Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Can Spencer Lee 4-peat? | Are the Brands brothers the answer for Iowa? | Will the wrestling team compete for a team title next year?

Episode Date: March 28, 2019

It is a full episode entirely devoted to the men's wrestling team! With the NCAA Championships wrapped up, we invited special guest Bryce Skaggs, former Iowa High School runner-up at 160 pounds and Iowa wrestling season ticket holder, to discuss this past season including whether or not Spencer Lee can 4-peat, did the Brands do enough to stop the chatter for their jobs, and what happened to Alex Marinelli this past weekend. We also dive into what the future holds for the program and what the lineup could look like next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Wade, editor at dearoldgold.com. Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. As I've been teasing you for the last couple of days, we have a very special guest joining us on the show today, Bryce Skaggs, three-time medal winner at Iowa State Wrestling Tournament in the class of 3A, runner-up at 160 in 2008, over 100 career wins. Andy wrestled at NAIA Grandview for a few years at, I believe, 174 or 187, I think. What were you at, Bryce?

Yeah, both, 174 and 184, yep. Oh, perfect, awesome. But Bryce is going to be joining us on the show today. I wanted to give all of you fans of wrestling an opportunity to hear us talk about the Iowa wrestling team as the NCAA tournament just finished up last weekend. Obviously, some good things came out of that. I think some disappointments as well. But overall, I want to talk about the season from this year and also talk about what we

can expect next season. And as I don't trust my expert opinion on that situation, I brought in an actual expert who follows Iowa wrestling very closely, obviously very knowledgeable of the sport, has season tickets. So we have Bryce Gaggs to join us on the show today. Bryce, thank you for jumping on, man. I really appreciate it. How are you doing today, buddy? Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm doing well. Doing well. Awesome. And you obviously, you follow Iowa wrestling pretty closely. How do you think this season went? Were you pretty happy with the overall outcome if you looked at it from a team perspective? Yeah, I think, you know, injuries with Michael Kammerer hurt, obviously, the very end, but, I mean, you know, you have ups and downs

in the seasons. I think, I think, I think we wrestled well at the end, you know, we really, at the end, we kind of got stuff together and I mean fourth doesn't sound great for Iowa but it was pretty well so absolutely I mean the the the Michael injury was not ideal at 174 obviously having some other people kind of fill in there and wasn't I think what we expected I was talking to obviously you're very familiar with Isaiah Smith I'm talking to him as well and he said that that was kind kind of the big downfall of the team. If he would have been there, Iowa really had a better chance of potentially competing for that team title. Maybe not so much with how strong Penn State was, but do you think there was really a chance,

if he would have been around this season, had Iowa had an opportunity to potentially compete for a team title? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, he would have been top five at least i would say i mean it's a tough i mean 174 is a tough weight class but yeah i think he would have been right there would have helped out a lot and was stole you know if he was healthy more than what he was with the knee problem and yeah i think we would have been right there. Yeah, man, Stoll put on a pretty gritty performance getting a few wins in the NCAA tournament. I was pretty impressed by that.

Was that kind of your expectation? Were you happy to see him get a few wins and honestly even qualify for the NCAA tournament because he didn't really perform overly great at the Big Ten tournament? Yeah, I was really shocked by the Big Ts not doing I don't know he just like he wasn't moving wasn't wasn't being himself and then you know at nationals really man he wrestled well and then I mean I guess he didn't a but I don't know he did he did as well as well as he could I guess absolutely and kind of jumping back to I I think obviously the big winner of the weekend was Spencer Lee getting his second national title as a sophomore.

What stood out about his performance? I've heard some rumblings that he was potentially sick later in the season that cost him a few of those wins. He got pinned for the first time in, I think 15 years um you know at Oklahoma State I believe so what what were what were your thoughts on Spencer Lee's kind of end of season performance um is that about what you expected and and is really is the sky the limit for this kid yeah absolutely he's he's a stud like he was sick you know and he faces i guess i heard he had mono or whatever and then he faces piccinini from oklahoma state that i i didn't know what to think about that but i kind of knew that he had been sick so he's still down and and then i don't know i mean he at big tens he looked looked great

