 Coach Ryan, you got me fired up right now. You got me thinking about my kids a lot right now. When you talk about your son Teague, how hard is that first off? It's hard, you know, every time it takes a little bit of you to share because it brings you back, right? When you're talking about something of that, that's, that's that meaningful to you. It takes a little piece of you, but you weigh, you weigh what it can offer others compared to how it's going to impact you. So I do it because, because I think, I think it helps. I think it helps young people understand that they're not vulnerable and that helps me get my point across. How lost in your life were you at that point in time? I was lost. I mean, I was, I was beyond lost. I didn't know much. I was in deep, deep, deep despair. Family struggle, marriage struggle, kids were struggling. It was a tough time for us. And at the time, I really didn't, I didn't not know God, but I really never put that much effort into knowing why I was here. So it galvanized me to start, think about some things that are not earthly, that, you know, the two options, as I say, is there a God or not a God? So there's either evolution is true or God's true. And maybe God caused evolution is either a God or not. So for me, it was a really tough time. Yeah. Now you give so much. You always talk about output. You always talk about like tempo. You have the highest tempo of like one of the humans I've ever seen, you know, how much longer can you keep this up, man? It's just like incredible for me to see your output as a human, as a coach, as a father, husband, everything you do as a motivator, everything you do as a mentor. You always talk about service, but how much longer can you keep this tempo? I can ask you the same question. You're everywhere. Every time you're all over the world interviewing people. So you got that energy too. We love what we do, right? I'm challenged a lot. I got a lot of great people around me. I got a life coach that's really good. This guy named Chet Scott, I'm built to lead. He challenged me constantly. He's challenged me for my 50th birthday, which is next year. We're going to France. We're gonna bike in France and the mountains of France. We're gonna do eight stages at the Tour de France. So he's challenged me on that. He keeps me growing. You know, I want to be able to, I have two sons on earth and one in heaven. I got a daughter on earth. I want to be able to wrestle their kids and put it to them, at least for a while, right? That's one of the things I think about it. So I got to take care of my body. It's the only one God gave me. So I want to make sure I take care of myself. I also know that when I'm suffering, I'm staying humble. So I use the pain of training to keep me humble because it connects you constantly to pain and discomfort. And when we're under duress, we're learning a lot. So it's a lifestyle. And it's reinforced by those I choose to allow into my inner circle of life. Okay, so Coach Drosser is watching him. He moves unbelievable for 55 years old. Are you 50 yet? I'm going to be 50 next time. You gotta be 50. So you're in incredible shape too. Doesn't look like any joint replacements are on the horizon for either one of you. That's incredible to me. Yeah, I've never had a surgery. That's unreal. Yeah, it's, yeah. You've never had anything? No, tonsils. Okay, that doesn't count. I have my tonsils out, but I've never had shoulder, knees or so I admire people. I think you coached it. I don't know what it's like to go through that, right? Six months recovery and the disappointment, right? I've not been able to improve because that's how we lead people think. They always want to get better. But yeah, for me, no injuries, hopefully none from them. You guys are in the same school, coaching school through Dan Gable. He's older than you obviously, but every time I ever ask you for your time, every time I ever see anybody that's not even media people ask you for time, I've never seen you say no. That's incredible to me. We could do another interview after this for another 20 months. I'm not gonna do that. But like, where does that come from? Why do you guys come from the same coaching school? Why are you always so easily accessible? Why is this so important to you? I think that, I think something is my, obviously I have a family that's did a really good job raising me. My mom was an angel. My mom never assessed me on how good of a wrestler I was or a student. She just loved me, right? That unconditional love that lot don't get. So I don't take for granted that everyone grows up in a home where unconditional love is there. It was for me. If I won a tournament, it was third. There was no dinner, it wasn't different. Conversation to the table wasn't different. It was always about me just being the best of me, right? So when you grow up with that foundation of love, you kinda, I think that's helped. When I reflect the other thing is I'm just grateful. I mean, there's a lot of people that were better wrestlers than me, right? There's a lot of people that could be in the position that I'm in, right? That are loved to sport and hardworking. And I just feel really grateful that I'm able to do something I love and give back a chair. Jake Ryan, gonna get married soon, you said that. How proud are you of Jake? I mean, he didn't finish wrestling out his whole career. He made the end state tournament for you and almost knocked off, got some revenge for you almost against Joe Joseph. Same ending for both of us. Our careers have been very similar. Ironically, in the state semifinals, he blew his hand out. In the state semifinals, his senior year, he blew his hand out and had to wrestle in the state finals injured. My senior year, I blew my ankle out in the state finals, in the state quarter finals and had to wrestle injured. Fast forward at the national tournament. He lost to a Smith in the final seconds and I lost to a Smith in the final seconds. So we've got very similar paths. I'm really proud that he chose what he chose. He was pretty, he had some injuries