Sanderson comments on the injury of NCAA champ Jason Nolf
They’re not counting him out yet.
Just over 24 hours after returning national champion Jason Nolf suffered a knee injury at Rutgers, which forced him to medically forfeit out of Penn State’s 25-15 win, head coach Cael Sanderson offered the first public update on the status of his 157-pounder.
Talking to Jeff Byers on the Penn State Coaches Radio Show, Sanderson said Nolf had an MRI and X-ray and the results give them hope that Nolf will be able to return for the postseason in March.
“Really, it’s not as bad as we feared, but it’s going to be some time before we get him back in, just to play it safe and try to get him back to close as 100 percent as we can before the postseason,” said Sanderson. “We probably won’t even try to get him a dual meet. We’ll just try to get him ready for the postseason. It will be week to week, and Jason seems to recover and get back on his feet with minor injuries. This one is not quite as minor, but it’s not anything that needed surgery or anything, so it’s just a matter of time.”
It was in the second period against John Van Brill when Nolf’s leg got caught awkwardly during a scramble. Combined with Van Brill locking control around the foot of Nolf, it was a situation that sometimes warrants a potentially dangerous call. The clock wasn’t stopped, however, until Nolf called for injury time.
“We would’ve liked to have seen it called earlier. Jason kind of put himself in that position so you can’t blame, and he knows better than that,” Sanderson said. “He just has really wiry and flexible joints and that’s probably why he’s not hurt as bad as most people would have been in the same situation.”
With the two-time All-American from Kittanning, Pa., now all but sidelined for the rest of the regular season, the question becomes who replaces him with three dual meets left on the schedule? The next two are at home against Ohio State and Iowa.
The injury isn’t enough for Sanderson to pull a redshirt from true freshman Brady Berge, he said, so it’s likely someone will jump up a weight class to fill in for the final month. Redshirt freshman Bo Pipher is listed on the roster as a 141/149-pounder but he’s wrestled as high as 165 earlier this season when he filled in for Vincenzo Joseph at Lehigh.
“We have a handful guys who are at those weight classes who can step in and wrestle, so we’ll just try to figure out who will give us the best effort and just the fighting spirit,” Sanderson said. “If it was a deal where you had a guy – if Jason wasn’t coming back, this would be a time where you pull Berge’s redshirt. We’re very optimistic that we’ll have a strong Nolf back postseason so that’s not even a consideration.”
Kuhn’s debut?
Penn State added 125-pound graduate transfer Carson Kuhn to its official roster shortly after the start of the spring semester. He has yet to make his debut in the lineup.
Will that come against national champion Nathan Tomasello when Ohio State enters Rec Hall Saturday night?
“There’s a chance,” Sanderson said of the Boise State grad. “He just needs to be ready to go and we need to all be on the same page. He’s been working hard and he’s wanted go the last couple matches. We just haven’t felt he was quite ready to go. As soon as he’s ready we’ll throw him out. We just want to see where he’s at. We don’t know.”
Back and forth at 197
When it comes to PSU’s postseason 197-pounder, a decision still is up in the air.
Anthony Cassar, the opening day starter, won by major decision at Rutgers, while challenger Shakur Rasheed continued his bonus spree with a 55-second pin vs. Minnesota Friday. It's not yet enough separation for Sanderson to publicize a choice between one or the other.
“No update really,” Sanderson said. “You guys see what see what I see. I think they were both true to character this weekend. Shak has the ability to go out there and pin guys, and Cassar can score a lot of points, so we’re kind of back and forth. I really do believe both of them, if you throw them in the bracket, I think they can both be All-Americans. At some point we’re going to wrestle them off or make a tough decision.”