Tom Brands Interview 1-30-24
Iowa wrestling coach
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SportsTranscript
00:00 >> Trustee Lee Cross. >> Trustee Lee Cross. >> Nellie? Is it okay? Hey, Tom. I have sort
00:10 of like a two-part question. This team you're having a lot of success with, with the team
00:14 that you probably did not expect to have. Going into a year, do you guys do you ever
00:19 plan like Plan Bs type of thing? And then my follow-up is, what have you learned about
00:24 yourself as a coach dealing with what you've had to do in developing this team?
00:29 >> We know that the level of competition is going to be going up significantly. That starts
00:34 Friday. That's not a shot at anybody we've competed against. It's not a shot at anything
00:41 except what's next on the calendar. We have to be ready to go. The past doesn't mean a
00:48 whole lot. We learn from it and you move on. So that's where our focus is. I know as a
00:55 coach I learned that we have pretty tough, resilient guys.
01:00 >> You felt that way going into this year? There was no question at all?
01:03 >> There's no option. There's no option. Why are you surprised? Why are you surprised at
01:09 how we operate? >> Talk about resiliency. I mean, Drake Ayala
01:15 to come off that loss against Matt Ramos, had two big wins. What did you think of his
01:19 response over the weekend? >> We have the next thing is in front of us
01:24 and he is a competitor from the word go. We love his mindset and we love his direction.
01:30 We love how he thinks about the sport of wrestling. He's a reflective guy. And hey, we got a lot
01:40 in front of us. We got four dual meets left and then we got a big ten tournament and a
01:44 national tournament. And these guys, I think they do a good job of keeping it in perspective.
01:51 But they do, I mean, you can't look ahead, but I think they do know what the challenges
01:58 are coming up. >> What's been the biggest key to Ben Keeter's
02:02 progress? >> He's just, I said I described him as eager
02:07 and that word still describes him in my mind as well as any word. We know that he is a
02:18 super, super competitive guy and everything about him, he wants to compete. He wants to
02:27 get out there and he wants to prove to the world that he is legit. And whether that's
02:34 wearing a uniform with shoulder pads and helmet or on a wrestling mat, it's the same. That's
02:40 how he's wired. >> I'm going to have to ask you about Zach
02:43 Glazier, basically three years behind, what you call it, Warner. At this time when everybody
02:50 could transfer so easily, why do you think he stayed around him?
02:55 >> I think that he knows what he wants. I don't think he ever looked at it like he was
03:02 never going to be in there. He had some adversity thrown his way with some things that he fixed
03:09 or we have a great medical team and he's done a great job of staying grounded and zeroing
03:16 in on the things that he needs to zero in on. Not saying that there hasn't been challenges
03:20 there, but give him credit for his resolve. Love it.
03:24 >> Do you remember ever having conversations in the past few years with him about his future?
03:29 >> A lot of conversations with everybody and whether they're at the top of their game,
03:34 whether they're struggling, whether they agree with the way things are being done or whether
03:40 they're just plain and simple frustrated with where they're at. We always have conversations
03:44 one on one. That's a natural for us. >> You guys like to focus internally and
03:50 focus on what comes next and everything. At 125 pounds nationally, it's been a class that
03:57 has had a lot of guys go up, down, wins, losses, beat each other up. What in your mind has
04:02 been the biggest contributing factor to 125 pounds being a gauntlet for guys?
04:07 >> I think you just got to be ready every time out. I think every weight class eventually
04:14 gets to that. Meaning that you're going to have 33 guys in a bracket in March in Kansas
04:21 City that are going to be dog eat dog. You got to be ready and you got to build and you
04:27 got to have the right mindset, you have the right belief. This is not, how do you say
04:37 it without being crude, this is not anything to sneeze at. This is real division one athletics.
04:47 It is real. It's dog eat dog. You know what? It's funny because your career is defined
04:52 by literally minutes on the mat. Five years of wrestling, literally you're defined by
04:57 minutes on the mat. Sometimes you wrestle 10 years internationally and you're still
05:04 defined literally by minutes on the mat. You got to be tough. You got to show up. That's
05:10 where we're at. You say, it's not a unique mindset. Get better every day, work hard at
05:19 what's important in your life and you got to get tough.
05:24 >> You talk about this month coming up, and I know you only look one match in, but do
05:29 you worry about that maybe guys start looking ahead at what's coming?
05:33 >> No, no, no. I don't. I just know that there's a gap. Whether we're two or three or four
05:41 or whatever we're ranked, doesn't matter. There's a gap between whatever number we are
05:47 and number one. Are we looking ahead to our detriment? No, we're not. We know what's coming
05:55 up and every time out, you're hope, you're getting better. Then you have pretty resilient
06:04 guys that step up. It's going to be upon us, so why not make every day a mission toward
06:15 what's coming. That's where we're at.
06:20 >> Michael Caliendo, since he's been here, has been just incredibly consistent in his
06:24 approach, how he wrestles. How impressive is it for a guy who is as young as he is to
06:28 come out and just be as level-headed as he is?
06:30 >> He's an All-American. He believes in himself. I think he's more and more and more comfortable
06:38 being a Hawkeye. Frantic, I think, fit in right away. Caliendo, maybe it took a little
06:44 bit, but he's definitely, as you say, finding his stride in more ways than one. We love
06:52 him. Caliendo, we love him.
06:55 >> When you say he maybe took a little bit of time to figure out his way as a Hawkeye,
07:00 I guess where was it for him that you just --
07:02 >> I just think he's a skeptical guy by nature. I mean, so what? So what? Great way to be.
07:09 Just jump in with both feet all the time. Sometimes you get bit when you do that. You
07:13 got to feel your way around a little bit maybe sometimes.
07:17 >> You had said at media day, too, that was a guy you recruited, him and Frantic both
07:21 were guys that you went after. What was it about Caliendo that struck you when you first
07:24 kind of started to see him perform back then?
07:27 >> Well, I think it was a no-brainer with where we were headed back in those days, you
07:34 know, back in the early days of May. So I got the best advice from my boss, my direct
07:42 report boss at the time, and she said, you know, work on your roster. And that's what
07:48 we did.
07:49 >> Tom, with Ben Keeter, he still has some matches to go to determine whether he gives
07:56 up or not. Will his next two weeks determine that?
07:59 >> I think that we have two really good heavyweights there, and it's not -- you know, here's the
08:07 thing. They're going to both wrestle and they're going to both be out on that mat and they're
08:12 both going to have to continue to develop to be better. And we love Bradley Hill and
08:17 we love Ben Keeter. And you're talking about the Ben Keeter match at Northwestern. Well,
08:22 what about the Bradley match at Illinois? I mean, so we just got to keep getting better.
08:28 That's where we're at.
08:29 >> What do you think? Is that right? You think so? Thanks, guys.
08:34 >> Thanks, Tom.