You talked a little bit about it, but your thoughts and feelings after a third-place finish

We have a lot of positives, a lot of positives. I think we have a lot of guys making a lot of progress, and that’s what we talked about.

We know coming back from the Midlands that we’re a team in that tournament setting that we can win that national championship, but we’re missing the key ingredient, and that’s fight.

And that’s all I talk about, even in press conferences and when I’m talking. That’s all I expect out of these guys. That’s all I talk to them about is fight, fight, fight. Fight for every point; you get in on a leg, fight for your takedown. You know, fight to get your tie-up. Fight to wrestle where you want to wrestle.

Fight.

That’s what life is all about is fighting, and we’ve got about half of our guys fighting, so why is that? It’s something that I’m doing, because I know every time those guys step onto the mat I’m 100 percent responsible for what’s going on out there, and we’re not fighting, so I need to make some adjustments, and I’m going to.

You know, I hate sitting there watching my guys not fighting. It drives me crazy, but we’ve got half of our guys doing that, and if we can take a couple inches — and move forward a couple inches before March — you know, we can win the national championship. We know that.

We have the talent, the skill — we’re just lacking the fight: the love of the battle, doing what we do in practice, discipline to do those things.

Its not easy, you know.

I mean, right now we’re taking the easy points; we’re not fighting for the tough points, and that’s frustrating as a staff because that’s what wrestling is. Wresting is fighting for the tough points. And that’s the adjustment we have to make. I feel like I’m giving the guys the Holy Grail of how to think, how to not feel any pressure, but it’s not working. Everyone is not the same, and that’s kind of what I’m learning as a head coach is that people think differently. They’re not willing to accept … People want to feel pressure. They want to have excuses, so I gotta make adjustments and get the most out of these guys, and really hold them accountable for what I expect ‘em to do.

Nothing is harder for me than to sit up here and say ‘Yeah, we’re fighting. That’s what I expect them to do,’ and then we show up at the match and we have five guys fighting. It’s… you know … it’s not very fun. That’s what I was raised on is fighting. That’s all I know: that’s all I knew as a competitor, and that’s all I know as a coach. And if you watched our team wrestle, you wouldn’t know what I’m preaching as a coach. You wouldn’t know. Things are going to change.

You’re talking about changes, are you talking about lineup changes, or approach …

Approach, accountability, me being a little bit more me — whatever it takes. I don’t know. We’ve got the best staff in the country. The technique that we’re working on is the technique that’ll win at the Olympic Games, let alone the NCAA Tournament. The technique that we’re doing — it’s ahead of the competition. It is. But if we’re not doing it, and we’re not using it, what’s the point of having it? What’s the point of knowing it?

And it’s not easy — you have to fight for it. Like I said, that’s what wrestling is all about.

Look up wrestling in the dictionary. It’s not take the easy points. Take the tie-up if they give it to ya. Take the takedown if it’s free. Control everything if it’s given to ya — you know, you’ve got to fight. You’ve got to take it, you compete, you keep battling, and that’s what wrestling is all about, and that’s the little things that we’re missing right now.

On a positive side, if we can get a little more fight out of these guys, we’re going to be national champions. That’s the challenge we have as a team is to fight more. Forget about the score. When you look up at the clock and there’s 30 seconds left, you shouldn’t be saying ‘Oh, how do I hold onto my one-point lead?’ You should be saying ‘How do I score two more takedowns, or can I get three, can I get one,” and that’s a mindset. That’s the mindset that we coach; that’s the only mindset I know. I don’t understand, when our guys get … I believe we have more stalling calls against our opponents as a team in a dual meet setting since I’ve been at Iowa State. I’d have to check the facts, but it’s not enough. We need more. We need more out of each guy. We need fight out of each guy.

What I was saying, we had a couple guys get warned for stalling. That’s unacceptable. And we were stalling. If we are stalling, I hope the ref calls us for stalling. That’s unacceptable — we don’t stall. That’s not what we teach; that’s not what wins. That’s not what’s going to help you beat … the guys come to Iowa State because they want to be Olympic champions. Well, stalling is not going to help you be an Olympic Champion. Getting another takedown with 15 seconds left is what’s going to make you be an Olympic Champion.

There’s a lot on my mind right now. Even coming back from Midlands, we’ve been adjusting things. And I think when you’re kind of thrown in here — and I want to win, every time. So you kind of let things go by because, you know, some things are sensitive, but those days are over. We’ve got to make some changes, and we got to do it now.

Are you kind of saying that you’re maybe not getting the best out of everybody?

I’m not getting the best out of everybody. We’re getting the best out of maybe five of our guys. I don’t know what … that’s what I’ve got to figure out as a coach, and that’s my challenge. That’s what I’m saying — we’ve got to get more out of our guys. And that’s what we need more out of: fight. They know what to do technically. They know what their gameplan is. Now it’s time to fight for it. Fight for your team. Fight for your family. Fight for that singlet that you’re wearing, you know. Have some pride.

That’s the hardest thing about being a coach: I can’t go out there and wrestle a match, you know. I have to sit back here and pump these guys up and try to get them to go out and do what they’re supposed to do.

