The circus comes to Kinnick

IOWA CITY - Logan Ryan has a hat on with a big Tiger Hawk logo on the front. His 141 pounds is wrapped in a blue hoodie that's wrapped in an oversized flannel shirt that you might see on a construction site.

If you walked past him, you might not think anything. You might notice the deeply drawn cheekbones, the chiseled chin and, if you caught a look at his cauliflowered ears, you might wonder, ‘What the hell?' As a University of Iowa wrestler, of course, he's a human bear trap. He's capable of springing and clenching you in some sort of death grip that would leave you upside down and gasping for air. We're not on the mat. We are in the Hansen Football Performance Center. The topic, however, is wrestling and the monastic devotion that this sport on the collegiate level demands.

This is the Holy Order of Iowa Wrestling. You are in for workouts that will leave you in the fetal position. You are in for testing the limits of your endurance and your pain tolerance. You are in for bright, beautiful triumphs and hot teary-eyed defeats.

You are in for this or you are out. There is no nuance here.

'You've got to live it as a lifestyle,” said Ryan, a 141-pound redshirt freshman. 'You've got to commit your whole life to it. It's like a job, especially in college when you have school, with all these workouts and cutting weight. Yeah, it's a job. It's a job I love doing.”

Hawkeye wrestling goes to the mass masses this weekend.

Iowa, ranked No. 4 in the nation, will take on No. 1 Oklahoma State on a mat in Kinnick Stadium Saturday morning. Yes, in Kinnick Stadium. A mat. Outside. On Nov. 14. In the morning, 11 a.m. as a matter of fact. The temperature will range from 37 to 59 degrees.

No special underwear. 'I think we're just going to go with our issued briefs that we go with everyday in practice,” said 174-pounder Alex Meyer. 'Just normal competition gear.”

That is the way of the wrestler. (Seriously, Iowa coach Tom Brands fielded the 'cold” questions with a courteous yeah, yeah, but was happy when they finally went away. The only real surprise here is that the wrestlers aren't parachuting in.)

The wrestling will be the beginning of a combat sport extravaganza Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. Around 40,000 could be in Kinnick for Iowa-Oklahoma State, which would easily be an NCAA attendance record for a wrestling meet. The football game between the No. 5 Hawkeyes (9-0, 5-0 Big Ten) and Minnesota (4-5, 1-4) is a sellout (it kicks off at 7 p.m.). Iowa has announced a sellout of 70,585 for football, Iowa's first sellout of the season (the Hawkeyes are undefeated, yes) and first in nine games at Kinnick (Iowa State on Sept. 14 last season was the last sellout).

It's basically a giant Reese's peanut butter cup for Iowa sports fans. Two great tastes that taste great as one.

Brands said as soon as Penn State set the wrestling attendance record, in a dual meet victory over Pitt in front of 15,996 at the Bryce Jordan Center on Dec. 8, 2013, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz was on board with making a match in Kinnick happen.

These sports don't happen in a vacuum on the UI campus. Ferentz and Brands are well-acquainted.

'The best compliment I could give him is I could've played for him,” said Brands, a three-time Big Ten coach of the year who's entering his 10th season as Iowa's coach (a 1996 Olympic gold medalist, member of wrestling's Hall of Fame, a four-time all-American and three-time national champion (1989-92) at Iowa). 'I think he's a no-nonsense guy. I think he expects accountability. He expects a high standard every time out. . . . Whenever I've been around him the last 10 years or so, there's been a little bit of like-mindedness, I would say.”

Ferentz's first brush with wrestling was his second year at Iowa in 1982, when he was Hayden Fry's offensive line coach. He walked into the old Field House. The place was throbbed, with 13,500 or so fans mirroring what was physically happening on the mat or what they wanted to have happen on the mat.

'It seemed like everybody in the place knew everything that was going on, like every move,” Ferentz said. 'They're coaching every move, and I was just like in total amazement. That blew me away. It was so fun to watch our teams compete.”

Ferentz was hooked. He's been a regular at home meets during his 17 seasons as Iowa's head coach. His three sons, Brian, James and Steve, wrestled at Iowa City High School before graduating and playing offensive line under him for the Hawkeyes.

