According to the Iowa State Daily Virginia Tech head coach Kevin Dresser has accepted the head coaching position of the Iowa State Cyclones. A native of Humboldt, Iowa Dresser will be returning to his home state where he began his wrestling career.
The Iowa State Daily goes on to say that Dresser the 2016-17 season at Virginia Tech before he arrives taking over the Iowa State program. IAwrestle cannot confirm the deal is official at this time, but the source did indicate a decision is expected to be made after the NWCA National Duals,which will wrap up on Sunday.
After seven years at the helm, current head coach Kevin Jackson announced in January that he would be stepping down from his position at the end of the season. The Cyclones are currently 1-11 in duals on the season and are scheduled to close the season tomorrow against Minnesota in a home dual against Minnesota. Regardless of tomorrow’s outcome, ISU was without a win in conference duals for the first time in program history.
Dresser will look to turn that current trend around, after taking over a barren Virginia Tech program in 2006. Since then Dresser has built the Hokie program into an ACC power, and during the 2015-16 season he brought home the program’s first ever team trophy by taking fourth at the NCAA Championships.
Once the news that Jackson would be stepping down came to the surface three of Iowa State’s signed Austin Gomez, Jake Allar, and Ethan Smith all announced that they would be requesting releases from their Letter of Intent to attend ISU that were signed in November. Iowa State had 30 days to respond to each athlete’s request to be released from their scholarship, which would mean Allar would need his situation resolved in the coming week and a half.
Iowa State’s current staff includes Trent and Travis Paulson as paid assistants, and Angel Escobedo as volunteer assistant. Dresser’s staff includes Tony Robie and Mike Zadick as paid assistants, and Derek St. John as volunteer assistant. No information is available at this time as to how Dresser’s staff will look.
Our own Tony Hager was first on social media to report the things were in the works between Dresser and Iowa State:
We will keep you updated on this developing story.
[…] news of Dresser accepting the position was reported first by the Iowa State Daily Saturday, though on Sunday Jason Bryant of Mat Talk Online reported the […]