Ohio State versus Michigan, the greatest rivalry in all of sport.

Well, at least in football. And sometimes in basketball, usually. And for sure, in the mind of Ohio State head wrestling coach Tom Ryan.

“Listen, I’m extremely serious about beating them in the dual meet, and the Big Tens and the nationals, and we've done that almost every year as long as I can remember, at least beating them at the Big Tens and the NCAAs,” Ryan said ahead of Friday night’s dual between the Buckeyes in Wolverines in Ann Arbor.

The Buckeyes’ have won four of the past seven meetings between the two teams, including four-consecutive wins in Ann Arbor dating back to 2009. While his wrestlers consistently said this week’s meeting was “just another match,” Ryan puts a little more emphasis on The Rivalry.

“Last year the schedule, for whatever reason, we didn’t get to wrestle them,” Ryan said of the 2020 Big Ten schedule. “Coach Bormet and I have discussed a home-and-away every year, which is what it should be in wrestling. We wrestle at their place, we wrestle at our place, and it’s a big-crowd event.”

While Ohio State has outhorsed That Team Up North in the postseason most years during Ryan’s tenure, he was the first to point out how good this year’s Michigan team looks and how high their ceiling is.

“This is probably one of the best teams they’ve had in the past 25 years,” Ryan said. “This is a really tough team,” particularly title contenders like Stevan Micic and Myles Amine who may not wrestle in Friday’s dual. “Those are two of the top wrestlers in the country,” Ryan said.

Highly-ranked 165-pounder Ethan Smith reflected the prevailing mood of the Buckeye wrestlers taking the mat against his school’s storied rival.

“For me, I think it’s just another opportunity to go and compete,” Smith said. “I’m not putting anything on it. I haven’t even thought about Rivalry Week at all.”

Smith said his approach to every match is the same, regardless of what singlet he’s wearing. 

“In my mind, I’ve got a guy, he’s weighing in just like me, and I’m going to go out there and try to fight him. I don’t care where he’s from, that’s all I’m focusing on.”

Ryan said that is an approach he and his staff instill in their men, even if he puts a bit more weight on this dual personally.

“I think as a student-athlete you approach it in a way that, ‘it’s a competition and you should be up for every competition,’” Ryan explained. “In the sport of wrestling you get to wrestle them in the dual meet, but you get to see them at the Big Tens and the NCAAs also.”

He was clear that Friday’s meeting between the two foes was “a big match” in no small part because the two programs are courting some of the same recruits, and because of how highly he regards Michigan head coach Sean Bormet.

“I've got a lot of respect for Sean; he and I wrestled in college,” Ryan said. “He's a good guy, he's a great coach and this rivalry will heat up. We kind of ran away from them a little bit the last five or six years, but it's going to be a lot of fun.”

If Micic and Amine take the mat Friday night the Wolverines might be the team running away from the Buckeyes. If both are sidelined — both were absent from Michigan’s probable lineup released mid-week — then Ohio State feels confident it can win its sixth dual of the season.