Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Tom Brands is up for course correction. The head coach opened up on the possible reasons why Angelo Ferrari lost to a lower-ranked wrestler from the Nittany Lions, Rocco Welsh, after an intense bout.
The fourth-ranked Hawkeyes lost the opening home game to the Penn State Nittany Lions by 32-3 overall. Only Nasir Bailey managed to show some resistance.
Iowa Hawkeyes Head Coach Tom Brands Analyzes Angelo Ferrari’s Unexpected Loss
Angelo Ferrari faced Rocco Welsh in the men’s 184 lbs. category game. Initially, he led the game, but Welsh bounced back to take the match to the tiebreaker, where he eventually won 2-1.
In the post-match interview, coach Brands explained that it was just not their day, even though Ferrari tried his best. In his words,
“That one, I’m probably going to nitpick the referee, but you know, I’m on the wrong side of that one. We, Again if you look at how hard he wrestled at the end, I mean you got to be doing You got to be on that pace and on that where you’re. You’re on a guy and you got him backpedalling and then we aren’t worrying about that.”
READ MORE: Iowa Coach Tom Brands Sounds Confident Despite Penn State Wrestling Loss
The Hawkeyes will now face the wrestlers from the Nebraska Cornhuskers in their next bout. The Big Red team finished as the runners-up at the NCAA Championships last year.
Iowa Hawkeyes’ Performance Against The Penn State Nittany Lions
The Hawkeyes had finished fourth in the 2025 NCAA Championships. They faced 13-time champions, the Penn State Nittany Lions, who hadn’t lost a single NCAA title since 2022.
The Nittany Lions, coached by Cael Sanderson, proved their dominance in style. Not even one wrestler (barring the lone exception of Nasir Bailey) managed to give the Penn State wrestlers a tough time.
Wrestlers like Luke Lilledahl, Marcus Blaze, Shayne Can Ness, and PJ Duke proved why Penn State Wrestling is a dominant force in collegiate wrestling. However, Rocco Welsh stole the spotlight with his stunning victory against the top-ranked Angelo Ferrari, when he won the tiebreaker by 2-1. Even Josh Barr pinned down Brody Sampson in the 197 lbs. category with absolute ease.
Interestingly, this wasn’t the only major upset on the cards. In the 285 lbs. category, Cole Mirasola overcame an intense challenge from Ben Kueter. Mirasola pummeled Kueter by a close margin of 4-3 to seal the game for the Nittany Lions.
