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NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 19, 2011

Bubba Jenkins

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

157-lb. Champion

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by our first winner by fall tonight, Bubba Jenkins. Improves to 21-3, national champion. Questions?

Q. You said yesterday that you wanted to go big brother on David Taylor. Was that just big brother?
BUBBA JENKINS: Yeah, that was big brother. Man, he put me in that position and that pinning combination so many times, you know. And I've seen it before and actually I learned that at Penn State. I was just going back to how we used to wrestle in the mat room and try anything.
It was my last seven minutes it didn't go a whole seven minutes, but that's what I wanted to do was to get a victory. I got one.

Q. You said you were at Penn State before, and you said yesterday it wasn't personal. Now that it's over, was there a little bit of extra fire there because you --
BUBBA JENKINS: Not towards David. Definitely towards Cael. He didn't think I was good enough or the right kid to win it at that weight class or any weight class. I wanted to go 149. But he had other ideals. And he got rid of me. And one man's trash is a whole country's treasure.

Q. You're sort of the anti-machine. You said you weren't Penn State's, Cael's, kind of guy, which is sort of a machine, and I guess David would be the closest thing -- or wanted to be a Cael clone. Do you sort of pride yourself on being the anti-machine?
BUBBA JENKINS: I played outside a lot on the swing sets and metal bars and played basketball. I didn't have too many toys and too many machines because I always broke them, always messed them up. Anytime my mom was buying machines for me, something electrical, something that was supposed to work or do something, I always found ways to break it.
And that's a machine out there. That was the Penn State kid. That was the phenomena toy, I suppose, and I found ways to break it and disassemble it.

Q. You seemed all tournament to be having fun. And you know this is your last year, new coaching staff, new college, new opportunity. Is that one of the reasons why you could go out there and perform so well with everyone watching?
BUBBA JENKINS: Absolutely. I mean, you're either going to love me or not going to love me. And as long as I'm having fun and as long as my friends and family think it's all in good and I'm not feeling too overconfident or too cocky, as long as I keep my head right and do the right things and say the right things, for the most part, it's all about having fun. And that's what they tell you to do, go out there and have some fun. That's what most coaches tell you right before the match.
And that's what I try to do, whether it's in my celebration or whether it's in the way I move or the way I train. Sometimes I'm singing music before, and people think, oh, he's overcocky, doing too much. But it's all about having fun for me, period.

Q. About the present and the future, do you think you were underrated coming into this tournament, and have you given any thoughts what you want to do afterwards, either wrestling or MMA or something?
BUBBA JENKINS: I definitely feel like I was underrated. They always underrate me. I guess since I moved West and got a tan they forgot about me and didn't think I was going to be back.
The tournament was in Philly, I was coming back to PA, and it wasn't just to see the sights and reminisce with old friends, it was coming to win it.
I showed up here tonight in a business suit, told my mom, bring my business suit. I don't want to wrestle, I don't want to show up in my wrestler wrestling gear. It's what I came for. I spent five hours on a flight for a business trip. And I went out there and handled my business.

Q. What's next, MMA or wrestling?
BUBBA JENKINS: MMA is next. I'm excited about it. I got fast hands, fast feet. The camera's going to love me, I hope. I got a good smile for it. I don't want to have to face the radio. I'm ready to go. I hope MMA, I just explode on the scene and start shocking the world. With me being a two-time finalist, National champ and Junior World champ, I believe that should give me some good fights to begin with. I don't want to just fight anybody, because I don't think just anybody's going to fight me, especially how fast I am.

Q. You made it look easy tonight, but it wasn't an easy trip since the last time you were at Penn State. First of all, when was the last time you were in Pennsylvania? Was it when you transferred? And just talk about the trip going through Arizona State, how that happened, and the influence of Askren with you.
BUBBA JENKINS: The trip was crazy because after I got released from Penn State, I called my mom and said, well, Cael said that's strike three for some reason, and I don't know whatever we want to do or what we're going to do. But I put it in God's hands and let him go through whatever plan it was.
And his plan was to move me somewhere, where people are going to care about me. It was cold, so I just said, God, move me somewhere warm where I can go outside with a wife-beater on or something.
And Stiff happened to be -- we wrestled at the same high school, trained under the same people. He used to come after Christmas break at Arizona State and come in the room, in the high school room, and just beat up on me. Since I've been a little guy, I've always wanted to be like Stiff. And I've been watching Askren win titles and being in the state Finals for a long time.
As soon as I got an opportunity to go somewhere and pick a school, I saw Stiff, Askren, Coach Charles, people who think outside the box and people who get the job done in an unfamiliar manner. So I felt it was a good choice for me.
They told me they'd take care of me and I had nothing to worry about. They weren't going to talk behind my back, they weren't going to stop and completely shut off talking to me. That's what I wanted. I wanted somebody who loved and cared for me, and Arizona coaching staff and the academic program and the people there at Arizona State are just amazing. It's been a good ride.

Q. What did it take to pin an aggressive wrestler like David Taylor?
BUBBA JENKINS: A lot of luck. I heard a quote it's better to be lucky than it is to be good. And I can tell you right now they should call me Lucky instead of Bubba. Because I saw something. I looked at it. And I just got lucky.

Q. What's your thought about both you and Anthony winning? The Sun Devils a couple of years ago I had to write a press release they were dropping wrestling, and now we have two national champions side by side on a pretty dang good night here. Tell us about the opportunity for you and your teammate to do this together.
BUBBA JENKINS: The two words we've been looking at all year, we've been training under it. We come in together at the end of every practice, and we break on it. And I remember when I was at Penn State and they dropped the program, I called Stiff, Man, are you good, what's up?
Two words that we've been going on all year is Sun Devil tough. That's what it's been the whole time. People counted us out of the Pac-10 and we came and wrestled Sun Devil tough. They counted us out of this tournament and we came in and wrestled Sun Devil tough. It's pretty much what we do. We're Devils. We don't look good at the beginning, and then we come back and we get the job done. It's just amazing.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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