and then you know he just kept that through nationals and he looked like i'm old like his old self again so it was it was good to see yeah and what what separates him what you know is it his style of wrestling is it his you know energy consistently is he trying to dominate the opponent from start to finish what about spencer lee makes him such a great wrestler yeah i think is his early attacks first period attacks taking down taking the guys down and then he is fantastic on top with his tilts and all the stuff that he can do with like a a bar arm and a wrist it's it's incredible the stuff he does on top turning the guys it's crazy um but yeah that, that's easily the biggest thing is, you know, if,

if he can get out on top first period, he can be up eight Oh, or, you know, absolutely. And it's, it's huge. Yeah. I mean, I remember I watched the, the big 10 final when he was facing off against, I believe as a wrestler from Northwestern and obviously Iowa fans were, if you're watching the basketball game, you were getting a little pissed off. And then it turned over to Spencer Lee. And then all of a sudden it was overtime and he got taken down. So that was a little bit unfortunate,

but nice to see him bounce back at the NCAA tournament, get that second national title. Do you think he can do the four P? I mean, that's kind of a big kind of legendary accomplishment for a collegiate wrestler. Do you think he has the ability to get that four-peat? Yeah, I think he could. I mean, what's his face from Northwestern?

He's good. He's really good, Rivera. But, yeah, I mean, this year, I think he's just been off just because of his sickness, it seems like. You know, his freshman year, he was just a whole head above everyone else. And then, you know, it seems like that time where he got sick has just kind of held him back a little bit. And then, I really think he could, you know, for Pete. That'd be a four-timer. Yeah, that'd be incredible. I mean,

personally, I like the way, I mean, watching some of his press conferences and stuff, press conferences and stuff. I just, I really enjoy the kid's attitude and, um, he's not focused on himself. He's entirely focused on the team at all times, even after winning a second national title. I mean, the kid didn't seem to be cocky at all. I mean, obviously very confident kid. You have to be confident to be a national champion wrestler. But I love his aura and his attitude towards the whole thing. Yeah, absolutely. I love that too.

It's nice to see with Gilman a couple years back, the completely opposite style and DeSanto as well. It's a completely different you know mindset that I mean after the you know but I like I like seeing both really you know it's it's nice to see both sides kind of definitely actually kind of you kind of touched on it already but DeSanto what is your thoughts on Austin DeSanto I mean I think he's a very polarizing wrestler personally I love I mean I know it costs the team it polarizing wrestler. Personally, I love, I mean, I know it costs the team. It's never a good thing when you're, you're costing the team points and it

hasn't been in situations where they really needed those points. But personally, I love the passion and I know, you know, there's, he's on the spectrum. So there's some, you know, things there, but what are your thoughts on, on Austin DeSSanto do you think he lets his emotions control him too much or do you think that emotional aspect really brings another another level to his game yeah I think I think it really helps him um but you know obviously he goes a little too much sometimes where you think oh you know you don't want you know to lose the team points in certain positions where you know it could be a close meet and then but I like it I like the fire you know, to lose the team points in certain positions where, you know, it could be a close meet and then, but I like it. I like the fire, you know, it, it brings, I think it brings out

more in him and, you know, it's, it's good to see some, some level with the number one seed, a lot of high expectations and, you know, to not finish even in that, you know, that one and two, one, two match or even three, four. What are your thoughts on his tourney run? What was, would you consider it a disappointment and what kind of led to it? You know, I feel like he just didn't have it. He just wasn't having a good weekend, but from your, you know, kind of expert opinion, what, what were your kind of thoughts on his, his, you know, his approach to the NCAA tournaments? What were your thoughts on his approach to the NCAA tournaments? Yeah, I think he wrestled well up until the match with the eventual national champ, Lewis. He had, I don't know, it's just like he ran into a brick wall with him.

And then after that, he just lost confidence. You never know what's exactly going on in his mind. He wants a national title, so after he gets beat, he's not as focused on the next match, and it just doesn't mean as much. Yeah, I don't know. But up until that, he looked fantastic the whole year. And just like the one guy just set him off to just you know I think

he easily could have got came back and got third he just wasn't as focused and yeah I mean I think I feel like that'd be I haven't personally been in that position you know most of the sports I played are either team sports or sports that don't have kind of the wrestle backs that wrestling has you know from your experience I know in the state tournament and whatnot, you know, you got a second place that one year, the other years though, you place, I believe fifth and seventh, I think I might, might have that incorrect, but obviously you had to do some wrestle backs there as well. What is your mindset going into that? Is it, I mean, it's gotta be tough, right?

