Iowa Coaching Change?

[SplitTheG]

Controversial topic, as the Brands brothers have done a lot for US Wrestling and for Iowa in general. That being said, it seems clear that other programs are making jumps, and Iowa continues to slide.

Not an Iowa fan myself, and this may not be at all likely, but if I were a fan, I'd want Iowa to clear house and hire Thomas Gilman as the new head ASAP. He may not want to leave State College ever again, let alone to return to Iowa, but I think the fit and the blend of the old school and new school would be just what the Hawkeyes need to slingshot themselves back into contention and revive what seems to be a flailing giant.

Thoughts?

[Caveira]

4 minutes ago, SplitTheG said:

Controversial topic, as the Brands brothers have done a lot for US Wrestling and for Iowa in general. That being said, it seems clear that other programs are making jumps, and Iowa continues to slide.

Not an Iowa fan myself, and this may not be at all likely, but if I were a fan, I'd want Iowa to clear house and hire Thomas Gilman as the new head ASAP. He may not want to leave State College ever again, let alone to return to Iowa, but I think the fit and the blend of the old school and new school would be just what the Hawkeyes need to slingshot themselves back into contention and revive what seems to be a flailing giant.

Thoughts?

Not a controversial topic.  It’s been discussed 83,083,083 million times on this site already.   
 

the horse is dead new Cinnabon 

Edited February 20 by Caveira

[Mr. PeanutButter]

1 hour ago, SplitTheG said:

Controversial topic, as the Brands brothers have done a lot for US Wrestling and for Iowa in general. That being said, it seems clear that other programs are making jumps, and Iowa continues to slide.

Not an Iowa fan myself, and this may not be at all likely, but if I were a fan, I'd want Iowa to clear house and hire Thomas Gilman as the new head ASAP. He may not want to leave State College ever again, let alone to return to Iowa, but I think the fit and the blend of the old school and new school would be just what the Hawkeyes need to slingshot themselves back into contention and revive what seems to be a flailing giant.

Thoughts?

Not a controversial topic.

A change is warranted but Thomas Gilman is not the answer. He is even crazier than the Brands were in their youth and is even dumber than Aaron Brooks. You can be dumb or crazy as a head coach. You can't be both

[BFosr1]

1 hour ago, Coastal said:

Gilman never raped anyone so he is not crazier than the Brands.

Yikes. I didn’t know this.

https://www.pastpaperhero.com/resources/brands-v-sheldon-cmty-sch-671-f-supp-627-nd-iowa-1987

[ironmonkey]

I could see Gilman being an excellent associate head coach but probably  not the face of the program.  Im a fan of the Brands brothers but id like to see a strong Iowa team in contention.  

[IceMan]

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the coaching staff this offseason. Based on what's publicly available, Terry Brands and Ryan Morningstar have contracts set to expire at the end of this season. But Tom's is through 2028-2029. Unless the details weren't shared publicly and Terry & Morningstar's contracts were extended, we may see some changes made there this offseason. 

With that said, I'd highly doubt that Tom continues without Terry and Morningstar on staff. Too stubborn to make changes. 

[Nak21]

They need some changes, some new blood. I don’t think Gilman would be a good fit at the Head Coach level, doesn’t strike me as having the temperament/maturity for the head job. Great assistant potential and I love him being at PSU, but not sure his “I don’t give a f@#k” attitude towards things flies when you’re the head guy.

I don’t think Brands is going anywhere, so maybe Iowa can hope for some new assistants to breathe life into the program?

[PNWfan]

5 minutes ago, Nak21 said:

They need some changes, some new blood. I don’t think Gilman would be a good fit at the Head Coach level, doesn’t strike me as having the temperament/maturity for the head job. Great assistant potential and I love him being at PSU, but not sure his “I don’t give a f@#k” attitude towards things flies when you’re the head guy.

I don’t think Brands is going anywhere, so maybe Iowa can hope for some new assistants to breathe life into the program?

