Duplicate and exceed

Now, Iowa is ranked No. 1 in the nation, and on Dec. 1 notched a 32-3 win over No. 6 Wisconsin for Tom’s 100th Big Ten dual win as head coach.

The Hawkeyes are one of two favorites to win the NCAA team championship in March. The 2010 championship was Iowa’s last, the longest stretch without a title for the Hawkeyes since the program won its first in 1975 under Kurdelmeier.

The team has been in the top five in those nine years, but that hasn’t been good enough.

“The criticism of Tom Brands is Tom Brands’ words,” Tom said. “ ‘You haven’t won since 2010’; I say that. I’m the one that says that. The time to win is now. We need to perform better, we need to do a better job, I’ve said that.

“The pressure — if you use that word — comes from me. I competed at the highest level and won at the highest level, and also competed at the highest level and didn’t win at the highest level. I know the difference of what it feels like.”

The last time Iowa had more than six All-Americans was 2010. This season, all six of Iowa’s 2019 All-Americans are returning, plus two-time All-American Michael Kemerer, who sat out last year with a torn ACL and a shoulder injury that both required surgery.

This season is the one that Iowa fans have been waiting on. In the culture that Tom has built, however, waiting was never an option.

“The thing is, I know everybody’s really excited about this year for some reason, but I’ve been excited every year that I’ve been here,” Terry said. “Last year, the year before, the year before, the year before, I thought we had the lineup to win.”

That accountability factor is important in a big way as the stakes build toward NCAAs. There are things that Iowa’s entire lineup can improve on to achieve the goals it has set — and that have been set upon it.

“The team really is very accountable towards me just as I hold my teammates accountable,” Lee said. “I think that really does stem from the coaching staff — all of them, Morningstar, [Bobby] Telford, Terry, and Tom — they do an awesome job making sure that everyone holds each other accountable.”

Iowa’s ultimate goal as a team — to grab the first-place trophy at NCAAs in March — will come from individual wrestlers reaching their own goals.

At 125, Lee is going for an NCAA title as well as a bid to the Olympics.

At 133, DeSanto is still maturing in his wrestling, thinking carefully before his next move.

At 165, Marinelli is transforming from a pinning mentality to a point-scoring mentality while trying to avenge his 2019 NCAA quarterfinals loss.

“I know that if our guys do what they’re capable of doing and make the adjustments that they need to make on a daily basis, they’re going to get what they want,” Tom said. “I’ll tell you what, when you got 10 weight classes that are getting what they want, that’s a good formula for success.”

There were six years under Gable when Iowa had nine All-Americans — 1981, 1983, 1985, 1991, 1992, and 1995 — and in each of those years, a team title was won. That’s as close as the program has come to 10 weight classes getting what they want. In one of those years, 1992, both Tom and Terry were national champions.

His three national championships and his contribution — both on and off the mat — to helping the team climb back on top, Tom met Gable’s high standard as a wrestler.

“Of course he did,” Gable said.

Meeting that standard as a coach, however, is something entirely different. Despite that, it’s not a challenge that Tom has — or probably ever will — shy away from.

“I never saw the fear in his eyes that he couldn’t bring a team to winning national titles — I’ve never seen that fear; I’ve only seen determination,” Gable said. “It’s hard to see sadness in him, but I’m sure there is at times. That sadness is almost like a determination more in his eyes. With that in mind, you’re always looking up.”

Now, Brands is looking for his wrestlers to meet a new standard — his own. That stems from something that he pushes for every day — not senior leadership, but leadership, period.

For junior and two-time All-American Alex Marinelli, doing things the right way is at the forefront of everything he does. So, when the time presented itself, he stood in front of his teammates to preach what the program is all about.

“If you want to soar with the eagles, you can’t hoot with the owls,” Brands recalled him saying.

And to the head coach of Iowa wrestling, it was just corny enough to get the job done.