Editor’s Note: Tom Brands, a former NCAA champion at Iowa, begins his second year of coaching his alma mater. He sat down with W.I.N. editor Mike Finn to talk about his relationship with his mentor, Dan Gable, and the pressures of coaching at Iowa, especially now that the wrestlers who followed him from Virginia Tech are eligible.

Q When you took the Iowa job, you spoke immediately about winning national championships. Of the pressure that follows that goal, is it self-imposed or external from fans and media?
A There is always pressure to win when you are a competitor.

Q So you would say the same thing no matter where you are coaching?
A I said it at Virginia Tech. I said it as an assistant. The only note of congratulations that I ever kept about a team performing was in 1997 when Iowa had an undefeated dual meet season and won the Midlands, Big Tens and Nationals. I was an assistant coach on that team.

Q Is that what you would call perfection in college wrestling?
A That’s how I define winning. I’m not saying there is no second place, but that’s why you have to have a philosophy. A lot of it is geared around the effort. What do you want your wrestling standard to be? It’s not that you are winning everything, but that you are striving to do that. I know we have to do a better job.

Q Also, when you took this job, you spoke about uniting the program, which was split after the departure of Jim Zalesky. Have you done that?
A For sure that has happened. Dan Gable is part of the reason why. That’s why it was important to have him on board from the get-go, especially when he feels good about things. It was overwhelmingly positive from the get-go. It never waivered.

Q Speaking of Gable, what do you want his role to be since he announced that he was stepping down as a full-time assistant?
A His official role is that of the on-campus recruiting and camps and the Hawkeye Wrestling Club. But he is also an advisor to me. There is a lot that goes on behind the scene with Gable and Brands that people don’t hear about. We are talking all the time and me running things by him. There is continuity. We’re not starting over and shooting from the hip. This is a continuation of that process. I have to be careful when I talk about things like this because if I don’t win, am I not liked? No. If I don’t win, am I dead? No.

Q Are you comfortable with being called the next Dan Gable?
A I’ve been called a lot worse. I know that. I’m really not concerned with what people think, except that we put a good product on the mat. I’m not concerned with people liking this staff or if they like the process or the recruiting. What I’m concerned is that I put a high-quality product on the mat. There have been shots taken at me, too. If you listen to the wrestling experts, some have taken shots at me. We have guys buying into the program and a lot better. That’s why we feel good, now. We need to continue to see those kinds of results that make you feel good.

Q Since there is a Dan Gable comparison to you, you know one of his strengths was working with many different wrestlers and their personalities. People can look at your success with Mark Perry, who one would think is different from you. Did his success show your strength as a coach?
A I was just speaking about that with a recruit. That’s one thing this staff does. We are hands on. You get individual attention here. That’s a Gable philosophy and individual attention is geared towards what you need and to get you to where you want to be.

Q With that in mind, what recommendations would you make to a young high school coach in dealing with different personalities? How does it work?
A You have to be very patient and very flexible. You don’t draw the line in the stand but you have to set a certain standard that is never compromised.

Q Do you have to be patient to a certain degree?
A If you can prove that you can do it your way, then we are going to let you do it. If you’re not successful doing it your way, then you have to start doing it our way. Then we can have a compromise. If there is open-mindedness on our side and open-mindedness on the wrestler’s side, then we are fine. Sometimes parents get involved. We’ve never really had that. We have parents who are very concerned and trust what is going on here.

Q Talking about patience, you had to be patient last year since you were unable to compete with the guys who followed you from Virginia Tech. What did you learn about yourself as a head coach?
A That I have to hold my tongue. You want to tell the world the truth; what really happened and they know what really happened. I know what happened. There is no way around it. You can go to all the courts and they can throw it all out and you can do all the spin that you want, but they know what was talked about and that’s the bottom line. That’s as strong as I’ll say it.

Q You had to work with some guys who were not that experienced and still won, what did that say about your coaching?
A There are certain guys on your roster that you can use and certain guys that you cannot use. Do the best with what you have.
Even though the Virginia Tech guys may give us an upgrade at a couple weights, they at least add depth when we needed it. And we needed it badly last year. At 133, we could have used (Joe) Slaton when (Mario) Galanakas went down.

Q W.I.N. has your team ranked No. 3, which is based primarily on the the paper resumes of the Virginia Tech transfers and their high school past. How good is this team?
A We don’t know yet. We feel good about what we see now and the reason we do feel good is that certain things are happening, which will give these guys the best chance.

Q Are you reluctant to verbalize goals this year because you don’t know how good this team is?
A If we are not better than third nationally at the end, then we didn’t do our job. That is what you wrestle for and I don’t think anyone is conceding anything to Minnesota.

Q Last year, (senior All-American) Eric Luedke made a point of saying guys who have been in this room for three years and have not become an All-American by then, they are wasting their opportunity here. What did you think about his comments?
A He was talking about a lot of thing where he was extending himself as a coach. He had some (guys) back him up and that was with the guys who had more success than others, who took it pretty hard. It probably needed to be said, but this group wasn’t ready to hear it and it caused hard feelings.

Q Do you agree with what Luedke said?
A I don’t put a timeline on it. We expect you to be at that high standard where you are thinking that you are the best in the country. We don’t train you to simply be in the top 12 rankings or seeds.

Q You are a native of Iowa. Are you happy to see what has happened at Iowa State as well and what it will do to the series?
A There was an automatic upgrade with coaching changes. Now that story has been written, it’s all about the guys: Iowa State’s guys who are moving up a weight and the Virginia Tech guys now wrestling for Iowa. At least the focus in in the right place.

Q Regarding your intensity, have you mellowed, either in this wrestling room or in your personal life where you are a father of three children?
A I’m not any less intense at home. I’m about doing the right things. If my kids are complaining that they have to do their spelling words and repetition that is required to ace that test, I’m not going to listen to that. The good thing about it is that my kids have been raised with it. They know what is expected. They know they shouldn’t do their homework at 8:35 when you should be in bed by 8:30. You do your homework at 4, when you come home. It’s not intensity, but requiring a certain standard out of the people that you are around.

Q What has fatherhood done for you?
A I think fatherhood makes you closer to your wife. Jenny makes a lot of decisions with those kids and those decisions are an extension of our relationship. It’s no different, except the ramifications are different if they don’t follow through. I am blessed. My kids are healthy. I have a great wife, who is an unbelievable supporter of Tom Brands. My kids are smart. They may not wrestle, but they are kids I am proud of.
Am I mellower because of my family? No. You can ask this staff how mellow I am.

Q Gable, when he was the head coach, would need two weeks after the NCAA tournament to recover physically because it wore him down so much. What are you like after the NCAAs?
A When you get beat or do well, you have to have the same plan to follow. You need to recharge to get out there. When you have a family, it’s important to be with them. I like spending time with my kids. That’s where I put my energy.
Gable makes the ultimate commitment, but that’s too easy to say about him. I asked him a question the other day. He didn’t give me a straight answer, came back to me an hour later, then two hours later and called me that night. I said I would come out to his hours 36 hours later. We sat in the sauna for an hour and five minutes straight and he had six pages of notes and said he woke up three times that night to add to the pages. That’s why it’s worth it.

Q What is the greatest thing you learned from Dan Gable?
A Mull things over and keep working on a problem. There is really no definite solution. There may be a decision that needs to be made, but that doesn’t mean the problem has been solved.

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