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Tom Brands’ Comments Confirm Iowa Wrestling Now Part Of The Field

By Derek Helling

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There was a time when Iowa wrestling was the program that the rest of the NCAA aspired to. That time is now firmly in the past, as evidenced by the recent comments of Hawkeye head coach Tom Brands.

After Iowa failed to crown any individual champions and finished fifth in the team standings at last weekend’s NCAA championships, Brands had the following to say about the state of the program:

"“We are a long ways, and that doesn’t mean this guy is giving up. But when you look at how they [national champion Penn State] wrestle, when you look at the points they score – and I’m not talking about only match points. I’m talking about bonus points, team points, how they add up – we’re a long ways away. It’s not light years. But we have to do some things that close the gap on that.”"

The Hawkeyes finished 42 points behind the Nittany Lions in the final team standings. It’s the first time since 2007 that Iowa has finished outside the top four teams, and the first time in Brands’ tenure that there haven’t been any Hawkeyes listed among the names recognized at the awards ceremony.

Iowa has gone from the hunted to one of the hunters. The Hawkeyes are one of the most talented and well-equipped hunters, but a hunter nonetheless.

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Penn State’s run of five national titles in six years has been built on what Brands alluded to. When the Nittany Lions get their opportunities, they make the most of them. Penn State didn’t score a point in last Saturday’s morning session, and ended up running away with the team title by a 25-point margin anyways. If not for redshirts by Nick Megaludis and Zain Retherford in the 2014-15 season, Penn State may have just won its sixth straight national championship.

As Brands mentioned, however, Iowa isn’t light years behind. The Hawkeyes finished with the same number of All-Americans as the Nittany Lions. Iowa finished just a point behind fourth-place Virginia Tech and five points behind third-place Ohio State.

Past teams have set the bar very high for the Hawkeyes, however. Finishing fifth without any individual champions is not on par with Iowa wrestling in the past, and that’s the reason for Brands’ comments. Penn State isn’t going anywhere.

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In order for the Hawkeyes to return to wrestling royalty, they will have to go through the Nittany Lions. When the opportunities come to accumulate bonus points, that has to be automatic. If Iowa can do that, they have a chance to close the gap in 2016-17 and beyond.

Until that happens on a consistent basis, however, the question that used to be asked of are you taking Iowa or the field is irrelevant. The Hawkeyes now are part of the field.