Jason Nolf and the Best Non-Hodge Trophy Winning Seasons Since 2000

The ankle bands have been removed and gently placed in the center of the wrestling mat for the last time. 

Last week, Jason Nolf made a bit of a surprising announcement when he declared that he was retiring from the sport of wrestling. Nolf has a much-deserved reputation as one of the most entertaining and outstanding collegiate wrestlers of his generation. During his career at Penn State, Nolf was an integral part of four national title-winning teams and garnered three individual championships himself, amongst four NCAA finals appearances. 

Despite a lofty recruiting ranking (fourth in the Class of 2014), a very strong redshirt campaign, and an excellent start to his career, Nolf really introduced himself to the collegiate wrestling community with a shocking pin of Isaiah Martinez (Illinois) in their 2015-16 dual. Martinez was a returning national champion at the weight and was unbeaten in his career, up to that point. 

For the bulk of Nolf’s career, he was the second part of a back-to-back, 1-2 punch, with Zain Retherford,  in the middle of Penn State’s lineup that was as good as any we’ve ever seen. Nolf also came in during the same recruiting class as Bo Nickal and the pair both finished with tons of bonus points and three national titles a piece. 

The final tally on Nolf’s impressive collegiate career includes a sparkling 117-3 career record with bonus points in nearly 86% of his matches. Despite the recent run of legendary wrestlers through State College, Nolf finished his Penn State career as the all-time leader in pins with 60 - just one ahead of Nickal. His winning percentage (.975) is the fifth highest in school history though one of his losses came via injury default. 

While we didn’t realize it at the time, Nolf’s competitive career came to an end at Penn State’s Bryce-Jordan Arena at the 2024 Olympic Team Trials. Nolf made the finals after beating the legendary Jordan Burroughs; however, he was beaten in the best-of-three finals by fellow Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammate Kyle Dake. 

Since the Trials, Nolf has participated in grappling events and plans to continue down that road, while also getting into coaching. 

Nolf’s retirement reminded me that he’s one of the best wrestlers of the last 25 years to not own a Hodge Trophy. In fact, Nolf has put up two of the best seasons of the last decade for wrestlers who did not win the Hodge. Unfortunately, being on the same team and in the same era as wrestlers like Retherford and Nickal blocked Nolf from taking home college wrestling’s most coveted trophy. 

So, taking it a step further, who are others who put up incredible single-season numbers, yet did not win the Hodge Trophy in that particular season? 

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