Gilman lost me when he couldn't make it more than one year at Oklahoma State. He must be extremely abrasive and difficult to work with.

[IceMan]

4 minutes ago, PNWfan said:

Gilman lost me when he couldn't make it more than one year at Oklahoma State. He must be extremely abrasive and difficult to work with.

Can you imagine Gilman on a home recruiting visit? That either ends with a commitment or a restraining order. 

[manatree]

3 hours ago, IceMan said:

Can you imagine Gilman on a home recruiting visit? That either ends with a commitment or a restraining order. 

Or freshly shoveled sidewalks for the entire neighborhood.

[BaldAt23]

The team has been performing poorly and it does feel like Brands should be on the hot seat. But part of me feels that is a bit too far considering they are the only team in the past 10 years to win an NCAA title besides Penn State.

Their strategy to throw a lot of money at transfers is not working so they certainly need to pivot away from that. 

[Southend]

They could step aside, Gable did. 

[MadMardigain]

Not sure why hardly no one ever brings up Schwab as a viable option for the spot.  Is he just that engrained into Northern Iowa now that a huge contract and coming home wouldn’t lure him away? Is there some sour grapes I forgot about that would still run this many years deep.  Don’t get me wrong I love him keeping Northern Iowa going as a solid program, but just not sure why his name never comes up when people talk about moving on from Brands. The guys Iowa born and raised, was a stud for Iowa in college, has that Brands style fire, has an established recruiting based, and is a proven coach. If Iowa isn’t going to go with a huge name complete outside then I would think Schwab would be on the short list of Iowa grown candidates.  What gives?

Edited February 21 by MadMardigain

[ionel]

9 hours ago, Southend said:

They could step aside, Gable did. 

Gable stepped aside to let an assistant take over correct?  You want Terry or ... ? 

[AgaveMaria]

Dan Gable stepped aside for one reason. Wear & tear & joint replacement surgery meant severely curtailed time on the mat with his wrestlers. 

Once he couldn't roll with the guys he was out. The guy loves mat time with his team. That is why we would hear of the hours long bouts with his top wrestlers. Wrestle til you drop - and he could still go hard with NCAA and world champions in the room.

He could no longer do it due to the medical limitations.

 

[Tyler]

1 hour ago, MadMardigain said:

Not sure why hardly no one ever brings up Schwab as a viable option for the spot.  Is he just that engrained into Northern Iowa now that a huge contract and coming home wouldn’t lure him away? Is there some sour grapes I forgot about that would still run this many years deep.  Don’t get me wrong I love him keeping Northern Iowa going as a solid program, but just not sure why his name never comes up when people talk about moving on from Brands. The guys Iowa born and raised, was a stud for Iowa in college, has that Brands style fire, has an established recruiting based, and is a proven coach. If Iowa isn’t going to go with a huge name complete outside then I would think Schwab would be on the short list of Iowa grown candidates.  What gives?

Leave our coach alone lol. No but seriously 

[Doublehalf]

The brands might have a great wrestling IQ but just seem to lack in every other area when it comes to recruiting, development, training plan, and just being able to communicate in a positive way on the emotional side with their athletes.

A change is definitely warranted and you never know who would become interested if the job were to open up... No one thought DT would be going to OKST initially. I can tell you Gilman would be a terrible choice, just Brands 2.0. 

I think they need someone completely from the outside to re-brand (pun not intended) Iowa wrestling. There just doesn't seem to be any joy or creativity with how they wrestle and it seems the only time anyone smiles there is if they get their hand raised. If Ben didnt have the health issues he would be the kind of person I would be thinking of. 

