Ohio State Wrestling: Head Coach Tom Ryan Previews the Defending NCAA Champs

Eleven Warriors: It was reported that you sent out a text message to your team before last season saying “the quest for an NCAA championship starts today.” Did you try to top that this year to kick off your title defense?

Tom Ryan: This year, I talked to Urban Meyer, and we sent out a text about complacency and the need to have the itch to be your best. That’s our thought process right now.

You’re coming off of the first NCAA title in Ohio State wrestling history and that run was largely on the back of Logan Stieber and his fourth NCAA championship. Where do you even begin when trying to replace a guy like Logan in the lineup?

TR: He goes down as one of the greats of all time. The good news with Logan is that, though he won’t be scoring any points for Ohio State anymore, he is chasing Olympic gold and he’s doing that in our room. The culture that he helps to create is still present in our practice room. In any great program, you’ll see that though names change, the tradition lives on. We’ve had a great deal of success at 141 over the years, and we have two really good guys there this year. Ke-Shawn Hayes and Micah Jordan are there this year and both are training hard to be the guy at that weight.

Since you brought him up, let’s talk about Micah. He wrestled at 157 lbs during his redshirt season last year. Will he be able to make the cut to 141?

TR: It is realistic that Micah will be able to make the weight. He’s incredibly disciplined with his weight. He understands managing his weight as well as anybody. Micah is on a good plan and his plan is to be at 141.

Since we got started, let’s take a look at the lineup. You’ll have Tomasello at 125, Johnni (DiJulius) at 133, either Micah or Ke-Shawn at 141. Who will you have at 149?

TR: Hunter Stieber, when he returns, will be at 149. You will see a healthy Hunter there at some point. At 157, you’ll have either Jake (Ryan) or Cody Burcher. The loser of that wrestle-off will go down to 149 and man that weight until Hunter is back and wrestle off Hunter when he returns.

165 will be Bo (Jordan), right?

TR: Bo may or may not be at 165. He’s going to go 174 early on. We don’t have a quarterback issue, like Coach Meyer. We are in a spot where we need to figure out what guy at each weight gives us the best chance to have the success that we had last year. Myles Martin’s ability to compete at a high level at 180 lbs will determine what we do with Bo. If Myles can make the weight and we think that he can be a factor at a national level, then he will go 174 and Bo will drop. Until then, Bo will stay at 174.

So Bo will go 174 early and possibly be replaced by Myles Martin. In his absence at 165, who will you have in the lineup?

TR: Justin Kresevic saw some time in the lineup last year. We’ve got a kid named Seth Williams, who redshirted last year. That weight is up for grabs right now, probably between those two as long as Bo stays at 174.

Kenny Courts made a run at the NCAA tournament and reached the All-American podium for the first time. With that said, it has been widely noted that Mark Martin has become friends with the weight room. Who do you see at 184?

TR: I see Courts at 184. Mark has made the same friendship with the weight room as Nick Heflin did a few years ago (Heflin was an All-American at 174, but bumped to 197 as a senior, where he was a split second away from winning an NCAA championship). The plan is to have Kenny at 184 and he’ll be challenged by Jack Rozema, who’s had a really good summer. It’ll be either Mark Martin or Kollin Moore at 197.

Tavanello and Thomas Haines have both dealt with injuries for much of the past year and there’s a couple of freshmen heavyweights coming in this year. Who’s going to start at heavyweight?

TR: We brought in Parker Knapp and Caldwell at heavyweight, but both will probably redshirt. Tav and Haines have both been injured like you said, but Tavanello has been healthier longer at this point. That’ll be one of the bigger wrestle-offs if we are able to do it. Thomas was hurt early in preseason training, but as the season moves on, we’ll get a better idea of how it’ll shake out at heavyweight. Tavanello looks good, though.

As good as two years ago (when he was a match from placing at the NCAA tournament)?

TR: He looks as good as he did in the Penn State dual until he was hurt. He was wrestling really well until he was hurt in that dual and that kept him out until the Big Tens.

