove me wrong loser

Spencer didn’t care about college wrestling when he was middle school/ early high school, he cared about international freestyle. Also cool he wore an Iowa sweatshirt, he also wore  PSU pajamas with PSU wrestlers on a post by Bo Nickal that has since been deleted. That was closer towards the end of the recruitment process btw

[Mr. PeanutButter]

1 hour ago, NM1965 said:

Sorry, I made some assumptions. I know Brands isn't the lightweight guru people are claiming (albeit still a very good coach), and I know Iowa doesn't have a great room compared to PSU, so I wrongly assumed Lee was a Hawkeye fan. I'm not enough of a Lee groupie to memorize every word he's ever said either so I was unaware he said that. My mistake. 

What you stated in your response to me actually makes me respect Spencer Lee less. So Spencer Lee went to a lesser room for a team that he wasn't a fan of, ostensibly because he wanted to wrestle for Tom Brands and didn't want Tom coaching against him? Spencer was afraid of a guy who hadn't coached an NCAA champ in 5 years to coach against him, a 3 time age level world champion, bluechip recruit almost guaranteed to win multiple NCAA titles wherever he went? That doesn't really add up, does it?

From what you wrote and from what others have said in your "corrections" to me, the conclusion I've reached is that Lee must've wanted to be the star of a program and at Iowa he would be the star wrestler of a top program, and at PSU Spencer would just be another champ in a stable of badasses (Nolf, Zain, Bo, etc), but it would be pretty egotistical to admit to something like that, wouldn't it?

Cueing up for relentless outrage from Spencer fans...5....4...3...2...1

Go for it. 

 

Huh? Instead of taking Lee at his word (which he has repeated many times over the years) you have decided that the truth, which you know better than Spencer, is that he wanted to be "the man" at a program?

You sure are making a whole lot of assumptions to try and contort reality to fit your narrative. Spencer felt the strongest connection to Tom and Terry. That's why he wanted to wrestle for them. Despite the immense pressure on him to go to PSU, he just couldn't imagine being coached by anyone else. Those are his words. I may be misremembering, but I think Johny Hendricks had a similar story back in the day.

And of course, he was likely a fan of Iowa. He was also a fan of PSU and tOSU. There were pictures of him wearing their gear and/or quotes of him praising the programs. How many wrestlers commit to schools they aren't/havent been fans of? How often do wrestlers say they committed because of the coaching staff, and then transfer to follow the coach in the event of a staff change?

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2025 by Mr. PeanutButter

[Gene Mills Fan]

31 minutes ago, Spencerlee said:

Spencer didn’t care about college wrestling when he was middle school/ early high school, he cared about international freestyle. Also cool he wore an Iowa sweatshirt, he also wore  PSU pajamas with PSU wrestlers on a post by Bo Nickal that has since been deleted. That was closer towards the end of the recruitment process btw

So he recruited Kemerer and Desanto because he cared so little about the Hawks??

[Spencerlee]

2 minutes ago, Gene Mills Fan said:

So he recruited Kemerer and Desanto because he cared so little about the Hawks??

When you commit to a school, you tend to care more.

[Gene Mills Fan]

4 minutes ago, Spencerlee said:

When you commit to a school, you tend to care more.

You tend to care a lot more to commit to a school.

[PortaJohn]

13 minutes ago, Spencerlee said:

When you commit to a school, you tend to care more.

What are you even on about?  He came up through Young Guns and there are interviews with Kemdog about him and the fellas in the club talking about rebuilding the Iowa dynasty.  Spencer was a a fan of Iowa wrestling.  He also wanted to wrestle for the Brands. Theres more than just one stroyline

[alex1fly]

21 hours ago, NotThatDave said:

My god, this is so right on lol

Just last week OP thought John Smith was still coaching OSU, and more and more I question whether OP even watches the sport. Not to be a dick but damn

Edited November 21, 2025 by alex1fly

[PortaJohn]

3 minutes ago, alex1fly said:

My god, this is so right on lol

Just last week OP thought John Smith was still coaching OSU, and more and more I question whether OP even watches the sport. Not to be a dick but damn

It'll only get better.  Few months until Cinnabon will rinse and repeat his yearly "if PSU wins all 10 matches should the Brands be fired?" thread

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

39 minutes ago, Gene Mills Fan said:

So he recruited Kemerer and Desanto because he cared so little about the Hawks??

Kem was at Iowa before Spencer.  He is actually a high school teammates of Sprencer's.

