Commentary by ROB SHERRILL    The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling program took a huge step Monday afternoon toward releasing itself from its continuing state of limbo when Athletics Director Oval Jaynes announced the hiring of former University of Iowa standout Terry Brands as head coach.    Brands, 31, succeeds Mark Leen, who resigned Nov. 7. Former assistant coach Franky James has served as the head coach since on an interim basis. The Mocs are 5-8 in dual meets this season, following victories over Appalachian State and Anderson College.    ''We are pleased that Terry Brands has accepted our offer to be the head wrestling coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga,'' Jaynes said. ''He brings an outstanding background in intercollegiate, Olympic, and freestyle wrestling. His background with Dan Gable, as one of the top wrestlers in the history of the sport, provides us with a coach who has tremendous experience and that experience will be evident in our program.''    Brands, who will assume his duties at UTC on March 15, has no head coaching experience, but he has become one of the hottest young assistant coaches in the nation's college ranks after stints at his alma mater, Iowa, at the University of Nebraska, and at Montana State University-Northern, where he is in his second season as the No. 1 assistant coach.    Perhaps a bigger problem with the Brands hiring is that it came a year too late. All of the top five prospects in last year's senior class, the best ever produced by Tennessee high school wrestling, left the state to continue their college careers, all without giving UTC serious consideration. Four-time Division II champion Phillip Simpson of MBA chose the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he is building serious Freshman of the Year credentials; Kevin Ward of Soddy Daisy and Rusty Blackmon of Bradley Central, who combined for five Division I state titles, were impressive in the pre-season at tradition-rich Oklahoma State before electing to redshirt; three-time state champion Darren McKnight of Red Bank is redshirting at Michigan State; and three-time Tullahoma state champion Matt Sweeton is at the nation's top junior-college program, Lassen (Calif.) College, though UTC could re-enter his list as he considers a four-year school down the road.    But that was then. This is now…and, hopefully, the future as well.    Though a class like last year's doesn't come along every year, it proves that Tennessee is capable of manufacturing enough talent to keep UTC competitive at a national level, if the Mocs can keep them all at home. With Brands on board, UTC now re-enters every top prospect's shopping list. Still, Brands will have to choose his assistant coaches carefully. Not only will he need a staff that spans the complete spectrum of weight classes, but he will need at least one additional name that serves as a magnet within the state for the best prospects Tennessee high school wrestling has to offer.    To the wrestling community, of course, Brands needs no introduction. He was a three-time NCAA finalist at Iowa, winning titles in 1990 and 1992. His international career was even more distinguished, as he won a pair of World Freestyle Championships in 1993 and 1995 and came out of retirement to cap his career by winning a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympic Games at Sydney, Australia.    As a competitor, Brands teamed with his twin brother, Tom, to dominate the NCAA wrestling scene for four lightning-rod years at 126 and 134 pounds, respectively. They were extremely successful - Tom added three NCAA titles and an Olympic gold medal at Atlanta in 1996 - but it was their fire, determination, and desire that made them dynamic as well as successful. Gable, who coached the Brands brothers at Iowa, always said the twins' dedication reminded him more of himself as a competitor than any other wrestlers he had the opportunity to coach. With the twins in the lineup, Iowa packed houses wherever they went.    Occasionally, there was a dark side. Along with about three dozen other reporters, I witnessed Terry's demolition of an interview area following his loss to Nebraska's Jason Kelber in the 1991 NCAA finals his junior year, accompanied by a profanity-laced tirade directed at himself. We were trying to interview Kelber at the time. Needless to say, it wasn't quite the same after that.    Now married with a family, Brands has matured a great deal. It will be interesting to see whether he can channel his own drive to be the best into recruiting and getting the most out of his teams on the mat, as his mentor, Gable, was able to do so successfully.    At its best, Brands' hiring could spark a renaissance within Tennessee similar to the one that began two states to the north nearly 10 years ago when the University of Illinois hired Mark Johnson as its head coach. Within five years, Johnson, also a rookie head coach, transformed a wrestling graveyard - legitimately one of the 10 worst Division I programs in the nation at the time - into one of the best, which it remains today. And Johnson has developed such fierce statewide loyalty that Illinois high school coaches would run through a brick wall for him. Can Brands accomplish the same thing in Tennessee? Let's hope so.