Tom Brands Media Day News Conference Transcript

TOM BRANDS: Nelly said this frames me up really well in front of Spencer Lee. Spencer Lee, we want to acknowledge him in a big way. I got his bracket right here: Tack, tack, tack, pin, tack. Five matches. If you didn't see it, in the words of comedians, you're living under a rock.

Pay attention to the news, and maybe you guys can all deliver for us when you do see it or when (Sam) Basler gets it out to you. We will be celebrating him a lot of different ways. We'll be celebrating him in Kinnick stadium. We'll be celebrating him before some duels here, center mat, et cetera, et cetera. It was a big, big important milestone in our program to have another world champion. So Spencer Lee, take your hat off to him, right?

Let's talk about our Hawkeyes. The best compliment that I can give to our group, and I have all spring, is that when you have veterans, and we have six all-Americans that are returning, when you have veterans, Kueter, Ferrari, Arnold, Block, Bailey, those are five all-Americans, and we got a transfer, Crookham, that's our sixth all-American, when you have these veterans and they're continuing to get better and continuing to work to get better, that is a very good characteristic, and we love that. That doesn't mean that they're perfect. That doesn't mean that they have to be perfect. But it does mean that they have to be consistent in dedication to the task that they want to accomplish. That's not a singular task, that's plural. That's many tasks.

I'll say it again: They don't have to be perfect, but they do have to be consistent in their dedication, and that's a trait or a characteristic that you can say about these.

They're also going to have to weather -- when I say weather, that's not the words I wanted to use here. I say steady in turmoil. Weather the storm is an overused phrase. Steady in turmoil. Now it shows up. The consistency, being steady in that turmoil, now it shows up. That's where we're at.

Q. Each team from year to year kind of has their unique or distinct personalities. Some are gritty; some are hard-nosed, loose. How would you describe the vibe this team is giving off?

TOM BRANDS: I would say that they probably are. Your question is great. As a coach, a private guy coach especially, I have to do my job here for you to help you out. You don't want to be all flowery about it. Are they tighter? Yeah, definitely they're tighter. Are they holding each other accountable more? Yeah, they're holding each other accountable more. Is it enough? I don't know if it's enough.

I know the question is going to come up with Jordan Williams. He's going to sit. He's going to have a suspension. We would have liked him to learn his lesson last year. So here we are talking about it.

Well, why are you bringing it up? Because there's some teammates of his that are relying on him that, you know what, is not going to fly. But still, it flew. But maybe there's more dialogue there. So there's more of a deeper understanding of maybe, hey, we do need everybody on board.

These new rules are crazy. We've got 30 roster cap. That's crazy. Your depth is more and more and more important than ever before. It's not 10 weight classes.

So all 30 of those are more important than 43 were when we had 43 or when we had 38. 38 it wasn't as important to have 30. You've got to have 30 that are all contributing. So that's probably, to answer your question, probably tighter, probably more, hey, get the corncobs out of your ears and let's get going here, let's pay attention to what we're trying to accomplish.

Then the value in why you're here, because really if you look at it, when there's 30 spots, they're all picked. They're hand picked. This isn't like, oh, you want to walk on? Come on and walk on; we'll give you a shot. It's not like that. There's a lot that goes into it. Morningstar and Terry and now Warner. Warner, who has been a great -- their job has become -- there's more time put into making sure that we have the right people here.

Q. Jordan kind of fits into that 149, 157 category that seemed like it had moments but maybe not consistency last year until rider at NCAAs. What have you seen from that group of guys with a lot of those options coming back this off season?

TOM BRANDS: We have our best depth at 49 and 57. There's four guys there with Voinovich and Estrada. Then you have Block, who's a returning all-American, and you have Jordan Williams. Those four guys at 49 and 57, they're going to factor in, and we're going to need them all.

You talked about consistency. You said the word consistency, and that's going to be really, really important. That's going to be really important. And the words that I used about weathering the storm, they're going to have to be able to be steady in turmoil, and that's part of the consistency that we're talking about.

