Jenna Burkert takes the Iowa women's wrestling job
Ross Bartachek has Burkert calling the Hawkeyes gig the one she always wanted.
Jenna Burkert is the head coach of Iowa women's wrestling, per Ross Bartachek.
Bartachek posted Burkert's own framing of the move, with Burkert saying it is the job she has always wanted and describing herself as living out her dream coaching at the University of Iowa. That is the entire public word on it so far, and it came from Burkert rather than from a staff announcement laying out terms or timeline.
Iowa's women's program is one of the highest profile jobs in the sport, and whoever runs it is running a roster and a recruiting board that national title contenders are measured against. The hire gives that room a name at the top going forward.
What has not been said
Nobody has said what the transition means for the rest of the staff around her. No contract length, no start date and no detail on how the move came together have been reported in what is public. There is also no word yet on how the change lands with the athletes already in the room or with the recruits Iowa is chasing.
That last piece matters because Iowa has been active on the trail. The Hawkeyes recently hosted top-ranked recruit Jaclyn Bouzakis on a recruiting weekend, the kind of visit a head coaching change can reshape in either direction.
Our take, the quote is the tell. A coach who calls a job THE job is not treating it as a stepping stone, and for a women's program still early in its life as a varsity sport at Iowa, continuity at the top is worth something.
Two things to watch. Whether Iowa puts out a formal release with staff details, and whether the recruits who visited this month stay on board.
This is THE job. This is the job I have always wanted.
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