Edited February 21 by Doublehalf

[mr.nonothingatall]

I think we have covered this topic enough, but since there are still people interested in it I will say what I have on the past ones. Iowa needs the change. The kids deserve a change (at the very least in assistants). My choice would be Schwab, metcalf, Burroughs, Cunningham, ringer, askrens, and a long list of other names I have forgotten. Plus, like some stated before, you never know who will apply until it's open. People on this site seem to think they know every high profile candidate and the money can't sway people. (Case in point, some one was trying to tell me that Casey Cunningham would pass up 10 mil a year at Iowa to stay with cael) Which might be true, but it also would likely not be true. Schwab is the best fit for my liking because he does a good job of spotting instate recruits, brands do not they have missed out on many good instaters (porter, garvin, ross, lopez, seaton, literally just tons. Even tho they might not have been starters they are better than lots of the out of staters that we have that aren't starting in the room.

Anyway. Thats just a small snippet of what my thoughts are on the subject. People like to argue it with me (on here) if you want to that's fine. These are simply issues that bother me as a fan. It continues to bother me more and more because I probably view and intake more college wrestling from all three iowa D1 colleges than most SANE people, so it continues to bother me more and more

[Doublehalf]

16 minutes ago, mr.nonothingatall said:

I think we have covered this topic enough, but since there are still people interested in it I will say what I have on the past ones. Iowa needs the change. The kids deserve a change (at the very least in assistants). My choice would be Schwab, metcalf, Burroughs, Cunningham, ringer, askrens, and a long list of other names I have forgotten. Plus, like some stated before, you never know who will apply until it's open. People on this site seem to think they know every high profile candidate and the money can't sway people. (Case in point, some one was trying to tell me that Casey Cunningham would pass up 10 mil a year at Iowa to stay with cael) Which might be true, but it also would likely not be true. Schwab is the best fit for my liking because he does a good job of spotting instate recruits, brands do not they have missed out on many good instaters (porter, garvin, ross, lopez, seaton, literally just tons. Even tho they might not have been starters they are better than lots of the out of staters that we have that aren't starting in the room.

Anyway. Thats just a small snippet of what my thoughts are on the subject. People like to argue it with me (on here) if you want to that's fine. These are simply issues that bother me as a fan. It continues to bother me more and more because I probably view and intake more college wrestling from all three iowa D1 colleges than most SANE people, so it continues to bother me more and more

Good point with the assistant coaches... When is the last time they had anyone from outside the Iowa program as an assistant? I get the same could be said about Penn st but we aren't talking about them because they are who they are. 
 

I don't say this to be mean but every dude in that program from the assistants up through the coaches just seem like a bunch of farm boys that all think the same exact way. No diversity of thought when it comes to wrestling or how to train, just a bunch of soldiers without a true leader. There's a reason they lose in scramble situations... Scrambles are the creative improv of wrestling and it makes perfect sense why they continually get beat in those positions.

[mr.nonothingatall]

1 minute ago, Doublehalf said:

just a bunch of soldiers without a true leader.

This is a good way to put it

[fishbane]

19 hours ago, ironmonkey said:

I could see Gilman being an excellent associate head coach but probably  not the face of the program.  Im a fan of the Brands brothers but id like to see a strong Iowa team in contention.  

I am sure many wrestling fans said this of the Brandses too.  Both ended up being head coaches.

[fishbane]

1 hour ago, mr.nonothingatall said:

My choice would be Schwab, metcalf, Burroughs, Cunningham, ringer, askrens, and a long list of other names I have forgotten. Plus, like some stated before, you never know who will apply until it's open.

The problem with canning Brands for any of these guys is that there is risk.  Iowa has been the clear cut best program aside from PSU during Brands tenure.  If you look at the candidates for 3rd best program during that time they had had much lower lows than Brands and Iowa are currently experiencing - Ohio State/Tom Ryan, OSU/John Smith, Cornell/Stanford/UNC/Rob Koll. So you are gambling and the reality is that most of those guys on your list will struggle to replicate Brands's success.

All these potential candidates you listed are either a crapshoot as to whether they would even consider the job (Aksrens, Burroughs, Cunningham) or a bigger gamble that they could even match Brands's level of success (Dieringer, Metcalf, Schwab).  You don't really sack a coach with 4 national team titles because they are having their worst season of his tenure and are only a borderline top 5 team.

