The Dual of the Millennium: No. 2 Ohio State at No. 1 Penn State

The biggest meet of the year decade century millennium has finally arrived. Number One versus Number Two for all the mar... Wait, what's that you say?

Dual meets don't matter that much, really? It's all about the postseason tournaments?

Let's check in with two-time NCAA champion Kyle Snyder, the reigning, defending, undisputed 97 kg champion of the world:

Now that I am back in the US of A, all my time and energy will be focused on PSU. There is no team Id like to destroy more. pic.twitter.com/W9MHMtaQpu

— Kyle Snyder (@Snyder_man45) January 31, 2018

"Destroy" isn't a word one uses in a meet that doesn't matter. This dual meet matters very much indeed, and is one of the biggest matchups in NCAA history, regardless of how you feel about the pre-match hyperbole.

PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS

11-0, 7-0 Big Ten Conference ROSTER / SCHEDULE

8 P.M. – SATURDAY, FEB. 3 REC HALL STATE COLLEGE, PENN.

BROADCAST: BIG TEN NETWORK STREAMING: BTN2Go

In one corner, you have a dynasty that includes six of the past seven national championships, winner of its last 42 consecutive dual meets, fielding five defending national champions. In the other, you have the only team to seriously threaten Penn State's dominance in the past half-decade, is undefeated this season, and who upset the Nittany Lions for the Big Ten title less than a year ago.

The stakes are high indeed. When the cameras roll at Rec Hall Saturday night, there may not be much on the line in terms of these teams' postseason goals, but there will be everything on the line when it comes to the legacies of these teams, these wrestlers, and how these two programs will go to the mats for tradition, for pride, for respect and for the sure pleasure of crushing their opponent into so much dust and ash.

Buckeye Breakdown

The hype machine for this team was full steam ahead heading into the season. With offseason transfers adding some much-needed firepower in the middle of the lineup, with a trio of three-time All Americans in the senior class, and with the greatest freestyle wrestler on the planet anchoring the lineup at 285, there was only one thing standing between Ohio State and destiny: Penn State.

And then Nathan Tomasello cranked his knee at the U23 World Team Trials and missed 12 weeks of competition. And then Bo Jordan lost to Zahid Valencia... twice. And Rutgers snatched a couple of upsets. And Tommy Thorn owned Joey McKenna... again. And Spencer Lee rode one of the physically strongest lightweights in history for an entire period. And somewhere along the way, Te'Shan Campbell completely forgot how to take shots or muster anything remotely resembling offense.

And suddenly a team ready to accept the mantle of destiny looked human, after all.

If you like a good underdog story – and don't we all? – this should be the part of the tale where you start licking your chops. Frankly, Ohio State is better suited as the motley band of noble warriors out to slay the dragon than as a team waiting for its curtain call.

Penn State is the class of the sport, and although the Buckeyes are the only team to take a title from them in their John Wooden-like run of championships, Cael Sanderson's death squad is still the Goliath in the story.

Saturday night is going to be fun.

The Penn State Nittany Lions

Head Coach: Cael Sanderson

What is there to be said about Penn State that hasn't already been said? They are the Alabama of college wrestling, and the Nittany Lions' string of titles since Sanderson's arrival in State College is the type of dominance associated with Bear Bryant, Nick Saban and Bill Belichick.

This dual was already going to be the most intriguing matchup of the year, but recent events have made it more so.

For one thing, Penn State's defending national champion at 157 pounds, Jason Nolf, suffered an injury last weekend at Rutgers that has him sidelined until at least the postseason. While Sanderson says the plan is for him to wrestle in the conference and NCAA tournaments, the details on the severity of his injury and his ability to come back in little more than a month's time are still scant.

"The latest report on Jason Nolf's injury is that he won't need surgery, and he will be able to compete in the postseason," Roar Lions Roar reporter Rob Dougherty told Eleven Warriors. "Obviously, it's tough to determine how effective he will be if he isn't at his best, but he's a tremendous athlete and competitor. I am confident that he will continue to do Jason Nolf things, but it may impact his bonus point output."

In any case, he won't be wrestling Saturday night, giving Ohio State a little breathing room in terms of bonus points, and giving the team a chance to steal a match they might have thought a possible loss a week ago.

Secondly, Buckeye head coach Tom Ryan has made no secret of the fact that he's a trifle irked with Sanderson and Penn State for wrestling this meet in the Rec Hall, capacity ~6,000, rather than in the Bryce Jordan Center, capacity >15,000.

PSU does a lot right... but not with this dual. A bit confused why this dual is being wrestled in a small venue & no @wrestlingbucks fans had a chance to get tickets. Not how we would have handled it.

— Thomas Ryan (@Buckeye158) January 26, 2018

Indeed, last year when the Nittany Lions rolled into Columbus, the Buckeyes filled the Schottenstein Center and put on one of the most exciting meets in recent memory, even if the result didn't go the way the home team would have liked.

Penn State fans will say that Sanderson had no choice, because the basketball team hosts Notre Dame Saturday in the BJC, and clearly a revenue sport takes precedence over the humble wrestling program, regardless of how big the match is. To that, Tom Ryan would probably say that a coach who has won six of the past seven national titles has more sway within his athletic department than you think.

In any event, the environment will be rabidly hostile to the Buckeyes, who will have all of maybe a dozen fans in the house to cheer them on.

Keep in mind that many of the matches Saturday night will be repeated again in March, perhaps twice, as these juggernauts will renew their rivalry in East Lansing at the Big Ten Tournament and again in Cleveland at the NCAA Championships.

