If you missed it, TSL put out one of the best pieces I've ever seen written about our wrestling program. It's crazy to think about just how far Dresser has brought the program, and something tells me he isn't done yet. What the team overcame last weekend alone is remarkable. I too thought the team's hopes were sunk after a disastrous Friday night, but these guys kept fighting and wrenched some hardware from a national power with their bare hands.
Watch out, oranges.
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Don't think I ever realized how much Brands screwed VT over when he left. At the time I thought it was petty that Weaver wouldn't grant their transfers, but you could make an argument that Brands knew he would bolt for Iowa at the first chance and used VT as a free farm system.
I'm a big fan of Dresser, especially since he's a guy that has long-time ties to this area and a track record of success everywhere he's been. One of the best (if not THE best) hires Weaver made during his tenure.
There was an article on a Penn State blog about the entire ordeal that had a lot of details, giving background to the beef between Iowa and Virginia Tech and why Dresser was so upset about National Duals selections.
I like this for a number of reasons, but not least of which that I am definitely going to start calling Hawkeyes "oranges" from now on.
I just finished reading this and was debating posting it here. Leg for you sir
via GIPHY
When did Brands leave anyways?
Responding to you and VTMikeO both, brands left immediately after the 2006 NCAA tourney. (First week of april). One of the claims that will never be substantiated was that brands had assistants openly recruiting to wrestle at iowa while being paid by VT. Obviously only the recruit, the parents in the room and the coach can confirm this, but its the one claim that was a serious violation.
Ultimately brands was always going to end up at iowa. VT figured theyd get a few years and a few AAs and maybe a national champ or two before Brands left. It sure looks like though brands and gable made a plan to supplant zalesky iowas previous coach, giving iowa effectively 2 recruiting classes at once.
The most infuriating part were the comments brands made to the admin on his way out:
How do you like us now?
Also, this is how close the program was to disbandment:
This article got me interested in the beef between VT and Iowa, so after some searching I came across this lively thread from a Penn St. Forum
https://bwi.forums.rivals.com/threads/is-my-enemys-enemy-my-friend.98098/
I might have to start paying a lot more attention to wrestling
Just to pile it on the Iowa Oranges, Penn State and Iowa did not wrestle in the regular season because they were not scheduled to. In a previous season where this occurred, Penn State used an open date to wrestle at Iowa. The same opportunity occurred this season but Iowa refused to return the favor.
And lets toss some more gasoline on the fire, this is taken from a 2011 article from Kyle Tucker back when he was on the tech beat:
So Dresser has been trying to schedule iowa since 2010 at least, maybe even before that. We've wrestled pretty much every other major team often multiple times in dressers tenure except iowa.
VT to Iowa
Is that Apocalypse?
Night King, from Game of Thrones.
Were there any head-to-heads in the Championships? (edit: in reference to the Iowa controversy)
The linked article says one, which VT won.
Epperly beat Alex Meyer at 174 lbs 10-2 in the consolation quarterfinals
And got the extra point that put us ahead with the MD. Amazing
Yes, during the EPPIC RAMPAGE!
HOLY COW, MAN.
This article was awesome, and got me all fired up.
The linked video hit me in the feels.
So proud of our Hokie Wrestlers!
This is a fantastic article all the way around, hats off to TSL.
So proud of the team this year and what they accomplished and are poised to accomplish in the future. Dresser, St. John and Ziddick really did a great job this year and hopefully next year will be even better as I really hope we can finally break through with at least 1 NC.
Now on to the Iowa controversy, I think it is really sad to see Brands dodging us know and being so shady when he left. He had just came on the last year I was at VT and I was ecstatic based on the fact he was a world champ and olympic champ as well. I had also met him and his brother while at a wrestling camp at Iowa in 1997 where they were still training and everyone I met out there were class people especially Gable who had our squad over to his house for a cookout after one of the sessions that week. We got to see the legendary dungeon and talk to a lot of the wrestlers who signed all sorts of stuff for us. Needless to say I have always been a huge Iowa fan ever since, so overall the way he left while I hated it for VT was always where I saw him ending up. However the way he supposedly dodged us over the years and supposedly actively campaigned against facing us has really infuriated me as the whole point of wrestling is to compete against the best. I really hope he finally agrees to a dual with us as its better for both programs to wrestle each other than not. I think it definitely makes him and Iowa look weaker if they are dodging competition like us and PSU.