Firing Brands would be stupid

[PortaJohn]

8 hours ago, bnwtwg said:

When Spencer Lee becomes AD next year here are my predictions:

• Tony Ramos named head coach
• Dan Dennis immediately deported to Rio
• Marinelli promoted to assistant
• Jesus takes the wheel (named new team bus driver)
• DeSanto becomes chancellor of international studies
• Minnow named director of media relations
• Dresser sends a care package of oranges and replica Cy-Hawk trophy to Tom & Terry with a note "since you will never see one of these again"
• Nelson Brands relocates to a state that does not have legalized gambling, promptly logs in to draft kings, bets the over on Iowa to pass for 1,800 yards in a season, loses the bet, and gets thrown into state prison for illegal gambling
• Casey's is purchased by a corporate raider private equity firm and their gas station pizza goes from over-rated to inedible

Note for you:  Save this post in your files.  You can post it every year for Jimmy's annual Brands Firing Thread

Edited December 4, 2025 by PortaJohn

[Gene Mills Fan]

10 hours ago, PortaJohn said:

Note for you:  Save this post in your files.  You can post it every couple weeks for Jimmy's Bi-monthly Brands Firing Thread

ftfy

[MPhillips]

11 hours ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Are you even a serious person?

[Winners Circle]

13 hours ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Every team was allowed to participate.

 

Answer a few simple questions:

Did any traditional SEC teams compete during any of Cael's title runs? 

How about Notre Dame

Are you even a serious person?

• That first statement is false. Not every team was allowed to participate. The Ivy League did not allow their teams to participate. You think Cornell was allowed to compete and willingly chose not to? 
• Yes, Mizzou is in the SEC and has been present for every one of Cael's titles. 
• Notre Dame, I don't have an argument. You are in fact right, they haven't competed during any of Cael's title runs. So I guess that puts an asterisk on Cael's titles. Lmao

Edited December 4, 2025 by Winners Circle

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

30 minutes ago, Winners Circle said:

• That first statement is false. Not every team was allowed to participate. The Ivy League did not allow their teams to participate. You think Cornell was allowed to compete and willingly chose not to? 
• Yes, Mizzou is in the SEC and has been present for every one of Cael's titles. 
• Notre Dame, I don't have an argument. You are in fact right, they haven't competed during any of Cael's title runs. So I guess that puts an asterisk on Cael's titles. Lmao

Wrong and Wrong

To rephrase: Every college was allowed to participate by the NCAA.  If they or their leagues prevented them, it isn't Iowa's fault.  In this case, it was the fault of the Ivy League.

As far as Mizzou, they are the reason I said TRADITIONAL SEC programs.  They have never wrestled in the SEC, ever.  And your so-called stats are absolutely incorrect: Mizzou was Big 12 for Cael's first two titles.

Imagine if I said Cael can never match any of Gable's greatness, because he never won an NCAA tournament with more than 100 teams participating? You would rightly say that was rubbish. But here you are trying the same thing...

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

6 minutes ago, Coastal said:

The only thing Gable was ever great at was cheating.  He never won a title without breaking scholarship limits.  I feel sorry for the mouth breathers that lionize a known fraud.

 

 

He was a pretty good wrestler.

[JimmyCinnabon]

Remember when Iowa was "still the second best team in the country" for like a decade? Now they're just the second or third best team in the country. 

 

[JimmyCinnabon]

On 12/2/2025 at 12:47 PM, Nak21 said:

The Brands aren’t going anywhere anytime soon unless it’s of their own volition. They have a contract extension until 2028-29…and it’s wrestling…we love it, for the AD it’s not on the radar unless there’s a problem that lands it on the radar.

And they’ve been successful. They won a title, one of only 2 titles not won by Cael. And they’re in the mix yearly…top 2-5 team.

Who would replace them? If you’ve got someone waiting in the wings who would excite HS kids to think about Iowa and wrestling there again, and would bring energy and a new style…hell, get slumlord millionaire on the phone and make it happen, buy the Brands out and throw a bunch of money at the program and a new coach. Those single moms don’t need those security deposits back.

In the meantime get used to what you saw Sunday. Cuz it’ll probably happen a few times yearly against the better teams. A style that just doesn’t really work anymore or atleast with any regularity. 9 guys…combined for 3 take downs for and 7 stall calls against…yikes.