Because you want to go in there. Your goal is to win, you know, a state championship or a national championship. But when you do lose, how hard is it to mentally reset and reprioritize and refocus on what your new goal is? Yeah, it's tough. I mean, just like any other sport, you got to forget the last one. But in this case, it's that day. You got to forget the, you know, the last match and or like, you know, work on whatever you were, you know, you lost to the last match or whatever, you know, yet you can't, you can't think about the last one too much. You gotta, you gotta be focused on winning at all costs. I mean, it's, I don't know.

It's, it's, it's tough. That's for sure. Yeah. I can only imagine. Like I said, I've never been specifically in that situation, but I can just imagine if you have a very specific goal in mind and you don't get that goal and it's over, it can be kind of difficult to, like I said, reset and reprioritize. But from a team aspect, with this team, I think there's been a lot of chatter about the Brands Brothers

and kind of what they bring to Iowa wrestling. And I feel like maybe sometimes unfairly they get criticized for a lack of team success as of recent. What are your thoughts on them as, you know, as coaches, do you believe in them? Do you feel like they are the right choices and do you believe there's much clout to that chatter? Oh, I absolutely think they're the right, they're the right coaches.

They're the right guys. We have the you know, I mean, those two. And then with Morningstar, Morningstar is a next-level recruiter. I mean, I guess he was the one that got Marinelli in, and I think those guys are the guys. And, you know, I mean with with team success you know it Penn State has just been recruiting like none other you know the past what five ten years or so whatever it's hard to beat them in recruiting you know they get the best of the best and we get you know some guys that we we have to work on to be you know to get up to the top and

i don't know i think they do i think they do a fantastic job and you know and it shows it show especially the lightweights we get we get you know national champs you know some of the middle to upper weights seems like we don't get as much, but those two are obviously the, I don't know, focused on the lower weights more, I guess you could say, but. Absolutely. They're fantastic. Yeah. I mean, that's a, you make a really good point. One thing I wanted to kind of pick out of there was you talked about Iowa getting kind of the, I would say probably the tier two recruits is a way of putting it. And it seems very Iowa-esque, right? Kirk Ferentz does

that with his football team. Fran McCaffrey, so to speak, does that with the basketball team. And we're not getting the five-star recruits pretty typically. Is that a similar mantra with the wrestling team as well? Yeah, absolutely. I think, I mean, you get, it seems like Penn State's getting all, not all, I shouldn't say that, but most of the good guys from in Pennsylvania. And we get, you know, we got Spencer Lee and let's see, Caleb Young, Kimmers from Pennsylvania. I mean, we're getting good guys out of Pennsylvania. Marinelli's from Ohio.

But, you know, we need good guys. We're obviously still getting good guys from Iowa, but I think they're getting the best of the best, and we're getting Spencer Lee's next level. I feel like he's an exception to anything you're probably going to say with that. Oh, yeah, for sure. That's interesting. For me, growing up in the state of Iowa

you typically think of Iowa state wrestling as one of the best states wrestling but the more and more I hear about it it sounds like Pennsylvania is really the the heart and soul of of high school wrestling is that an accurate statement or where if you had to rank probably the top five states for you know high school wrestling what would they be And I know that's kind of a random off the chart question. I'm just, I'm just very curious. Cause you talked about, you know, three or four guys that we've, we've gotten specifically from Pennsylvania and it doesn't seem like Iowa's wrestling is as up to par as Pennsylvania's.

And that's also, you know, it's going to help Penn state considering that's right in their backyard. So where would you kind of rank them as far as states? What are some of the top states for wrestling yeah Pennsylvania is they got to be top three at least New Jersey is they've kind of come on of late uh Jordan Burroughs is from Jersey they had like apparently they had the most top three finishers at nationals. And Ohio's right up there, Illinois. And then obviously, I mean, we just don't have near the numbers,

near the population as some of those other states. But I mean, I still like to think we keep up, but we're not as high as, you know, Jersey and Pennsylvania, I'd say top two. Absolutely. That makes a ton of sense. I mean, you make a really good point. Iowa has, what, 2.5 million people.

