By Andy Hamilton
Iowa City Press-Citizen
The path home from the practice room took Tom Brands on a nightly detour during his first year at Iowa.
He would walk around the concourse inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena imagining the lights turned on and the seats filled with wrestling fans. He would picture himself on the black-and-gold mat where he had seen so many Hawkeyes have their hands raised after victories. He would envision the day when that redshirt season would end and his opportunity would come.
“It wasn’t like you run out there and (you think), ‘I’m finally here,’ “Brands said. “You’ve been there before so many times in your head that it was just go out and do business.”
Business for Brands inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena began Jan. 7, 1989, when he won a 22-11 major decision against Phil Johns of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in a match between freshmen 126-pounders.
“It was an awful good match until the third period, “said Phil Johns Sr., the father of the first wrestler in a long line of competitors who stepped on the mat with Brands in Iowa City and walked off with a defeat. “Then Tom kind of wore him down, and he ended up winning the match.”
Phil Johns went on to win an NCAA Division II title, became known as Phil “The Little Giant “Johns during his career in Ultimate Fighting and is now the first-year wrestling coach for East Peoria (Ill.) High School.
Brands, too, is in his first season with a new program. He makes his home debut as Iowa’s head coach at 1:30 p.m. today when the Hawkeyes (1-0) wrestle No. 25 Arizona State (2-0) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, a venue where Brands never lost as a competitor.
“You’ve also got to remember the first time I went out in that arena as a head coach, “Brands said Friday. “We didn’t win a match with Virginia Tech (against the Hawkeyes in 2005).”
Brands then was reminded of his work as acting head coach two years earlier at Iowa. Then Jim Zalesky’s top assistant at Iowa, Brands ran the show for two dual meets while Zalesky served suspensions. The Hawkeyes beat Wisconsin 34-3 and knocked off Minnesota 22-18.
The “acting “label is long gone. This is Brands’ operation now.
Iowa enters today’s dual ranked No. 8 by W.I.N., dropping four spots after sliding by 18-15 Tuesday against unranked Northern Iowa. Reality smacked the Hawkeyes in the face during the season opener.
“I think a lot of us thought Tom Brands is on our side and people are going to lay down for us, but it’s not like that, “Iowa freshman 157-pounder Ryan Morningstar said. “I think we’ve got a lot of talent in the room and a lot of burning desire to win, but we’ve got to go out there and do it.”
Morningstar’s challenge today is perhaps greater than any other Hawkeye. He makes his debut in front of the Iowa fans against NCAA runner-up Brian Stith, who is ranked first or second by every major ranking service.
“I’ve been dreaming about it since I was a kid, “Morningstar said. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and it really helps me in practice. If I think times are tough, I think about having the No. 1 guy in the country and 10,000 Hawk fans standing behind me, cheering my name is pretty motivating.”
The home attendance figure might not reach the 10,000 mark today like it did four times when Brands wrestled for the Hawkeyes. But interest in the Iowa program has increased since he returned after two seasons from Virginia Tech and added Dan Gable as his assistant coach.
Since taking the job in April, Brands repeatedly has talked about putting an entertaining product on the mat for the Iowa fans. But in more than 65 minutes of wrestling against the Panthers, the Hawkeyes recorded just 12 takedowns — a figure Brands sometimes approached in seven minutes.
“Myself and a bunch of guys on the team didn’t get any takedowns in the first period or in the whole match, “165-pounder Mark Perry Jr. said. “He wants us to get nine, 10 takedowns in a match instead of two.”
Said Brands: “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask these guys to be able to score multiple takedowns every period or multiple scores every period or score in every position, every period if you have to.”
Perry said he thinks the Hawkeyes are grasping the message Brands and assistant coach Dan Gable are trying to convey and the domination-minded style they’re seeking on the mat.
“I think I’ve learned more in the past couple days than I probably have in the past couple years, “he said. “I’m really starting to understand what they’re talking about. I think people are starting to catch on, and I think it’s going to happen pretty quickly.
“It’s one of those things where it takes a long time for it to finally click for you and it hasn’t really clicked for anyone, but I think everyone’s started to understand what they mean and what they expect. It has nothing to do with the factor of how hard we’ve worked or anything, it’s just something that has to click in your head.”
Brands, however, wants to see tangible proof on the mat.
“I feel good about the progress, but you can’t keep saying that, either, “he said. “You’ve got to be able to see and you’ve got to be able to point to something as an example and say, ‘There’s what I’m talking about.'”
Probable line-ups, W.I.N. rankings (Iowa wrestler listed first):
125 pounds — No. 17 Charlie Falck (0-1) or Lucas Magnani (0-0) vs. Tyler Bowles (0-0); 133 — No. 11 Mario Galanakis (5-1) vs. Shawn Jones (1-0); 141 — No. 10 Alex Tsirtsis (4-2) vs. Pat Payne (0-0); 149 — Alex Grunder (3-3) vs. Chris Remsen (2-0); 157 — Ryan Morningstar (5-2) vs. No. 2 Brian Stith (2-0); 165 — No. 2 Mark Perry Jr. vs. No. 8 Patrick Pitsch (2-0); 174 — No. 10 Eric Luedke (5-1) vs. Alex Pavlenko (2-0); 184 — Phil Keddy (3-2) vs. Greg Gifford (2-0); 197 — Dan Erekson (4-1) vs. Jake Cranford (1-0) or Thor Moen (1-0) or Jason Trulson (1-0); Hwt. — No. 4 Matt Fields (4-1) vs. Cranford or Moen or Trulson.
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