This year, there is more than one true freshman with the last name of Lee that is taking the nation by storm. One of those Lees has already been freed, and this weekend is the right time to free the other.

Penn State is traveling to Ann Arbor and East Lansing this Sunday, so now is the perfect time to burn Nick Lee’s redshirt. The Nittany Lions have only wrestled one Big Ten dual, so he still has plenty of time to earn himself a good seed for the conference tournament.

With Jered Cortez suffering yet another injury at the Southern Scuffle, the time is imminent for Cael Sanderson and the PSU coaching staff. Lee is 15-3 this season, 13-3 against Division 1 competition. His only ranked win to date though is his pin over Josh Alber in the semis of the Southern Scuffle, a match that drastically altered our perception of Lee.

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He could add two more ranked wins this weekend against No. 19 Javier Gasca and No. 20 Sal Profaci. Meanwhile, his losses are to #3 Yianni Diakomihalis, Kaden Gfeller, and #12 Brock Zacherl. The No. 9 recruit from the 2017 Big Board should get those reps against ranked guys now while he still can

Even if Cortez was healthy though, the primary reason to take Lee off redshirt is that Penn State needs team points at NCAAs. Admittedly wrestling a tougher schedule, but Cortez has just two pins and a major this year, while Lee has racked up four pins, seven techs, and four majors thus far. Which means every time Lee wins, he picks up bonus points.

This is also about the same time that they pulled Mark Hall off of redshirt last year, with Hall making his attached varsity debut on January 20th at Carver-Hawkeye, a loss to Alex Meyer. After the match, many questioned the decision to wrestle Hall, but he would go on to win a national title. While the current data does not suggest Lee is a national title contender this year, the point is that that giving him two-plus months to work out any jitters is the best case scenario for him finishing on the podium.

The final point in favor of wrestling Lee is that it allows Penn State to get creative with his redshirt later on. We’ve seen them redshirt Nico Megaludis in his fourth year and Zain Retherford in his second year, so they’re not opposed to using it down the road. Also, Lee is healthy now, and might not be in say his second or third or fourth year. Plus, we know that Michael Beard isn’t signing until the 2019 class, so Cael very likely has a long term plan to try and fit in all the guys currently on the roster with the stellar incoming class.