You’re in a unique situation with a sophomore in Nathan Tomasello who already has an NCAA title to his credit. His road isn’t getting any easier with a tough weight and guys like Nico Megaludis (a three-time All-American at Penn State) coming back from a redshirt year. What do you need to do to keep Nathan mentally on track?

TR: In my 22 years of doing this, you’re talking about a student athlete that is as motivated as any I’ve seen. He’s a hard working person. He is incredibly motivated internally. Not only does he want to win another NCAA title, he wants to win an Olympic title. Three weeks after the NCAA tournament, Nate wants to qualify for the US National team. On a daily basis, Nathan really focuses on improving. He knows a lot more about wrestling at this point than he did a year ago. He knows more than he did even in March. He is rapidly improving every day and getting better in lots of different positions.

With Tomasello wanting to make the Olympic team, that leads to another hole that you have to fill in the lineup this year. Since Kyle Snyder is taking an Olympic redshirt, what are the rules about him working out with the team? Is he able to practice in the Ohio State room during his Olympic redshirt year?

TR: That’s a great question. When you put Kyle’s points in the equation, we’re the preseason national favorite. Obviously, that wasn’t in Kyle’s best interest and we realized that early on. Under NCAA rules, Kyle is allowed in our room every day. He’s helping our upper weights every day, working with guys like Mark Martin, Kollin Moore, Myles Martin, Jack Rozema, and Nick Tavanello. Under NCAA rules, he’s allowed to work with us, and he is helping our guys to improve and that’s making us a better team.

Johnni DiJulius is one of those guys that has been close throughout his career, but is staring down his last shot at an All-American finish. Have you seen anything in him that make you think that he’s going to take advantage of this last year?

TR: Johnni DiJulius is really tough early on, but tends to struggle as the season wears on. He has beaten the kid ranked first at 133 and the kids at the top at 141. For Johnni, we need to work with him on eliminating distractions. It’s not so much the training, but it’s the outside things that you want to engage in because you just want to live. Right now, we’re trying to help him to use his time wisely. If he can do that and maintain his focus, he can be a major factor for us. He has to be, really, if we are going to succeed this year.

Another guy making his last go ‘round this year is Hunter Stieber. At what point during the season do you think he’ll be able to step in and wrestle for you?

TR: For sure, he’ll be back in the second semester. He’s training now, but he took the entire summer off from a wrestling standpoint. Maybe last year, looking back, there was the one match that we put him in that we shouldn’t have. We are going to be 100% certain that he’s ready to go mentally as well as physically. If you see him before January, it’ll probably be a surprise. If things continue to move ahead the way that they have, you’ll definitely see him in January.

Seeing Hunter gut out the match at Big Tens against the kid from Penn State, that showed that he’s got more than just talent in his arsenal.

TR: That really showed what a competitor he is and what a teammate he is.

On a different track, can you talk about the new wrestling facility that was recently announced?

TR: We have a facility now that is nice enough to attract and train wrestlers that are capable of winning nationals. I met with Gene Smith two years ago, and he wanted to take the next step with the program. We’ve got a piece of land and everything is going really well. I’m aware of every complex in the country.

“If all goes according to plan, this will be the nicest facility in the country.”

The timeline isn’t something I can really discuss right now, but it’s going to happen in the near future.

Before I let you go, I have to ask one more question about Bo Jordan. After seeing him get beat by Dieringer of Oklahoma State, did you see Bo use that loss as the carrot at the end of the stick to motivate him to improve during the offseason?

TR: We had three special freshman come into the lineup. Nate leads them with a national championship, Bo takes 3rd, and Kyle takes 2nd but goes on to win the Worlds. These guys all want the best for one another, but they are so competitive with themselves as well. It burns in Bo that he didn’t win. His goal coming in was to win four national title. I’m not sure there’s much more that we can do as a staff to motivate Bo because there’s already a hunger deep inside of him. He’s going to go whatever weight is best for the team. As bad as he wants to beat Dieringer, he is going to go at the weight that’s best for the team, and he’ll constantly push to improve and help the team win.