and he really didn't wanna get to surgeries and continue to wrestle. So wrestling, him wrestling's never about me. It's about him and what he wants. So he has a love for, he's got a great video marketing company. Photography. Photography. He's incredible. He's got another incredible eye for it. You know, he'll walk 30, 40 miles into the heart of the Grand Canyon to get a picture of a tree that's standing by itself because he loves it. And it's amazing when people find their deep love and passion, what they're willing to do. And he's willing to do more in the world of photography and picture taking than he was ever as someone that's wanted to train and train and train. So he found his love, right? Then the day is at this level, at this level, there's certainly a need to find the things you love about and hold on to them. So I'm really proud of him. He's getting married on the officiant. Are you? So he asked me to marry him. He's pretty awesome. He's a fiance, Abbey. I married Micah Jordan last week. Are you serious? I married Micah and Addy, got married last week and that was a lot of fun. And I've done a few athletes. I'm doing Logan December 15th, so I got his wedding. So I jokingly say that. How many of you done? Well, I've done, so I did Alex Picasso, Cody Magger, Micah Jordan, now Jake Ryan. I'll do Logan Stiever. And the thing that I say, jokingly, but it's true, is that most wrestlers are starting out, most of them are broke. They're broke, they have no money, right? So I can save them some, I'm free. I'm free, I'll charge, I'll charge for anything. So I ran it through compliance, of course I ran it through compliance, but yeah, just one of the things I really, I've come to embrace and really love the fact that, you know, if the end goal, if the end goal for me is to get to heaven. That's what my mindset is. Listen, it's there a lot. Like I want to, there's a lot of things I want on earth, but my main thinking is constantly heaven. And when you're constantly thinking heaven, things down here are different. Okay, I don't even know how to shift gears from that, man. Okay, you guys have an unbelievable facility. The big running joke is you sleep there, you eat your lunch there, you do everything there, you use the porta-potties there. That's the big running joke. Cavalli Center? Cavalli Center, Jennings Center. Okay, incredible, it'll be the new biggest process. You know, it'll be the nicest in the world until the group of people from another institution or organization say we want better and bigger and more, and they'll pass it, but upon its completion, it'll be the nicest on earth. What do you do next year? I asked Drossner what he was gonna do with car, for example. Ratchard, what are you doing next year with guys? You're going full, you wanna win every year. You have the greatest runner-up finish in the history that's, I mean, let's call it what it is, right? I mean, what do you do next year? We put, so we use common sense, right? We don't blindly jump into this. I mean, the objective is always to put the best team on the mat. So I wanna put the best team on the mat. And if putting the best team on the mat also makes the most sense, so let's just say, for example, I said one that comes to mind right now, right, is Malik Heimson. He's probably of all the guys we have is the biggest question mark, what do we do with it? Right, he's been here all summer, he's really impressive, he looks great. You only put him in if he can help at the elite level, right? Just to have a really solid 25 pounder. Why waste a year for him, right? If he's not really quite ready to be elite. So other than 125, we don't have a ton of question marks. Everyone else can come in and red shirt. Now, it could get complicated if someone goes down at their weight and there's a really good red shirt behind them, then you got a decision like, yeah, Malik, do you pull them, do you not pull them? We don't have many big decisions this year. The biggest decision I think right now for our staff is, when do we pull Malik? Do we pull Malik? Is Malik ready to be pulled to 25? Other than that, Romero, Romero is already red shirted, Ethan Smith is red shirted. Micah 49. So Micah, Micah, may go 49, Joe. You got three guys for two weights. You got three all American guys, basically. You know, to get the possibility of Micah staying up, Joey going to 49, Keisha going to 41. There's just a lot of options in there. And at the end of the day, we'll use common sense. We'll make a decision and move forward with it. You know, with you guys falling short, how you did this year, I mean, Miles is incredible. Miles is the best, probably the hardest working guy, most improved guy, and for him to lose the weight, he was going after it. He was, he was up for it. How good do you feel? He was going after it. I was proud of him. I mean, I was proud of him. He was ready to compete. He trained hard. He was ready for the match. He was excited. You can see by the way the match started, he ran him out of bounds the first time they get back to the center. He's right back in his legs, picks up two, picks up two backs. And I mean, he broke position. He made a little mistake. Kudos to, you know, to Nicole for, he was giving up backs and give up backs. Again, if you don't get pinned there, we got two more backs. We're up six, seven, eight, nothing. Didn't work out that way. But love that he went after it. Miles Monner's a leader for us. I mean, you of course think about what it could have been, right? It could have been Epic. Kyle Snyder's walking on the mat and we're three points behind. Right, that's, if Miles, if Miles knew, Miles could do the math. He's focused on the score and wrestling score. Think about the wrestling. Miles wins with three points down. The last match of the tournament. It's a four point match. Best RTC. He was set up to be Epic, but Miles is going to be great leader for us great captain. You got four guys in the world team. Best RTC in the, I think in the country in my opinion. You know, two junior or a U-23 guys and you got two senior level