Put your head down and letting the guy run around behind you, not a very good formula for winning tough wrestling matches. To maybe to keep answering your question about how have these guys maybe changed or whatever or what characteristic does this team have as a whole, maybe they're hearing more from their teammates on, hey, that's not going to fly.

I don't know if I hit on your question as far as answering it. But I do want to answer the question.

Q. Just to follow up, do you have an exact timeline on how long Jordan will be out?

TOM BRANDS: He will serve a suspension. That has been talked about with myself and the bosses, and he is making himself better, and that's what's important. We're moving forward. But we have to keep getting better.

Q. So no official timeline of how long --

TOM BRANDS: Details are that he has a one-meet suspension, and there's some other things that he has to continue to better himself at. We're on board with him. We're on board with him.

Q. To that point, this summer he does initially hit the portal but then there's still that connection with the Hawkeye Wrestling Club where he has a pretty inspired run of freestyle action by making that U-23 world team. What have you seen from him over the course of the off season that gives you confidence that he will be able to contribute when he has some success like that?

TOM BRANDS: He entered the portal, and he had some dialogue with us about where he could end up. Maybe not specifically, but do I want to start over with relationships. That's probably the biggest conversations that I had with him. Don't know if I want to start over with a whole 'nother coaching staff and relationships.

He chose to stay, and the standard is in place. We all have to do better, and he knows he has to do better. We're going to help him do better, but in this sport, which is individual by nature, you have to do better. You have to do better.

Some of these guys, they've got crosses, like taped crosses, like athletic tape. They've got a cross. Help that cross help you.

Q. Last year, you kind of acknowledged over the course of the year that there was a gap between where you want to be as NCAA champions and where you guys were. This off season what have been some of those specific things you guys have tried to address to try and close that and be where you want to be, competing for team titles?

TOM BRANDS: I will be repetitive and say that our veterans have been conscientious about getting better. That's a good characteristic, and why is that important, and why is that a good characteristic? Because a lot of times when you have accomplished something more than once, like Kueter is a two-time all-American, he's got two years left, he might think he's an automatic. He's the No. 1 heavyweight in America right now, ranked, at least in one or two polls that I've seen. That doesn't mean he's the No. 1 heavyweight in America. He still has to prove that every time out.

But what I'm saying is sometimes when you're at that point, you forget about the ingredients of, hey, I have to continue to better myself every day to get better, so I'm being repetitive but more detailed in my answer there. What have we done? I think these guys, Ferrari included, Bailey, Block, are two young guys -- who am I talking about? Two young guys that factor in. Joey Cruz at 25, but who's our young guy at 25. DeLuca, Ludington, two young guys that factor in there. We've got some depth at those two weights, but what have they done is they're more consistent about and more conscientious about, hey, I've had success but I'm getting better. It's not the success that we want, but we've got to keep that going. We've got to keep that characteristic going.

Q. Going back to the transfer portal, a lot of coaches in different sports have described it as akin to speed dating. I'm curious in the courtship of a guy like Ryan Crookham, seems like the skill set and the character kind of a no-brainer but as a guy who's dealt with injury, how do you and the staff go about processing its fit and what it can bring to the Iowa program?

TOM BRANDS: With him specifically, again, characteristics, traits, whatever you want to call them, are all positive. Very dedicated.

The injuries are something that happens in this sport, and when you have a guy in the portal and you're recruiting him, you're asking deep questions. You're talking to people that he doesn't know that you're talking to, and how does he handle certain things, and then you make the decision.

We made the decision that he can be a key component to this lineup, and so that's the decision that we make.

The portal, as far as speed dating, it's reality. My opinion never has meant much to me. What means a lot to me is how we go about working to put the best team on the mat and whether the rules say you can or can't do something, then you follow those rules and you work around them and you work in between them and you talk to your compliance, which is important these days.

There are a lot of programs out there that would say that compliance is less important. When I say programs, I'm talking about athletic programs. I'm not talking about wrestling programs. I'm talking about athletic programs across the spectrum.

To me it's more important. The more ambiguity that you have, the more important compliance is. I've talked about this a lot in the past.