And it’s fun, man. You compete, you step out on the mat — how many opportunities do you get to do that? You step on the mat, and you get to throw somebody down, you know? Those days are numbered; they’re limited. Those days are over for most of us. We still have those opportunities, these wrestlers still have those opportunities.

You’ve got to enjoy competing. And that’s what life’s all about: fighting. You think the pressure of winning a wrestling match is pressure — wait ‘til you get out into the real world, as you know, you know. Wait ‘til you have some kids — that’s pressure.

Not whether you are going to win a wrestling match, give me a break.

Fight. And it starts from there.

Are we always going to turn our back if it’s not easy? Where are you going to end up in life if you’re turning your back and running every time things get tough? Not where you want to go. Not where you should be. So ya, we’ve got some adjustments to make.

We’ve got a team that can win the national championship this year, and that’s what we’re training for. That’s what we’re preparing for. We get better as the year goes on. I’ve got to make some adjustments as a coach, because I’m not getting the most out of my guys. I’m not holding them accountable, and that’s what I’m going to do.

Is there a place you look, one of your peers, maybe an old coach, a book or somewhere to find new ways to motivate guys, get you out of trouble with that?

Um, you know, I read. That’s all I do is read books on different coaches. A lot of football and basketball coaches, obviously, I mean they’re typically the best coaches. They’re, you know, the most well known.

And we’ve got the answers. I know how to win; I think I know how to win as well if not better than anybody in the world. I know the mindset that it takes to win, and that’s what I’m giving, but people aren’t willing to accept that, so I’ve got to change up, and I’ve got to find out what you are you willing to accept, what makes you work.

I think … I know coming into coaching I heard a lot about coaches trying to make guys wrestle their style — it doesn’t work. I think what I’ve been doing is trying and thinking guys are going to think the way I think, and view competition the way that I view it. And that’s not the case.

Regardless of — you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink, you know. And they don’t want to drink. People, like I said, they want pressure. And so I’ve got to help ‘em, I’ve got to fire ‘em up in different ways, and I’m just repeating myself, so … I’m ready to go. I’m ready to get things moving here.

But yeah … so I’ve got to make progress. What I’m doing — yeah, we’re having success. We just took third at the National Duals, but I’m not worried about wins and losses. I’m not. I’m worried about what this team looks like when they step on the mat. I’m worried about what they’re doing every second of the match. That’s what’s important to me.

And I’ve never been a guy that’s enjoyed winning. I just expect these guys to win. I know they’re going to win if they do what we tell ‘em to do. If they don’t, big deal, we know where we’re at if they’re doing what they’re supposed to do.

So … yeah, we’ve got to keep moving forward. I’ve got to make some adjustments, because everything that this program does — everything — is my responsibility. It starts at the top, and so it’s my mistake. The things that we’re doing — if the product isn’t exactly what I want it to be out there, it’s my mistake.

I don’t have to put 10 guys out there … you know. So that’s, that’s where we’re at.

You win just one or two Midlands finals and you win it. Then you come up against Cornell over the weekend. Is there some pressure there that they are not reacting to, or maybe overreacting to?

I’m not sure. If you look at the Midlands, as an team, overall team, we wrestled fairly well. I don’t blame the guys in the finals for us not winning the Midlands Tournament. It was … the tournament is won both days. The tournament is [lost] by the guys that don’t get in there and score team points for us when they should. That aren’t fighting for the bonus points, and they win by six points instead of eight. That’s where the tournament is won and lost. In the finals there, our guys fought. We were beat more on counter offense, and that’s really actually where we are getting beat, looking at this weekend, is people countering our offense. We’re having a hard time with people that are backing up and making us chase ‘em. That’s when you got to be mean. You’ve got to be relentless. You’ve got to get in there and close the gap and enforce your will.

Your question was about pressure?

[Pause] I don’t know how it could be, because I don’t put pressure on these guys. I never have. My dad never put pressure on me as an athlete; coach Douglas never put pressure on me as an athlete. The pressure is to do your best. You can’t do any better than that.

But is it maybe internal pressure that they’re putting on themselves?

There’s no question, there is not question … I have these guys for a few years. They’ve been with their parents for 20 years. There is a lot of people that are influencing the way that they think. That comes down to recruiting. You’ve got to get kids that love to compete, that love to battle, that — if something doesn’t go exactly as planned — they keep their poise. And they continue to wrestle; they don’t lose their mind. And a lot of those things they have it or they don’t. Recruiting is very, very important, and I’m real happy with the recruits we have coming in, because that’s what we were looking for. I know as a staff we have a great eye for talent and what we are looking for. We know what we’re looking for, and that’s it. But ya, so many different people have an influence on a kid and how they perceive a situation, but perception is reality. You know, I don’t care how messed up their perception is — that’s reality to them, and that’s what we’ve got to do is make sure those 10 guys — we’ve got to help ‘em be the best they can be and more importantly, when they stop out there in an Iowa State singlet, they better fight. I don’t care what pressure they feel. There is no pressure to fight.