The Iowa-Minnesota wrestling rivalry resumes on Saturday afternoon in Iowa City as the second ranked Hawkeyes host the fourth rated Gophers. Iowa has won eight of the past 11 meetings and coach Tom Brands says there are a lot of similarities between the programs, “I think there’s a similar coaching style. I think it’s physical and hustle and attitude and toughness.”
Brands says “toughness” will be the biggest factor in the outcome. “There’s strategy and there’s technique and there’s skills and there’s wrestling hard and there’s other things that go into that, but…other programs might not put as much emphasis on that. We put a lot of emphasis on that,” Brands says. “No matter how skilled you are — in this sport you still have to be tough.”
Iowa is 11-1 in duals while the Gophers are 7-1.