They can fire Tom Brands but they'll just end up in the same boat as the PSU football program, which is "well who the hell can we hire that is better?" Good luck with that.

[JimmyCinnabon]

21 hours ago, Coastal said:

Answer a simple question... Was 2021 a full field at the NCAA Wrestling Championships?

Did the Ivy League compete for example?

 

Come on, their 2021 championship is no different than any others. They beat who showed up. They were champs.

[TexRef]

2 hours ago, Coastal said:

The only thing Gable was ever great at was cheating.  He never won a title without breaking scholarship limits.  I feel sorry for the mouth breathers that lionize a known fraud.

 

 

When did Gable break the scholarship limit? What is your source?

[Greenwave]

4 minutes ago, JimmyCinnabon said:

They can fire Tom Brands but they'll just end up in the same boat as the PSU football program, which is "well who the hell can we hire that is better?" Good luck with that.

Would UNI Schwab bring more of an intense offensive minded style to go along with the Iowa grind?

 

Iowa wrestlers don’t give up a lot of points, just need to be more active looking to score offensive points.

[TexRef]

2 hours ago, Coastal said:

My source is the NCAA.  How the scheme worked was taking the scholarship limit and multiplying that by out of state tuition/room and board.  This allowed Gable to award additional scholarships per year thanks to in state tuition, especially with the state of Iowa's ease in obtaining residency.

So they were formally placed on probation? Or whatever the NCAA called it back then?

[TexRef]

13 hours ago, Coastal said:

A few other Big 10 schools were doing the same in non-revenue sports. They received scholarship limitations.   

It's the biggest issue with Zalesky's perceived failure.  Iowa went from awarding around 5 extra wrestling scholarships a year under Gable to having fewer than everyone else for a few seasons.

Thank you for sharing. I had never heard of that. 

[JimmyCinnabon]

On 12/4/2025 at 1:56 PM, Greenwave said:

Would UNI Schwab bring more of an intense offensive minded style to go along with the Iowa grind?

 

Iowa wrestlers don’t give up a lot of points, just need to be more active looking to score offensive points.

Maybe. I am a PSU fan, but I think Tom and Terry are fantastic coaches. It's really that simple and maybe they can find a guy who can do a better job than Tom, but I am not banking on them finding a guy who is a top 3 coach in the sport, which Tom is.

Maybe there is something to be said for having a fresh approach to things. I don't know but it's an uphill battle to replace Tom.

[Smsu150]

On 12/5/2025 at 7:08 AM, Coastal said:

A few other Big 10 schools were doing the same in non-revenue sports. They received scholarship limitations.   

It's the biggest issue with Zalesky's perceived failure.  Iowa went from awarding around 5 extra wrestling scholarships a year under Gable to having fewer than everyone else for a few seasons.

It didn't help Jimmy Z that once all of the guys that had wrestled for Gable graduated they never won another title. I'd never heard of the extra scholarships before.  Although, I'm pretty sure that is one of the reasons Okie State went on probation and had to sit out the NCAA tournament in 1993.  During those years, the Hawks did have a lot of good to great wrestlers that were back-ups or at least willing to be a back-up for a year or more.  The most notable example is Jesse Whitmer. who started one year and won the NCAA title. 

[NM1965]

On 12/5/2025 at 1:08 PM, Coastal said:

A few other Big 10 schools were doing the same in non-revenue sports. They received scholarship limitations.   

It's the biggest issue with Zalesky's perceived failure.  Iowa went from awarding around 5 extra wrestling scholarships a year under Gable to having fewer than everyone else for a few seasons.

How in the heck did Iowa get 5 more schollies than everybody else? Were they doing it illegally or did they get some sort of special treatment? If so, why weren't Iowa's titles from those years struck off the record? Not doubting you, but I never heard anything like this. 

[NM1965]

On 12/4/2025 at 6:46 PM, JimmyCinnabon said:

Remember when Iowa was "still the second best team in the country" for like a decade? Now they're just the second or third best team in the country. 

 

7 out of the last 13 years the Hawkeyes have finished 4th or lower, actually. That's certainly heaps better than John Smith, I remember OSU finishing in the teens several times in Smith's career.  The Hawkeyes always a top 5 team at the very least, and that's impressive considering how beat up they usually at are NCAAs. 

