I’ve been hearing this name for the last 4 days, and I was told tonight it is happening and I was absolutely floored. Drake Ayala.
Brent Metcalf Head Coach?
- Thread starter stuclone
- Start date
There is no way that drake leaves after his last season at Iowa to come coach at Iowa state.
This is the second assistant. We could use a younger guy that can really get in there and wrestle every day. Plus he is a well respected and popular wrestler. I think he’d do great on the mat and recruiting.
OSU’s head coach never coached before.
Several people on here think it’s true. That would be absolutely wild. My next question is how did Metcalf and co manage to pry him away from that?
Drake is great and I’d take him over Thomas freakin Gilman in a heartbeat. Typically guys get jobs as volunteer assistants out of college. There’s not very many full time assistant jobs out there.
I think that’s really a matter of semantics. A lot of “volunteer” assistants make more than the official assistants.
Yianni is another one that just took a full time coaching job. I actually think it’s not all that uncommon.
A guy Evan frost beat who will be coaching him or an Olympic medalist who spent years in Penn state room?
Are you new to the sport of wrestling? We really have that many Thomas Gilman fans on this board?
Winner post. If true, Ayala is a great hire regardless of not having the “coaching experience”. Again, neither did DT and he’s the head man. Drake would be the 2nd assistant. If it doesn’t work out, Brent can always move on and hire another
There were a few chances for Drake to come to Ames. It's never too late to learn from your past errors and make the move now!
Seriously though, it'd be an pretty interesting move if it were to happen. He's not Thomas Gilman as a wrestler, but he'd sure be a better person to have around I'd imagine. Would be a great partner to have around and I'd imagine he'd connect in a big way with recruits. If you had David Carr, Drake Ayala, Yonger Bastida, etc. around the program/RTC then you're looking pretty dang appealing to a lot of guys wanting to come get better.
Not that it's a big plus, but I'd imagine you'd have Dru Ayala follow which would be nice just to have another 125 who's been in a high level room. Also there's the youngest brother Knox who just was 3rd at 106 as a freshman at Fort Dodge. I imagine he'll end up pretty good as well.
Seriously though, it'd be an pretty interesting move if it were to happen. He's not Thomas Gilman as a wrestler, but he'd sure be a better person to have around I'd imagine. Would be a great partner to have around and I'd imagine he'd connect in a big way with recruits. If you had David Carr, Drake Ayala, Yonger Bastida, etc. around the program/RTC then you're looking pretty dang appealing to a lot of guys wanting to come get better.
Not that it's a big plus, but I'd imagine you'd have Dru Ayala follow which would be nice just to have another 125 who's been in a high level room. Also there's the youngest brother Knox who just was 3rd at 106 as a freshman at Fort Dodge. I imagine he'll end up pretty good as well.
Drake has proven to be a great competitor, but look at David Taylor’s head man. Jimmy finished 4th, 5th, 5th. Sometimes there’s more to it
Wasn’t sure what to think about the hire. Then I saw your post and realized it must be a solid hire.
A lot of people are also forgetting that for the lights they would also have Ortega to scrap with. Drake + Ortega for those light weight guys is a pretty darn good pair if you ask me.
This thread is bizzare. Are people seriously comparing the coaching pedigrees of Drake Ayala and David Taylor? First, DT had been running camps and clubs for years. He did have coaching experience. Second, DT is an all-timer, Ayala regressed every year.
I was a Gilman hater for a long time, but by all accounts, he's seen the light. Give me a world medalist over a low level AA that just came out of the T&T camp any day.
Cmon man. This post is just so wrong.
DT had been running camps? Guess that’s the experience you need to run a d1 program? No one is comparing their pedigree, but it is silly to think you need to coaching experience to be the second assistant on staff when you don’t even need experience to be a head coach at a top 5 program.
Ayala hardly regressed every year. NQ to 2nd. A repeat of 2nd with a better record. And then 5th. You could make an argument of his senior year, but it wasn’t so much a regression as an insane influx of talent.
Thomas Gilman would be very good too. But Drake will be a great second assistant. Young, tough, well liked. Will definitely be a benefit to the program.