[alex1fly]

8 minutes ago, PortaJohn said:

It'll only get better.  Few months until Cinnabon will rinse and repeat his yearly "if PSU wins all 10 matches should the Brands be fired?" thread

For some folks the narrative/drama is more interesting than the sport itself. JC seems to know he's a goof. Agave meanwhile takes everything sooooo seriously. Whatevs. Fun to have villains on a message board I guess lol

[PortaJohn]

Just now, alex1fly said:

For some folks the narrative/drama is more interesting than the sport itself. JC seems to know he's a goof. Agave meanwhile takes everything sooooo seriously. Whatevs. Fun to have villains on a message board I guess lol

Ha! And then there are the suckers like me who get drawn into a meaningless debate about Spencer. I'm such a fool

[Gene Mills Fan]

33 minutes ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Kem was at Iowa before Spencer.  He is actually a high school teammates of Sprencer's.

I thought Spencer picked(Iowa)   and Kem called him asked where he was going and Spencer said I already did it join the Hawks.

Was I dreaming?  

[Gene Mills Fan]

4 minutes ago, Gene Mills Fan said:

I thought Spencer picked(Iowa)   and Kem called him asked where he was going and Spencer said I already did it join the Hawks.

Was I dreaming?  

facts are I was dreaming!!

[NotThatDave]

54 minutes ago, alex1fly said:

My god, this is so right on lol

Just last week OP thought John Smith was still coaching OSU, and more and more I question whether OP even watches the sport. Not to be a dick but damn

Jimmy gets a lot of hate for dumb posts. He could be trolling. Nevertheless, I find them hilarious. @AgaveMaria posts some insane takes, too, but without leaving the door open to possible trolling. They're simply incredibly bad takes. Usually with some not-so-hidden agenda.

[fishbane]

54 minutes ago, Gene Mills Fan said:

I thought Spencer picked(Iowa)   and Kem called him asked where he was going and Spencer said I already did it join the Hawks.

Was I dreaming?  

Kemmerer was in the high school class of 2015.  Spencer Lee was class of 2017.  I wasn't following their commitments around 2014-2015 , but it is a little hard to believe it want down that way given their ages/year in school.

[OMW]

21 hours ago, WrestlingRash said:

Lots of paid haters in this thread. Tom and Terry would have NCAA Championship teams if Cael wasn't coaching. Stop overreacting. Low IQ takes here. 

This ^ isn't wrong.

Only 2 coaches in the past 15 years have won multiple DI team titles, Cael Sanderson and Tom Brands. And it was Brands team that placed 2nd behind OSU in 2015.

Lots of people believe that someone with no head coaching experience can step in and right the Hawkeye ship.

The only (new) coach that's made some recent noise that maybe fits that is David Taylor - and both of his champions last year were from tweaks made to 2 transfers. That's not taking anything away from him, or what Hamiti and Hendrickson accomplished.

But until he wins a Team title, then he's just "building". If he does, then maybe someone else can follow that template and do the same.

Thinking someone is going to step in, whether it be JB or Dake, and take Iowa to the next level is change for the sake of change and provides nothing. I think the next really good head coach could be J'den Cox.

Tom Brands has proven he can lead a team to a championship. He has 4 - and likely would have had 5 if it hadn't been for covid. That 5th would have tied him with John Smith.

He has some excellent classes coming in. If they don't win one or two by 2029, then maybe it is time for something different. He's earned that much.

If it weren't for Carl manufacturing the perfect scenario in State College, Tom Brands is probably closing in on Gable's record number of team championships now.

The only "Gable" problem Iowa has, like Gable himself, is a former Iowa State wrestler that went a time zone east to build a respectable program into a monster.

[GV4444]

I haven't been around here long, but I'm already seeing a pattern.   It is the annual "Brands/Ryan need to be replaced".  This thread starts with the Gable coaching tree trying to be too much like Gable.   What I see is Brands being Brands.  Is Ryan trying to be Gable?   Schwab has a Gable problem?   Dresser have a Gable problem?  Or is it only a Gable problem because it is at Iowa?

Once you get a dominate program like PSU in any sport, your guy becomes the guy who can't beat him.   You can't accept that your coach because he can only be second or third.   You start thinking you need to get someone else because second or third isn't good enough.   The problem is that any replacement probably has a higher probably of being worse than what you have that exceeding the #1 guy.   It's a big risk.   One needs to remind oneself of the last two coaches to win the title not named Cael.  

The biggest problem I see with the Brands era has been poor recruiting.   The replenishment rate is 3 guys a year with top 20 ability.   He hasn't gotten it.   But, he brought in top tier transfers to maintain top tier level and he just nabbed a great recruiting class (the first in several years).   The big problem with using the portal is that portal guys typically don't have 4 years of eligibility left.  

OSU is taking their shot by replacing Smith with DT.   I think it is going to work out really well.   But is there a DT type to take over at Iowa?  Big risk.