So a long answer to your question and did I answer it. It's not speed dating to us. We're recruiting them like we recruit anybody. You do your homework. We're very excited about Crookham. When you watch him, he's on the mat, he's drilling, and he's starting to come back. You watch him drilling, he looks like a wrestler. That's a really good first thing that has to happen. You have to look like a wrestler. He looks like a wrestler. We love that.

Q. You mentioned steady in the storm. How do you make that a part of your culture, or is that something that you don't see come out of a wrestler until they kind of go through that -- hit that adversity?

TOM BRANDS: To answer your question, to go deep into that, that means a lot of things. That means in the course of a match, during a practice where things are going your way, and then all of a sudden something happens where there's a little bit of that whatever thrown in there that threw you off, how do you handle it then, how do you make adjustments to right the wrong, those types of things, and then that carries over into the match.

The course of the season, all athletics, it's daunting. It's challenging. There are injuries. It gets tiresome. How do you handle that? You're going to have to be steady in that turmoil and be an internal optimist. How do you do that? You have to practice it. You have to practice it in the moments that hang that way.

That's where, like, the consistency comes in. So we can be consistent and have good results from that consistency, but what about when that turmoil is in there and things are a little choppy, rocky, how are you handling that, and then you have to be consistent with handling that. So they go hand in hand.

Q. Last season, Gabe was kind of a big storyline for the season. He was maybe going to be off the team, then he was back. He made that jump up to 197, had that great run at nationals, and he had that kind of magical season last year. What have you seen from him this off season?

TOM BRANDS: You know what I'm smiling? Because you brought up again that he was off the team. He was never off the team. I don't know that we ever took him off the roster. Now, maybe we did, but it wasn't my choice. It was like, hey, we're going to let him go and breathe and let him go and see if the grass is really greener. He came back, and the grass wasn't greener.

Plus, he was never serious about leaving. He really wasn't because he really -- if you've got to know, and I said I was going to be a little bit more maybe transparent, he left a lot more time than one or two that you know about. I'm not saying that to beat you up here. I'm saying that because you brought that up again, that he left the program. He never left the program.

So let's talk about awesome great Gabe Arnold. Gabe Arnold sacrificed for this team to go a weight that it's not his natural weight class. Sometimes you sacrifice by going down, and sometimes you sacrifice by going up. When you have a roster cap of 30, it's important that you have people like that in your lineup, in your room so they can fill that need in your lineup when you need it.

Well, we had that need filled, and then what happened, right? So the story is really what Gabe Arnold is willing to do for this team.

Now he's at 174. He has a year where there was a lot of emotion of him getting on the stand, and maybe because of that emotion of him getting on the stand, maybe he left something undone a little bit there, and what I mean by that is sometimes you celebrate too soon, like why can't he go to three. You're on the backside of the bracket, now you win the match and it makes you an All-American. Go get this; this is your championship. Go get third place.

So maybe he's matured because of that. That's where, like, this group of veterans that we have, and he is in that group, that's where the optimism from me comes in that they have worked hard to better themselves even with some -- hey, that was a defining moment for Gabe Arnold at the time, but I think he realizes, looking back on that, I am capable, I was capable of doing better, and I'm addressing it.

So there's maturity. Maybe that's a word that should be in these notes somewhere. So there is maturity. Good question. I'll take it.

But Gabe Arnold is a Hawkeye. We've had some programs illegally recruit him. I can keep going on Gabe Arnold. His mom and dad, super people. His cousin, J'den Cox, is a World Champion and an Olympic medalist, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Q. You had mentioned the depth you have at 197 this year. What have you seen from that group this offseason? How have you seen them develop?

TOM BRANDS: We have a young guy there. We have another guy there, and more will shake out here in the next couple of days. We've been low key on our intersquads and our wrestle-offs, but we're getting that worked out and we're getting to the end of that process, and we'll see where we're at.

Again, we need to have those characteristics that I talked about at every weight class, and not 10 wrestlers at 10 weights, but as many wrestlers as possible that cover those 10 weights.

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