In all the leadup to the dual of the year, I haven't seen anyone discuss Tom Brands or Cael Sanderson's respective records against each other as a head coach.

Counting the three years Cael was in charge of Iowa State, Brands leads the all-time series 7-4. Since the four-time NCAA champ moved to State College, they've been dead even at four apiece. Below are the results of those duals.

The Iowa State Years

12/3/06: Iowa 24-6 Iowa State (CHA)

12/9/07: Iowa 20-13 Iowa State (ISU)

12/6/08: Iowa 20-15 Iowa State (CHA)

The Penn State Era

1/29/10: Iowa 29-6 Penn State (CHA)

1/30/11: Iowa 22-13 Penn State (Rec Hall)

1/22/12: Penn State 22-12 Iowa (Rec Hall)

2/1/13: Iowa 22-16 Penn State (CHA)

12/21/13: Penn State 24-12 (CHA)

2/8/15: Iowa 18-12 Penn State (BJC)

1/20/17: Penn State 26-11 Iowa (CHA)

2/10/18: Penn State 28-13 Iowa (BJC)

The first four wins by Brands happen to coincide with him returning to Iowa City and bringing along the Virginia Tech transfers that ultimately led to the Hawkeye threepeat. 

In December of 2007, the Hawkeyes went into Hilton Coliseum and earned the second win of the Brands tenure. That team would go on to win the first title since 2000, with the Cyclones finishing fifth, just two points outside of trophy contention. There were three matches featuring All-Americans battling each other: Joey Slaton over Nick Fanthorpe, Jake Varner beat Phil Keddy, and Matt Fields took down Dave Zabriskie.

The next year was the last for Cael at Iowa State, and Brands moved to 2-0 in Carver-Hawkeye against Sanderson. All-American matches included current Iowa assistant Ryan Morningstar over Jon Reader, a match that happened again in the third-place bout at the national tournament and David Zabriskie beating Dan Erekson.

The first year of Cael's tenure in Happy Valley was more of the same, suffering one of the worst losses of his coaching career. Adam Lynch, who is now the director of operations at PSU, was one of just two Nittany Lion victories on the day. The Black & Gold closed out their threepeat that year, winning NCAAs by 44.5 over second-place Cornell.

Although Iowa notched a nine-point win in Rec Hall at their 2011 dual, it marked a turning point in the rivalry. Cael was 0-5 against Brands after that day, but would get the last laugh as he would win his first of (to this point) eight team titles.

Watch this highlight from 2011:

You could tell things were different in 2012. The Nittany Lions were the reigning champs and Iowa was coming into a hostile environment at sold-out Rec Hall. Even still, Iowa hadn't lost to Penn State since Brands' first year as a head coach. But Cael and company got their first win over the Hawkeyes, with true freshman Morgan McIntosh sealing the deal.

McIntosh gets the monkey off PSU's back:

For the 2012-13 season, we brought on Christian Pyles and one of his early trademarks was the "Superdual Breakdown," of which the seventh installment was for, you guessed it, Penn State at Iowa. As CP said in the preview, the rankings favored Iowa in six of 10 weights, but PSU had bonus point potential. The rankings held serve at every weight, with Iowa winning all the swing matches: #1 McDonough over #2 Megaludis in tiebreakers, #1 St. John beating Dylan Alton by one, and most importantly, #4 Mike Evans getting a late third-period counter to topple #7 Matt Brown.

It also gave is this iconic moment from Tony Ramos as Brands remained undefeated against Cael at Carver-Hawkeye.

The next year, the final season of David Taylor and Ed Ruth's career, would be the first win for Penn State in Carver-Hawkeye since 2006. They were working on four consecutive team titles, a mark that would give Cael the edge in total championships over his Iowa counterpart, and coach Brands would say after this particular dual, "They kicked us right off our home mat."

In the dual that was made on Twitter, the upperweights carried the day, as Taylor, Ruth, and McIntosh all got majors, along with a revenge win by Brown over Evans. Ruth and Taylor majored guys ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. Penn State won 24-12, and outdistanced fourth-place Iowa by 21 at NCAAs in March as they clinched the fourpeat.

Man, 2015 was a strange year for college wrestling. Penn State punted, so although Iowa won 18-12 in Rec Hall, everyone knew Cael was reloading for another dominant run. Gulibon upset Cory Clark, Garrett Hammond did the same against Nick Moore, and Brown once again got the best of Evans.

They didn't wrestle in 2016 due to Big Ten scheduling, which is tragic, and that would have almost certainly been a win for Cael as they outdistanced the Hawkeyes by 42 in Madison Square Garden. Penn State beat Iowa in two finals (Nico over Gilman and Zain over Sorensen), as well as McIntosh beating Nathan Burak in the semis.

The 2017 dual started off poorly for Penn State, with Gilman beating Suriano as Iowa jumped out to an 8-0 lead. But then Nittany Lions reeled off seven wins in the last eight matches, with only Mark Hall getting arguably "Carvered" in his varsity debut as he got his redshirt pulled. You know who didn't get Carvered though? Zain Retherford.

Relive the highlights from one of the most incredible matches I've ever seen, as it looked like Sorensen had him more than once. Man, Zain was special.

Another 15-point drubbing would come in 2018 as Cael evened the score during their times at their current schools. In terms of point differential, Penn State emerged from that one plus-eight over Iowa during the Sanderson era. Not only that, but PSU won their third straight title, and Cael expanded his lead in total national titles to seven vs three over Brands.

If there was one nit to pick about Sanderson as a coach, it was that his teams would occasionally drop duals, typically to Brands' Hawkeyes, Smith's Cowboys, or Robinson's Gophers. Then they peeled off 60 consecutive dual wins and a second fourpeat, bringing their title count to eight in nine years.

They'll meet once again tomorrow night, with Penn State hobbled by injuries and Iowa riding a wave of confidence. Yes, Brands has the all-time edge over Cael in terms of duals, but the Nittany Lions own two straight victories over the Hawkeyes by a combined 30 points, as well as three of the last four, and the last two at CHA. Plus there's that trophy count.

In any case, this has been a fun trip down memory lane reviewing the performances of two of the most iconic coaches of this generation against each other. They've coached teams to a combined 11 national championships and seen their guys won a total of 37 individual titles. One will soon take the lead in their series at their current schools but rest assured, the final battle is still coming in March.