[Nak21]

9 minutes ago, NM1965 said:

How in the heck did Iowa get 5 more schollies than everybody else? Were they doing it illegally or did they get some sort of special treatment? If so, why weren't Iowa's titles from those years struck off the record? Not doubting you, but I never heard anything like this. 

Oh it was absolutely illegal and they got slapped with I believe an NCAA Major infraction for it. They were punished. The sanctions were a reciprocal loss of scholarships over the same time period.

I don’t recall exactly WHAT they did, and full disclosure they weren’t the only ones doing it. But it had to do with out of state tuition numbers and formulas for grant in aid athletic scholarships that wasn’t correct and led to roughly 5 more scholarships a year for Gable to play with - and don’t forget this was in either the 11 or 9.9 days so 5 more was HUGE - AND! it’s wrestling so you can split those - a few more full rides, a few more half’s, a lot more book money. And it was all while they were in their heyday. The NCAA took a 4yr snap shot, saw it and then punished them for a 4yr period after where they worked with roughly 5 less over the 4yrs. If that makes any sense.

All this kinda coincided with when they were winning 9 in a row and Gable retired shortly after. Doesn’t take a huge leap to figure they were doing this more than the 4yrs the NCAA looked at. Sooooo who knows??

[NM1965]

14 minutes ago, Nak21 said:

Oh it was absolutely illegal and they got slapped with I believe an NCAA Major infraction for it. They were punished. The sanctions were a reciprocal loss of scholarships over the same time period.

I don’t recall exactly WHAT they did, and full disclosure they weren’t the only ones doing it. But it had to do with out of state tuition numbers and formulas for grant in aid athletic scholarships that wasn’t correct and led to roughly 5 more scholarships a year for Gable to play with - and don’t forget this was in either the 11 or 9.9 days so 5 more was HUGE - AND! it’s wrestling so you can split those - a few more full rides, a few more half’s, a lot more book money. And it was all while they were in their heyday. The NCAA took a 4yr snap shot, saw it and then punished them for a 4yr period after where they worked with roughly 5 less over the 4yrs. If that makes any sense.

All this kinda coincided with when they were winning 9 in a row and Gable retired shortly after. Doesn’t take a huge leap to figure they were doing this more than the 4yrs the NCAA looked at. Sooooo who knows??

Jesus H. Christ. Iowa should be stripped of all titles from those years. My opinion of Gable was low BEFORE I read your answer, now it's infinitely lower. What a fucking scab.  

Edited December 9, 2025 by NM1965

[NM1965]

8 minutes ago, Coastal said:

Suppose in state tuition was 1K dollars, out of state 2K dollars and wrestling had 10 scholarships.  What Iowa/Gable did was say great, 10 scholarships at 2K each, we have 20K to spend.  Give 12 "in state" and 4 out of state and they spent 20K on scholarships.  Everyone else who played by the rules had 10 scholarships.  Gable had 16.

Scummy. In that context I wonder if Gable was even as good a coach as Tom Brands is. 

[MPhillips]

3 minutes ago, NM1965 said:

Scummy. In that context I wonder if Gable was even as good a coach as Tom Brands is. 

[mspart]

On 12/2/2025 at 9:47 AM, Nak21 said:

In the meantime get used to what you saw Sunday. Cuz it’ll probably happen a few times yearly against the better teams. A style that just doesn’t really work anymore or atleast with any regularity. 9 guys…combined for 3 take downs for and 7 stall calls against…yikes.

Yikes is right.   9 guys combining for 3 takedowns.   The Brands Bros better be kicking some major patootie.   There is no excuse for that.  

mspart

[bnwtwg]

18 hours ago, mspart said:

Yikes is right.   9 guys combining for 3 takedowns.   The Brands Bros better be kicking some major patootie.   There is no excuse for that.  

mspart

How they can't shoot anymore either lol

[mr.nonothingatall]

How are we still feeling about this. Even the his guys rested up for a b1G dual against the powerhouse Wisconsin badgers coached by the genius bono. Iowa struggled. Looked back and is regressing in typical fashion. 

I have a hard time believing other coaches would be worse at wreslted development than the brands brothers. If you gave schawb or dresser these resources they would be able to do better IMO.

Not only does the brands team not embody the "Iowa style" I don't they they coach the style anymore. They are to busy trying to coach like cael. Except they don't know how to. 

It's time for them to go

[mr.nonothingatall]

No more endene on the Iowa roster....