2025 NCAA Wrestling March Madness

[Gellar]

@ChaosOneZero asked me for no spoilers. So far there’s not much to spoil. I see wrestlers that want to win and wrestlers that are content. It’s pretty pathetic.

 

[Gellar]

2.5 hours and I’m home. The scoreboard says Penn State dominated. Iowa was never really threatening but I wouldn’t call it dominating by Penn State. It should have been a shutout with some extra bonus point wins for tge Nittany Lions. There are lots of people saying the Iowa style doesn’t work. Well, what I’ve seen the last 5 or 6 years is not the Iowa style. The Iowa style was relentless pressure until your opponent breaks. The Iowa style was scoring on the edge of the mat and at the end of the period. The Iowa style was pushing to get another takedown to earn a major decision. The Iowa style was not being content with 1 takedown and the skating to the edge of the mat the rest of the match. The Iowa style was beating your opponent back to the middle of the match. The iowa style was escaping your opponent by an explosive first move.

 

[Outlaw99]

I grew up a black and gold blooded wrestling fan. Searched out and spent a huge amount of money for the 1992? Iowa wrestling calendar with the Brands brothers on the cover in Cowboy hats. Framed print of Carver area with the mats out on my wall. I love all things Iowa style wrestling. Brent Metcalf, Mike Ironsides, Tom and Terry, Royce Alger, in your face kind of wrestling……this is almost too much to type but I’m gonna give it a go

The time for Tom and Terry, Morningside and everyone else associated with the coaching staff has come to go. It’s not working and quite honestly hasn’t been working for quite some time. I know Penn St dominated the score but not necessarily the matches….. I don’t care. To treat this dual as a rivalry anymore is about like comparing Iowa and Nebraska football as a rivalry anymore. It’s not.

Here’s the way I see it. We’re no longer getting the best recruits…..Penn State or Oklahoma State are. We have zero development with the recruits we are getting. Aside from Spencer and now Angelo, what have our top recruits done? Arnold? Keuter? Ayala?? Ayala back to back runner up and now this years performance? Go back a few years when we had Lee, Kermer, Marinelli….. a crazy amount of talent! Come March, we fell flat as always outside of Lee.

When did it become acceptable to lose to Penn State at home only coming away with 3 points but we wrestled real hard?????

I feel like we’re going down the path of 90’s Nebraska football and we need a complete reboot before the hill is too steep to climb out. I’d love to see Kyle Dake, Ben Askren come in and completely revamp the program. I think it’s working in Stillwater. I’d love to see Metcalf come back, but I think for once we need to look outside of Iowa ties for a complete reboot.

Look at the HWC, we used to be the premier stepping off point for international success…not so much now. Woods is doing real well up there in Michigan though.

I honestly cannot hardly stomach watching the Hawks as of late. Part of me wants to ignore it all till March and see how the chips fall for everyone nationally.

Rant over, my fingers are numb

 

[Outlaw99]

We aren’t developing, we aren’t recruiting, and the NIL transfers we are getting, aren’t competing at a high enough level to dominate like Iowa is used to, and expected to do

 

[Gellar]

I grew up a black and gold blooded wrestling fan. Searched out and spent a huge amount of money for the 1992? Iowa wrestling calendar with the Brands brothers on the cover in Cowboy hats. Framed print of Carver area with the mats out on my wall. I love all things Iowa style wrestling. Brent Metcalf, Mike Ironsides, Tom and Terry, Royce Alger, in your face kind of wrestling……this is almost too much to type but I’m gonna give it a go

The time for Tom and Terry, Morningside and everyone else associated with the coaching staff has come to go. It’s not working and quite honestly hasn’t been working for quite some time. I know Penn St dominated the score but not necessarily the matches….. I don’t care. To treat this dual as a rivalry anymore is about like comparing Iowa and Nebraska football as a rivalry anymore. It’s not.

Here’s the way I see it. We’re no longer getting the best recruits…..Penn State or Oklahoma State are. We have zero development with the recruits we are getting. Aside from Spencer and now Angelo, what have our top recruits done? Arnold? Keuter? Ayala?? Ayala back to back runner up and now this years performance? Go back a few years when we had Lee, Kermer, Marinelli….. a crazy amount of talent! Come March, we fell flat as always outside of Lee.

When did it become acceptable to lose to Penn State at home only coming away with 3 points but we wrestled real hard?????

I feel like we’re going down the path of 90’s Nebraska football and we need a complete reboot before the hill is too steep to climb out. I’d love to see Kyle Dake, Ben Askren come in and completely revamp the program. I think it’s working in Stillwater. I’d love to see Metcalf come back, but I think for once we need to look outside of Iowa ties for a complete reboot.

Look at the HWC, we used to be the premier stepping off point for international success…not so much now. Woods is doing real well up there in Michigan though.

I honestly cannot hardly stomach watching the Hawks as of late. Part of me wants to ignore it all till March and see how the chips fall for everyone nationally.

Rant over, my fingers are numb

The level of recruits out of high school is vastly different then it was 5 or 10 years ago. These kids are coming out of high school ready to win an NCAA title or in some cases compete for World and Olympic teams.

Outside of Penn State and maybe Ohio State no one can say they wouldnt take the level of success Iowa has had in the last 10 years. I did a little bit of research just now but since 2015 the NCAA team results are:

Championships: Penn STate 8 Ohio State 1 Iowa 1 Oklahoma State 0 Other teams 0
Runner up: Penn STate 1 Ohio State 3 Iowa 2 Oklahoma state 1 Other 3
third: Penn State 0 Ohio State 1 Iowa 2 Oklahoma State 4 Other 3
fourth: Penn State 0 Iowa 3 Ohio State 1 Oklahoma State 0 Other 6
Fifth: Penn State 0 Ohio State 0 Iowa 2 Oklahoma State 2 Other 8

Years Penn State Finished ahead of Iowa: 8
Years Ohio State Finished ahead of Iowa: 5
Years Oklahoma State Finished ahead of Iowa: 3
Years Other finished ahead of Iowa: 6

Top 5 finishes: Penn State 9 (2015 not top 5, 2020 no competition) Ohio State 6 (not top 5 in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024) Iowa 10 (2020 no competition, Iowa was favored by a large margin) Oklahoma State 5 (No top 5 in 2015, 2018, 2020(no competition) 2022, 2023, 2024) Other 20 (other teams include Edinboro 2015 3rd place , Virginia Tech 2016 4th place, Missouri 2015 4th, 2017 5th 2023 5th Cornell 2015 5th, 2023 3rd, 2024 Runnerup Michigan 2018 4th, 2019 5th, 2021 th, 2022 Runnerup, 2024 3rd Nebraska 2022 5th, 2025 runnerup NC STate 2018 tie 5th, Iowa State 2024 4th, Arizona State 2021 4th, 2022 4th, Minnesota 2025 tie for 5th

 

[Outlaw99]

So are you satisfied with Iowa wrestling the last 10 years?

 

[Gellar]

So are you satisfied with Iowa wrestling the last 10 years?

I’ve stated many times in prior posts that the Iowa style we knew in the 80s and 90s is not the style iowa wrestles now. Gable instilled a mindset that there was only one measure of success and Iowa hasn’t been measuring up.

 

[Outlaw99]

I know this, but I truly want your opinion on this. Am I just too fanatical and losing my mind over this? I’m tired of getting blown away by Penn St. It’s unacceptable to loose to ISU. I’m tired of no national champions, and when we do get one, it has to be some sort of phenom prodigy. Why didn’t we get Marcus Blaze, Jax Forrest, or Bo Basset?