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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As Ohio State coach Tom Ryan slowly strode into a makeshift media room in the west end of St. John Arena on Friday, he bore the countenance of a man beaten down by defeat.
His No. 6 Buckeyes had just been trounced, 28-9, by No. 1 Penn State and few people outside of the Nittany Lions' locker room saw that kind of domination coming.
"I didn't envision it going that way. I thought we were ready to win tonight. Where we thought we were and what happened tonight are drastically different. I did not think this could happen," Ryan said.
Give Ryan credit for facing the media and answering every question posed to him, honestly and fully. Many Penn State fans don't like Ryan because in their eyes he's guilty of two things: coaching rival Ohio State and talking passionately about his Buckeyes, admitting to the excitement of wins and the despair of defeats.
Meanwhile, outside of the visiting locker room on the east side of St. John, Penn State coach Cael Sanderson met the media, too. With the exception of some carefully chosen words, it would have been difficult for casual observers to discern whether Sanderson had just watched his team lose a tight match to an excellent team in their home gym or what had actually happened.
As he usually is, Sanderson was measured in
his responses, displaying none of the excitement many would expect after such a resounding, some would say unexpected, victory.
"We believe in our guys, obviously. They wrestled great matches," he said.
But when asked whether this was one of the more clutch wins he had seen in a while, Sanderson demurred.
"I don't know," he said. "We've got a lot of matches left. This is a great atmosphere and Ohio State does an awesome job. We're happy with the way our guys came in and wrestled today, for sure."
Most fans were probably as surprised to read Sanderson's understated responses as the media were to hear them. And, yet, if you spend enough time around the Penn State program, that attitude has been more the norm than outsized responses to wins or losses.
Since 2011, Penn State and Ohio State have dominated both the Big Ten and NCAA championships. The Nittany Lions have claimed seven NCAA titles and five Big Ten titles. Ohio State, in that same time frame, has won an NCAA title and twice finished second. The Buckeyes have also won three Big Ten titles, tying Iowa atop the standings in 2015.
A strong argument could be made that Penn State, followed by Ohio State, have separated from the rest of college wrestling at the top of the heap. The results back up that argument. The Nittany Lions have further separated themselves from the Buckeyes.
Why is that?
It's not talent alone. Ohio State has counted almost as many transcendant wrestlers in the past eight years as Penn State. But clearly the Nittany Lions have been able to more consistently produce championship results than the Buckeyes.
What's the secret?
Some clues may be found in some of Ryan's responses on Friday.
"We had to hold our ground in the five weights that we were favored and we didn't hold our ground. The score is lopsided, but the smallest things make the biggest differences," he said.
He cited a takedown that Luke Pletcher almost scored on Roman Bravo-Young in the sudden-victory period of the opening match of the night. Pletcher was in deep, but couldn't convert when Bravo-Young countered the move at the last moment.
Ryan also talked about how, despite building a 5-2 lead, Joey McKenna wasn't able to hold it against Nick Lee. In fact, Lee's strong third period was the difference in a close win in the second match of the night.
Those two upsets set the tone for the evening.
"When you wrestle somebody -- even though seven minutes doesn't seem that long -- when you wrestle somebody that makes you fight for every morsel, you can break down and we saw Joey as the match went on, he broke down," he said.
Despite the obvious disappointment he felt, Ryan still gave credit where it was due.
"This is one of the great teams. I've been in this sport for a long time. They've got guys on that team, four of the best college wrestlers we've seen in the last 25 years. Credit to them: (Jason) Nolf, (Bo) Nickal, Cenzo (Vincenzo Joseph Joseph), Mark Hall. Those are all guys at a really elite level. We just need to clip them at the weights we should have and we didn't," he said.
"It's hard to teach something you've never felt. We had four or five freshmen (actually three) out there tonight and they're feeling something in a competition they just haven't felt before, and a lot of them broke down. I think you saw it in the third period. We broke down. This is a really good team but that's (Penn State) a special team."
Conversely, the Nittany Lions produced results at the most crucial times and in matches that those results were expected from their opponents. Even that produced ho-hum responses from Sanderson.
What asked what the mood was like in his locker room, he said, "It's the same. I think the guys are happy. All's good, but we've got to keep getting better."
Maybe, in the final analysis, that's the difference. Perhaps Sanderson and Penn State's never-too-high, never-too-low approach and attitude is like kryptonite to Ryan and Ohio State's thrill of victory and agony of defeat atmosphere.
That style might be boring to some and it may rarely produce memorable sound bites, but if it enables the Nittany Lions to wrestle their best at the most crucial moments, then isn't that exciting enough?