Wrestling is a combat sport. Football probably doesn't fall into that category. It's not one-on-one, but it most certainly is collision.

It seems like every Hawkeye football player has a moment where they tried wrestling and it stuck (pardon the pun). Or vice versa. They tried wrestling and they couldn't escape (again, sorry for the pun) it fast enough.

Of course, there were a big bunch who ran off to play basketball.

'I tried wrestling with club team one time, it was in eighth grade,” said offensive tackle Cole Croston. 'I got my butt kicked and I never wanted to wrestle ever again. It's way more intense than basketball ever was. It just wasn't for me.”

Tight end Henry Krieger Coble is about 6-4. He was always one of the tall kids at Mount Pleasant High School. Unless you're a heavyweight or have a super keen sense of leverage, the tall kids didn't take to wrestling.

'Wrestling?” Krieger Coble said, already laughing. 'Not a shot, no. I stayed away from wrestling. I never got into it. I've been to a few matches and have enjoyed it, but I have no idea what it's like to be a wrestler or do what those guys do. It's crazy, it's crazy.”

Running back Akrum Wadley's mom, Sharonda, is in the Newark (N.J.) sports hall of fame as a basketball player.

'I used to wrestle my cousins. I didn't really like wrestling,” Wadley said. 'Basketball guy.”

Iowa's football roster includes 16 players with wrestling backgrounds. Senior center Austin Blythe is their king. He won three state heavyweight championships at Williamsburg High School. You can see it in his game, in the balance, in the attitude, in the extra push or shove he might get in.

'If you're a good wrestler, you're going to be a good football player,” Blythe said. 'Wrestling is a great sport. I'm very passionate about it. One day I'll probably go back to coach it somewhere. Wrestling is going to be a big part of my life.”

Guard Jordan Walsh wrestled all four years at Glenbard West (Ill.). He learned that in any match that anything could go wrong and anything could go right at any moment. He learned the ins and outs of one-on-one battles and trying to control and constrict the movement of your opponent.

Still, Walsh knows the wrestling he did isn't the wrestling that the Hawkeye wrestlers are engaged in. He's a big fan, by the way, of former Iowa national champion Tony Ramos, who's also from suburban Chicago.

'I wrestled in high school,” Walsh said with a pause for effect. 'These guys are wrestling in the best college wrestling program in the world. I can't even imagine that. I hear stories about their workouts and . . . mad respect.”

As far as most bad-ass sport on campus, wrestlers acknowledge that, yeah, they probably do wear the championship belt. Most of them, however, have stories about when they decided wrestling was their path and football was for bigger and faster dudes.

Most of these stories involve broken bones.

'In eighth grade, I was a running back and I was running up the middle,” said Ryan, a Bettendorf High School graduate. 'A lineman rolled over me and snapped my tibia and fibia in half and I was out for the whole wrestling season. I was like, I can't miss another wrestling season, so I'm done with that.”

184-pounder Sammy Brooks played some football at Oak Park (Ill.) High School. More broken bones.

'I got hurt too much. I just threw my body around, so I had to stop when I realized wrestling was it,” Brooks said. 'I was a linebacker and I tackled. I broke my wrist a couple of times. After that, yeah.”

Ferentz didn't wrestle at Upper St. Clair High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. Brands did play football for Sheldon High School.

He's going to tell this. It's gold.

'I played football,” he said when asked. 'I was a third-string defensive back. I thought I was second string until the starter got hurt and then the coach literally looked over my head and pointed at the guy behind me.

'I was ready to go and it crushed me. Then, I was guard, end and tackle. I sat at the end of the bench, guarded the water bottle and tackled anyone who came near it.”

Brands did play some special teams on kick coverage and return. 'I couldn't do any harm,” he said. He was on one side and his brother, Terry, one of his assistant coaches at Iowa and also a former Hawkeye national champion, on the other side.

'We zoomed down there and I guess we went head hunting, but we weren't the head hunters,” Brands said. 'I had to stay in my lane because the outside guy would run 3 or 4 yards ahead of me.

'I was slow, but at least I was small.”

You'll find everyone in their rightful place for Wrestle Wrestle Boom Boom Saturday at Kinnick.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com