Preview: No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 1 Penn State

Last season Ohio State's "super team" rolled into Happy Valley with the best wrestler on the planet leading the charge, but even Kyle Snyder couldn't bring Penn State's incredible dual-meet win streak to an end.

PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS

10-0, 6-0 Big Ten Conference ROSTER / SCHEDULE

8:30 P.M. – FRIDAY, FEB. 8 ST. JOHN ARENA COLUMBUS, OHIO

BROADCAST: Big Ten Network STREAMING: FloWrestling

The Buckeyes lost the dual in a 19-18 heartbreaker.

In some ways this year's story is similar – the teams are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, both are incredibly talented, and Penn State is still the 800-pound gorilla – but these two teams are not the same squads that squared off a year ago in the Pennsylvania backwoods.

Kyle Snyder is gone. Zain Retherford isn't suiting up for the Nittany Lions. These are still the two "super teams" in college wrestling, but last year's squads were simply legendary. Their 2019 analogs have more young wrestlers trying to make their mark, even if the story of an incredible Ohio State team challenging the invincible Penn State program feels the same.

On home turf, in front of 13,000 screaming fans, Ohio State feels like it can be as good as any team in the country: even perennial national champion Penn State.

The Penn State Nittany Lions

Head Coach Cael Sanderson

What Cael Sanderson has done since taking the reins of the Penn State wrestling program is nothing short of astounding. Prior to his arrival, Penn State was not considered among the sports' elite programs – the Nittany Lions hadn't won an NCAA team title since 1953.

Himself one of the all-time great wrestlers in the sport, Sanderson left his alma mater Iowa State and created a dynasty on the order of Nick Saban's Crimson Tide or Bill Belichick's New England Patriots. His teams have won seven of the past eight NCAA Championships, a streak itself interrupted only by Ohio State in 2015.

The program is almost unbeatable in dual meets, coming into Columbus looking to win their 56th in a row, a streak stretching back to Feb. 22, 2015. Nine members of the lineup are ranked by FloWrestling, and four are No. 1 in their weight class.

Jason Nolf, Vincenzo Joseph, Mark Hall and Bo Nickal make up Penn State's murderer's row, with seven individual NCAA titles among them. Three of them face ranked Buckeye challengers, but only Nickal faces a competitor who an objective observer would give a reasonable shot at pulling off the upset.

Joining them are a group of up and coming freshmen and sophomores in the lighter weights, and a pair of Top-5 seniors at 184 and heavyweight. Ohio State will open strong in its first four matches, but Penn State finishes as strong as any team in the history of the sport.

Buckeye Breakdown

Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan said on the Eleven Warriors Radio Hour earlier this week that, "on paper, this meet is 5-5." The Buckeyes feel confident they can win the first four matches in the meet, and that Myles Martin will win at 184.

Penn State knows it will win four of the last six, and has a strong favorite at heavyweight.

The difference in winning and losing if the dual is truly 5-5 comes down to bonus points, and Penn State scores them in buckets. Earlier this week the NCAA released its most-dominant wrestler standings through January's duals, and Penn State features the Top 4 men in the country.

Nickal, Nolf and Joseph each have at least 10 pins to their credit this season, adding on average more than 5 team points per match to Penn State's score. If the Buckeyes grind out a series of low-scoring decisions in their victories, Penn State goes home with win number 56.

Presuming the dual starts at 125, Ryan and company like their chances in the early going, and the focus for Malik Heinselman, Luke Pletcher, Joey McKenna and Micah Jordan will be to give the guys after them as much cushion as possible in the team score.

Heinselman has a shot to do so given the level of competition he is facing in this match, but he only has five bonus point victories to his credit this season. Pletcher opened the year with a string of bonus point victories, but hasn't done so in a dual meet since Arizona State.

Undefeated Joey McKenna has bonus in 9 of his 14 wins, and is riding a 5-match bonus streak. He also faces a young sophomore in Nick Lee who has only one loss on his record this season; when the two met last season, McKenna won by a single point.

Micah Jordan earned bonus points in six of his last seven victories, and has four pins and four tech falls to his credit on the season. He probably has the best shot of the first four to add more than three points to the team tally.

ICYMI: @Buckeye158 joined us to discuss this Friday's dual with No. 1 Penn State.https://t.co/BzWsZaKBGQ

— The Eleven Warriors Radio Hour (@11WRadioHour) February 7, 2019

From there, the pendulum swings widely in Penn State's favor. 

Ke-Shawn Hayes moved up to 157 this season, where Nolf is on track to win his third-straight NCAA title. Against common opponents, Hayes is 6-4 and Nolf is 16-1, and the 1 in that record was an injury default.

Vincenzo Joseph will likely manhandle either Te'Shan Campbell or Kaleb Romero, and although Ethan Smith is having one of the best seasons of Ohio State's first-year starters, he faces a two-time NCAA finalist in Mark Hall. Smith hasn't backed down from anyone yet, though, so how he responds to a wrestler of Hall's caliber will be exciting to watch in any event.

So the outcome of the match likely comes down to the final three bouts.

At 184, Myles Martin knows he has what it takes to win this match, and Ohio State has nothing but confidence in their undefeated senior captain.

The 197-pound weight class should have been all about Kollin Moore this season, but Bo Nickal decided to move up. Nickal hasn't lost a match since Myles Martin upended him at the 2017 Big Ten Tournament, and he entered the year favored over Moore, who finished fourth at last year's NCAA tournament after a pair of shocking losses to Kent State's Kyle Conel.

Moore is undefeated this season, and has four pins in his last seven matches along with a tech and a major decision. His mental preparation for the match will likely be the key to victory, as he presents a totally different style of wrestler for Nickal than Myles Martin did the past two years.

If the first nine matches play out as they do on paper, that leaves the dual up to the big eaters... just like last season. Kyle Snyder won via a major decision in Happy Valley, but needed a tech fall to seal the deal.

This season the Buckeyes can't pin their hopes on needing four or five points from redshirt freshman Chase Singletary. Singletary has done a solid job in his first year of duty in the starting lineup, with eight bonus point victories to his credit – on the other hand, he's dropped decisions to the two top-10 wrestlers he's faced since the Cliff Keen tournament, and Anthony Cassar presents every bit the challenge Mason Parris did in the Michigan dual.

What to Expect

Fireworks. Plenty of fireworks. Ohio State is contesting this dual at St. John Arena and has reportedly sold upward of 13,000 tickets for the meet.

Asking fans to dress for a "scarlet-out," the team is pulling out all the stops to create a fan-friendly atmosphere that is intimidating for the heavily-favored visitors.

Ohio State hasn't defeated Penn State in a dual in quite some time, and the teams have traded Big Ten and NCAA titles over the past four seasons, with one winning the conference crown and the other winning the NCAA championship two weeks later.

The story of college wrestling for the better part of the decade has been these two teams. Tonight's meet is just the next chapter in what has become an incredible rivalry.