There's a lot on the line here, indeed.

Match Outlook

The Lightweights

Nathan Tomasello and Luke Pletcher each face unranked opponents, and should pick up the Buckeyes' first bonus points of the night.

Tomasello, surprisingly, has something to prove after his shocking loss to Iowa freshman Spencer Lee; he'll be gunning for a tech, if not the outright pin.

Pletcher, for his part, has been the consummate grinder this season, winning decision after decision. He has bonus points in nearly 20% of his matches, the Buckeyes would like him to get at least a Major Saturday night, if not his third pin of the season.

Joey McKenna faces his toughest task, perhaps, to date in No. 6 Nick Lee. The freshman has been described by at least one reporter as "a young Zain Retherford," which is pretty heavy praise. McKenna has only one loss on the season, but it was to his one true challenge of the year thus far. If he drops this match, questions about his ability to earn an All-America finish may grow legs.

Lee is 20-3 on the season thus far, with bonus points in 79 percent of his matches. Versus Minnesota's Tommy Thorn – McKenna's lone loss of the year – Lee earned a major decision.

The Middleweights

This is where Penn State really kicks their opponents in the teeth. From 149 through 184, Sanderson has five defending national champions who not only win damn near every match they enter, but who pin their opponents an almost inconceivable percentage of the time.

Ke-Shawn Hayes, at 149, has the most unenviable task of the night (save for Penn State's Nick Nevills, who faces Captain America, the Destroyer of Worlds). Hayes is a damn fine wrestler – he ranks in the top five nationally for most tech falls this season, in fact.

But Zain Retherford is otherworldly. He's scored bonus points in 95 percent of his 20 victories this season, and is the defending national champion and Hodge Trophy winner. He's the heavy favorite to repeat both feats again this year.

Hayes has the tools to go the distance, but Retherford likes to put men on their backs and end the match as quickly as possible. Hayes' two most recent losses were to Rutgers' Eleazar DeLuca and Iowa's Brandon Sorensen, each decisions ... Retherford majored the former and pinned the latter.

With Nolf out of action, Micah Jordan will face a redshirt freshman either way Sanderson goes with his lineup (unless you believe he weighs Retherford in at 157 for the hell of it). If it's not Zain, Jordan gets bonus here, for sure.

At 165, we're looking at a clear No. 1 – defending champ Vincenzo Joseph – versus Ohio State's offseason transfer. Te'Shan Campbell opened the season like a man poised to make waves in the class, tilting opponents into backpoints early and often.

And then as January dawned, he seemed to forget how to take shots, how to finish the few shots he did take and how to get out from under a hammer on top. Tom Ryan pulled him from the starting lineup after a four-match losing skid, saying the former ACC champion was "struggling to compete at high level."

He'll be back in the lineup Saturday night, and regardless of the outcome, after the stallfest at Michigan State, how he wrestles the match is far more important than the final score of the bout.

The Heavy Hitters

Here's where Ohio State really turns things around. The final four rounds of ammunition in Tom Ryan's clip are his most lethal, from 174 on up.

Bo Jordan should be the defending national champion, as far as Ohio State fans are concerned. Mark Hall won last season's NCAA title by stalling more or less the entire third period, and BoJo came in second.

Jordan emerged victorious in a 6-4 sudden victory decision in last year's dual, but Hall would have the last laugh in St. Louis, winning the championship match 5-2, regardless of your feelings about the final frame.

Hall is 22-0 this season with a 77 percent bonus rate; Jordan has two losses to Zahid Valencia versus 18 wins, with bonus points in half of his victories. This one will be one of the most exciting matches of the night, and if history is any indication, one of the hardest-fought decisions of the year, either way.

Myles Martin, at 184, has a similar situation with Bo Nickal. The two have history, having squared up against one another six times in their careers; Nickal won the first pair of contests, and they've gone 1-1 each of the past two seasons.

Nickal, like half of his teammates, is the defending national champion and one helluva wrestler. But Martin is a special talent himself, and a former NCAA champion to boot. If there's an "upset" to be had in the Rec Hall, this would be a good place to expect it to happen.

Kollin Moore and Kyle Snyder are both No. 1 in the country in their respective classes, and each faces a top-10 opponent. With Snyder, the result may as well be a foregone conclusion – he's going to win, and he's probably going to get the tech, if not the pin.

Last year, Nick Nevills found himself on the wrong side of a 19-9 major decision, which is a surprisingly close affair for Snyder. The champ says he wants to "destroy" the Nittany Lions in this dual, so the prediction for the match is simple: Snyder will put on his patented takedown clinic, and if the dual starts at 125, this could be the clincher for the Buckeye upset.

At 197, Moore has appeared somewhat vulnerable at times this season, though he's never really been in danger. Like Pletcher, Martin and Snyder, he is undefeated on the season, with 18 victories to his credit.

His opponent, No. 10 Shakur Rasheed, is a redshirt junior with 15 wins versus just two losses, and who could make things uncomfortable for the Mountain Man.

Prediction Time

With Nolf out of the lineup, this one feels more like an opportunity for the Buckeyes to make a statement than the nip-and-tuck affair it would have been otherwise. And yet with such prolific scorers on the Pin Penn State roster, it's foolish to project this as anything other than a dogfight, even with Nolf out of commission.

Give the Buckeyes the edge here, with six wins (maybe seven) ... and a final score of something like 22-17.