Tom Ryan turned his Ohio State wrestling team loose for the holidays on Dec. 21 and welcomed the Buckeyes back eight days later. 

“Typically, the first dual back can be a struggle — and that wasn’t the case,” Ryan said of Ohio State’s 40-3 dual win on Jan. 5 against Oregon State. “Overall, our guys wrestled well.”

The Buckeyes followed that up with a 24-9 win against Illinois and a 17-15 victory against Rutgers, which ran Ohio State’s record to 10-0 on the season. 

According to Ryan, some of the individual matches in the two most recent duals shed light on areas where the Buckeyes need to be sharper. 

“With the exception of Jesse (Mendez), we want to see more aggression by our guys as we move forward,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, we have guys who are wrestling well. Carson (Kharchla) is unbeaten since returning to the lineup after being off for 11 months and that’s been a positive. Dylan (D’Emilio) is 13-1 and wrestling tough.”

D’Emilio, who avenged last year’s loss to Illinois’ Kannon Webster, has eight bonus-point victories on the season. Still, Ryan eyes improvement.

“We need consistent aggression from our guys in every match up and down the lineup,” he said. “Constantly looking to score, finishing more consistently when we have a 95 percent position-advantage situation. We have work to do  ”

Bouzakis Looking To Keep Tank Full

Nic Bouzakis has provided Ohio State fans with glimpses of his high upside since his arrival in Columbus. 

To wit, the 2024 U23 Nationals 61-kilogram champion has tallied multiple career wins over All-Americans, along with narrow losses to other highly accomplished foes. 

Bouzakis (16-4) absorbed half of his season’s defeats in back-to-back losses to Illinois’ second-ranked Lucas Byrd and Rutgers’ ninth-ranked Dylan Shawver.

“In his loss to Byrd, the intensity just wasn’t there,” Ryan said. “He knows what he needs to do.

“When you experience losses, you can go one of two ways — it can spiral and you lose your confidence, or you get kind of angry and excited to get back to showcase what your capacity is. Nic’s not someone who’s going to go in the wrong direction.”

Ryan believes Bouzakis is in the proverbial mix when considering the best wrestlers at the weight.

“He lost to (four-time NCAA runner-up Daton) Fix in (5-4) last year (at the national tournament),” he said. “The guy can wrestle. We need him to be the guy in college like he felt like he was in high school, which was, ‘This is my mat and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ We need that from Nic in every match.”

Bouzakis agrees. 

“Coach Ryan is right,” he said. “I gotta make sure my gas tank is up for each match. I hate to be the guy that’s always saying, ‘Back in my day...’ talking about their high school days, but coach is right. I need to get myself back to that standard of exhausting myself, saving nothing, putting everything out while I’m on the mat.”

It isn’t just the four losses that have the redshirt sophomore displeased.

“Even in some of my wins, I could have done more,” he said. “I should have done more. That’s all on me; it’s not on my coaches. I have to start working harder on my conditioning in the room and outside the room.”

Ryan On Refereeing

Fully aware that any mention of referee calls in matches that don’t go the Buckeyes’ way invites criticism, Ryan was unabashed on his feelings of certain calls in a few of his wrestlers’ recent losses.  

The caveat? 

He invites anyone interested to watch the matches and judge the calls themselves.  

“I know what it sounds like and this isn’t that,” Ryan said. “But certain matches, like 197 (against Rutgers) — that was a lopsided match. It wasn’t even close as far as many, many attempts by Shumate and none from him (John Poznanski), and he got us late on, quite frankly, it wasn’t even close to a takedown and the ref didn’t even look at it.”

The 5-4 win by Poznanski gave Rutgers the lead, 15-14, heading into the heavyweight bout. 

Nick Feldman’s victory over Yaraslau Slavikouski at heavyweight provided the margin of victory in the team score, but Ryan remained agitated by certain calls.

“It’s an issue that’s important to me and to all the coaches,” he said. “If the match is over — or not — and the team doesn’t have a (challenge) cube left, the ref can take it upon himself to review a call in order to get it right. That’s all we’re asking for.”

Ryan says he’s empathetic to the human element involved in refereeing a fast-paced, college match.

“Look, I know it isn’t easy and I’m not asking for perfection,” he said. “But we expect that if one ref saw it one way and the other ref saw it another, you take a look at it because you’re at odds. There was no way that was a takedown against Shumate. We had a bunch of takedowns throughout the match that we didn’t get that 99 percent of refs would have said, ‘That was three, and that was three, and that was three.’”

Ryan turned the example to himself as a coach.

“If I make a mistake as a coach from a rules standpoint — if I break a rule — there’s a consequence,” he said. “And there needs to be a consequence. If a ref misses a call and doesn’t review it, at some point there has to be a consequence. Otherwise, what are we doing? 

“Any coach that continues to make mistakes will be fired. All we want is for the system, which is a video-review system, to be utilized so we get calls right.”

Though a bitter ending for the Buckeyes in the 197-pound bout, Ryan said he was satisfied with Shumate’s effort.

“I was very pleased with how Seth wrestled, just unhappy with his lead management with 10 seconds left,” he said. “Even though a takedown shouldn’t have been awarded, you can’t put yourself in a position where the ref can even call it.”

On The Horizon

With the Buckeyes hosting Purdue on Jan. 19 and visiting Iowa on Jan. 25, Ryan will be leading his team against two other coaches in the Dan Gable-coached fraternity — Tony Ersland and Tom Brands.

Ryan acknowledged, but downplayed, the connection.

“As a coach, my belief system doesn’t measure, ‘I wrestled with him’ or ‘We both wrestled for Gable,’ he said. “My job is to prepare my team. I have a ton of respect for Tony and I have a ton of respect for Tom. Anyone that wrestled for Gable, I have a ton of respect for, but it’s not something that’s become a personal vendetta where there's extra pressure or anything like that. Honestly, for me, personally, it’s not even a thought.”

Instead, Ryan said, he’ll be measuring “how good of a job did we coaches do preparing them, how hard my team fights, how much effort they expend, the skill level they display, whether they make good decisions at the right time in critical positions and how we help them improve when the matches are over.”