It's a little bit harder to have the overall volume of solid wrestlers. But I think on a per capita basis, I would say Iowa is probably then pretty solid if that's what we're kind of basing it off of that's kind of cool to know um last kind of big thing i want to talk to you about is you know what are the expectations for next year we're only losing i believe two seniors from the the starting rotation of wrestlers right um what is your expectation what are your expectations for next year do you think this is a team that could possibly compete for a team title next year? I absolutely think we could, yeah, with Kimmerer coming back. And then we bring in Tony Cassiopi.

He'll be a redshirt freshman, heavyweight. He had a heck of a – had only two losses, 15, 18 wins or something like that. And he's going to be a stud. I think he'll All-American his freshman year, or should anyway, which is going to help the team race when we're fighting Penn State, I'm sure, again. Absolutely. So, yeah, it should be fun should be should be a good close team race as long as everyone stays healthy and on track i guess so yeah and are there any any guys are there any other guys that are kind of

sitting on the you know on the depth or the tire the bench that are kind of just waiting in the wings that you think could be maybe some sleepers for next year or some surprise you know surprise wrestlers that could come out of nowhere are there any other guys that are kind of just waiting in the wings that you think could be maybe some sleepers for next year or some surprise wrestlers that could come out of nowhere? Are there any other guys that are kind of at the forefront of your mind? Yeah. Let's see. What's his name from? He just transferred from Nebraska. What? Oh, he he transferred from so we had a kid teesdale gavin teesdale transferred from penn state this like just well i just saw like two days ago that he's gonna come to iowa now when he's gonna i think he's a 33 pounder and I don't know if he'll wrestle right away or not. And there's a different kid that transferred from Nebraska. Is it Jason Renteria?

Renteria, there we go. Yep, yeah, he'll be, I don't know, I see he could move up to 41 possibly. Yeah, because he kind of feels that he's in Dos Santos' weight class right now, right? Yep, he's at 33 he those two transferred like the same time and so that was that was kind of crazy but yeah i mean he could move in there or does murin get better you know in the offseason and you know he he did he did well he had what he had two wins at nationals over yeah he actually had a pretty solid run all things considered yeah a couple tough kids um yeah i don't know anyone i guess

nelson brands he has a heck of a time fitting in anywhere just because you have marinelli and then caleb young He's at 165. Nelson Brands is. He's going to have a heck of a time cracking the lineup. But I don't know if they're going to move anything around as far as Nelson or Renteria. But if they did, I'm sure it'd be a tough lineup no matter what they do. Absolutely. I mean, it sounds like there's some pretty exciting prospects

coming down the pipeline for the Hawks. It'll be interesting to see kind of what happens with DeSanto and Renteria at that 133 or Max Mirren at 144. Real quick, on DeSanto, just in case you know, how did he bypass transfer rules? Because typically you need to sit out a year. How did he manage to come in so quickly? I don't know if – were the transfer rules like –

Are they the same? Are they – I think they just passed something that it's like easier to transfer now, if that sounds right. Yeah yeah i mean it looks like he was granted a release from his scholarship so would that possibly be what how it works out yeah i guess yeah i don't know that's interesting yeah it works out well for iowa i just i thought it was really interesting you don't i mean you don't typically see that in the collegiate level, being able to wrestle right away. So I thought that was pretty interesting.

Well, hey, man, I mean, are there any other things you kind of want to bring up? We're kind of running up to typical of the time of the show. Is there any other topics you wanted to discuss about Iowa wrestling or any other thoughts you wanted to kind of push out there? Obviously, we're kind of going on at my pace and my cadence with some of the questions I have, but I want to make sure you have a chance. Is there anything else that you want to talk about with Iowa wrestling? And obviously I think as long as you enjoyed your experience here,

we'll want to have you on the show. You know, when we get closer to wrestling season next time, but for right now, is there anything that you wanted to bring up? I don't think so. It seems like we covered a bunch in the little time that we did. Absolutely. I mean, I'm, I'm learning a lot already. I appreciate you jumping on. It's been great.

I hope the people that are listening to the show, you know, when this airs tomorrow morning on Thursday morning, you know, enjoy listening to your expertise in Iowa wrestling. I definitely enjoyed it. It was great to have you on the show and catch up with you. For those of you listening to the show, please make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And we have another awesome show coming at you tomorrow morning, giving you a preview of the women's basketball game

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And if you have Facebook, you can also follow us on Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. That will do it for our Thursday morning episode, though. Have a great day, Hawkeye Nation, and we'll be back tomorrow. you