The Nuce is Loose

Dec. 31—When we checked in with Henry Nuce in August, he was talking about donating stem cells to a cancer patient and accepting that his junior season with the Montana Grizzlies would have to wait.

A torn pectoral muscle early in training camp required surgery, so it didn’t figure that Nuce, a 6-foot-4, 245-pound Glacier High product, would see the turf at Washington-Grizzly Stadium until 2024.

But on Dec. 8 there the defensive end was, chasing down Furman quarterback Tyler Huff for a sack.

“I was going around the edge on the right tackle,” Nuce said Friday, after practice ahead of the FCS title game on Jan. 7. “The QB stepped up so I countered in, and he ran right into me, kind of.”

It didn’t seem likely or even possible that he would be on the field, but now he’d contributed nicely to Montana’s 35-28 overtime win over the Paladins. And by the time Cat-Griz week rolled around, Nuce had a pretty good idea he’d return.

“Around the Bozeman game,” he said. “Basically PT (physical therapy) was going really well. I was getting a lot stronger, making really good progress, and talking to Dr. Stayner, he said if it keeps getting better, you can probably go. We beat Bozeman, then we had a bye week, I didn’t play against Delaware and then Furman, that’s when I got in.”

He was back out there on Dec. 16 for Montana’s epic 31-29 double-overtime semifinal win over North Dakota State.

The Grizzlies, who play upwards of 20 men on defense, are happy to have him back.

“I don’t think anybody really thought he could make it back this year,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck said. “But at the time, we did a little research on how long it took (Pittsburgh Steeler defensive end) TJ Watt to come back from it, and that’s about the schedule that Hank got on and wanted to be on.

“So he worked hard at it, and the medical people, his surgeon, the PT people…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nuce-loose-031600086.html

Author : Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, Mont.

Publish date : 2024-01-01 03:16:00

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