Iowa doesn't really sack coaches even in big money sports where it's more common like football and basketball.  The football coach has been there nearly 30 years and weathered losing seasons without the highs of the wrestling team.  The men's basketball coach was finally sacked last year after 15 years with multiple losing seasons and not making it past the second round of the NCAA tournament.  Sacking Zalesky for Brands was undeserved, but it was also unique in that there was no question that the best available candidate would take the job.  Iowa was Brands's dream job he was going to take it probably with a hometown discount.  There is no guaranteed option available.

[mr.nonothingatall]

3 minutes ago, fishbane said:

The problem with canning Brands for any of these guys is that there is risk.  Iowa has been the clear cut best program aside from PSU during Brands tenure.  If you look at the candidates for 3rd best program during that time they had had much lower lows than Brands and Iowa are currently experiencing - Ohio State/Tom Ryan, OSU/John Smith, Cornell/Stanford/UNC/Rob Koll. So you are gambling and the reality is that most of those guys on your list will struggle to replicate Brands's success.

All these potential candidates you listed are either a crapshoot as to whether they would even consider the job (Aksrens, Burroughs, Cunningham) or a bigger gamble that they could even match Brands's level of success (Dieringer, Metcalf, Schwab).  You don't really sack a coach with 4 national team titles because they are having their worst season of his tenure and are only a borderline top 5 team.

Iowa doesn't really sack coaches even in big money sports where it's more common like football and basketball.  The football coach has been there nearly 30 years and weathered losing seasons without the highs of the wrestling team.  The men's basketball coach was finally sacked last year after 15 years with multiple losing seasons and not making it past the second round of the NCAA tournament.  Sacking Zalesky for Brands was undeserved, but it was also unique in that there was no question that the best available candidate would take the job.  Iowa was Brands's dream job he was going to take it probably with a hometown discount.  There is no guaranteed option available.

Everything you mention is extremely valid. While it's true that this is there first down year that isn't completely why everyone is upset. They have been on the downward side of recruiting, brands have lost out on bassets, raney brothers, and they have overlooked a lot of instate talent, they also have issues with recruiting multiple high level guys that are the same weight. This has been an issue for them for a while. It's not a huge problem until none of them end up as good as predicted. And suddenly you have 4 guys at one weight and none of them are top 10.

As far as the other coaches none of the ones listed other than John Smith have ever let a program with the reputation and history that Iowa has. After his retirement they found a great option. There is only 3 schools with unprecedented history, Iowa, Penn state, OSU. 

While I completely agree with your statement on how complacent the University of Iowa is with there coaching staff in all sports. You do have to realize that Iowa has never had an amazing national championship run in any of the other programs at the school other than wrestling and field hockey. They aren't a football or basketball contenter. Kirk is the best or one of the best football coaches they have had and is close to retiring. He did not take over a powerhouse that had double digit national titles. Same with the basketball team. 

Sadly you are correct there is no guarantees. However, there comes a point where you accept being second best (this was accepted a while ago), Hawkeye fans are now put in a position where they will have to accept being considered a hopeful top 10 team which is getting passed by multiple teams that were willing to change for the better while Iowa was not 

[Lordnelson]

On 2/20/2026 at 12:12 PM, SplitTheG said:

Controversial topic, as the Brands brothers have done a lot for US Wrestling and for Iowa in general. That being said, it seems clear that other programs are making jumps, and Iowa continues to slide.

Not an Iowa fan myself, and this may not be at all likely, but if I were a fan, I'd want Iowa to clear house and hire Thomas Gilman as the new head ASAP. He may not want to leave State College ever again, let alone to return to Iowa, but I think the fit and the blend of the old school and new school would be just what the Hawkeyes need to slingshot themselves back into contention and revive what seems to be a flailing giant.

Thoughts?

You actually think that Gilman is Head Coach material?  

I'm living in the Matrix, no doubt.

[CHROMEBIRD]

Zalesky's seat didn't really heat up until he lost the CyHawk dual. That loss to ISU was a pretty tough pill for fans to swallow.