Iowa State's Kevin Jackson said wrestling job has ‘worn on me a bit’

AMES — Kevin Jackson needed time to take a deep breath.

After Iowa State announced last week Jackson would step down as its wrestling coach at the end of his eighth year, he needed some time to process it. He stepped away from the wrestling room for a couple days and let his assistants handle day-to-day operations.

'This job has worn on me a little bit,' Jackson said in his first public session with the media since the announcement. 'Dealing with everything the program involves has worn on me and my family a little bit.

'To have the opportunity after the season is over to take a deep breath and relax and not have to worry about athletes and parents and things of that nature. That's something I'm looking forward to.'

Iowa State is 1-9 in duals this season with road trips to No. 25 Pittsburgh and West Virginia on the slate this weekend before finishing up the dual season against Minnesota in less than two weeks.

Jackson said in recent weeks he and ISU athletics director Jamie Pollard would sit down and have an evaluation of the program following the season, but some of those discussions occurred ahead of schedule. That was largely due, Jackson said, to be fair to the athletes.

'We just wanted to take the pressure off the kids,' Jackson said. 'We felt like even after the match they'd come in here and the questions were about how the team is performing and the results and what they think about the coach and this and that.

'We just really wanted to take the pressure off the kids and allow them to finish off their season the right way without having this distraction.'

That sense of fairness also is in regards to the athletes Iowa State signed in its 2017 class.

When news of Jackson's decision broke, there were recruits voicing their intentions to ask to be let out of their letters of intent. One was the Cyclones' top recruit, Austin Gomez of Glenbard North, Ill., who is ranked No. 5 at 138 pounds by InterMat.

Jackson said the school has 30 days to respond to such a request, and added a lot of concerns from current athletes or recruits would be calmed once a new coach is named.

'I think we want to give the guys who have signed the NLIs all the information possible to maintain their status as Cyclones,' Jackson said. 'I think they really want to be Cyclones, but the unknown is what kind of is throwing them off a little bit. But I believe all those kids will stay in the program with the exception of maybe one or two.'

In the release from Iowa State last week, Jackson was expected to transition into an administrative role with the school or athletics department to complete the last year of his contract. That still is the plan, although no details have been firmed up.

In regards to becoming a coach again in the future, Jackson said 'opportunities that have already come to my door,' but anything beyond the last six weeks of this season hasn't been solidified.

Read more: Possible candidates to replace Kevin Jackson at ISU

Jackson said he won't be involved in the discussions of who the next ISU wrestling coach would be, but did talk about Pollard's and the athletic department's support for wrestling. The notion that the administration doesn't support wrestling, Jackson said, is 'ridiculous.'

'When you look at our facilities and what we pay our coaches and everything about the program, Iowa State as a university is invested very well in the program,' Jackson said. 'That's going to continue and that's never changed.

'We have everything we need to be successful and the next coach that comes in will be successful here.'

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