guys. Here we have one in the Greco junior team. Yeah, I mean, five guys, okay. Looking at the RTC, how important is it to the growth of Ohio State? Well, it's, I don't, I mean, I would say this to any coach at this level and you, this is a strong statement. I've made it a few times already talking to coaches. You can't win if you don't have a good order. This is a question, yeah. I don't think there's any, I think it's a non-negotiable. Right, there are certain things that organizations have to have in order to climb the elite. I mean, camp might be almost too strong of a word, but it's never happened before. In the hundred years of college wrestling, no team has ever won that hasn't had the training center. The elite people training there. It's a formula for success no matter what organization you've got around the world. You must have elite people around you. You must have a standard that is so high that people are constantly striving to get there. When you have Olympic champs or elite level wrestlers around incoming freshmen, they grow because they can be put under duress and they have examples and example of a greatest teacher. So for me, it's a pillar. For me, it's a pillar. So the pillar is I got to fundraise, I got to continue to build our fan base, make friends and keep it strong. Nobody hustles more than you. Would you hustle 10 times more if it turned into a bidding war with, you know, Oklahoma just took all of the guys from Stillwater, literally, except for one guy. If it turned into Kyle or Logan leaving, would you do whatever it took to keep them? Of course, no question about it. I mean, there are things that, there are things that in life you deem as non-negotiable and they're not. So if someone offered Kyle or Kyle felt there was a better training situation, that's not always about the money. Or Maryland. Or Maryland, whatever. Or Maryland, if you do everything you can, you do everything you can to keep him, but at the same time, if you can't give him what he needs to improve or to have joy, then he should go. So let's play this out. Let's just say for Maryland, for Kyle, for example, if I truly love him, I'll provide him with everything I can to help him, but I will also understand that there might come a point in time where I can, and then he should go where that is. Right, I can provide a place close to his family. Yeah, I can. It's too much of a distance, but I can provide him. I went and picked up, I helped him. I helped him get Taha here. Taha's training with him now, right? He went up. It's not gonna happen. I mean, Kyle, what can I do to help you? How can I help you? He's his best coach. He's a great self-coach. He said, just bring me meat. Bring me people, bring me training part. Help me. He made the contact with Taha. He set up the plans. I picked up the airport, dropped them off, their buddies. They love each other, love training me. So yeah, anything I can do to help them grow? I help. Is he irreplaceable? Man, he's pretty darn special. He's one of the, he's whole. He's the holiest person I know. He's holy person. He's just so, he's so rooted in heaven that the only things that for the most part that come out of his mouth, his action show are the same exact things that he brings in. He's a reflection of his thoughts. His thoughts are good. His thoughts are always good. I admire him a lot. He's helped me a lot. Okay, last thing, you know, there's been a lot of controversy at Ohio State. Yeah. You know, now there's a thing, I admire paid administrative leave. Sure. Okay, something about assistant coach, domestic abuse. Apparently, you know, we're mandated reporters in an educational situation. You are, I am, as a teacher. And then, you know, the Doc Strauss thing, that wasn't under your tenure. He was gone, obviously. 20 years ago. 20 years, yeah, 30 years ago. When you look at this stuff, how does this affect your program and how do you deal with it and does it affect or matter to you guys in the sense, what is Ohio State? What are you doing with Ohio State? Yeah, so, you know, in regard to the matters, you know, due to university guidelines, I can't discuss the matters in particular. I can discuss how much I love or admire, how much I trust or admire what good friends we are. I care about them. I can discuss the fact that in general society, unfortunately, likes to develop a theory, their own. Come up with a mindset that they believe is truth. And then, despite all the information that they get, they discard the information and might just prove the theory that they are not sure about. And they only allow, they only allow information that fits their hypothesis into their decision making. So, this is an investigation undergoing. I'm not part of it. I recommend this. And if someone in the Strauss side, if something happened to somebody, they need to come forward, share the information. I think every human being right as a coach, all I want is things to be fair for my student athletes who are officiating. I just want fairness. From a human being standpoint, we want justice. So, I don't, I'm not involved in the case. And like I said, it was a long time ago. I wasn't here. And I just wish that people would slow down, not be so quick to judge, not be so quick to jump up on a pedestal and finger wag and say, let me get all the facts before I start judging. Does information move too fast? And have you had any contact with Jim Jordan who they hung all these crazy allegations on? Yeah, I mean, I know the Jordan family. I know Jim. I know Jeff. I talked to Jim. I saw Jim at the wedding, you know, I love the Jordan family. I think Jim Jordan, as far as I know, is incredible integrity, but I wasn't there, I wasn't around. And I really can't comment too much more than that. Coach, you probably got some stuff going on. I know you probably got to go shake some hands, kiss some babies, give some speeches. You got anything else for me? No, man, thanks. Appreciate all the work you do. Thanks for the time. It's always great to talk to you. I got to do a quick selfie with you, all right? Thanks, man.