Bubba Jenkins' stay at Arizona State will be short.

But Arizona State wrestling coach Shawn Charles is a man in a hurry, and if Jenkins helps speed the rebuilding of the program and affects the training habits of others, then the short-term investment will more than pay off.

Jenkins was the 2008 NCAA runner-up at 149 pounds while at Penn State. He'll wrestle at 157 for the Sun Devils, whose most recent national champion was Eric Larkin (149) in 2003. Brian Stith was the 2006 NCAA runner-up at 157 pounds, and now as an assistant coach will try to help Jenkins, a fellow Virginian, become the school's ninth individual champion.

The Sun Devils were 30th at the 2010 NCAA Championships with only one finisher - Anthony Robles, seventh at 125 - in the top eight. That's not what Charles had in mind when he returned 14 months ago to coach ASU, where he was a four-time All-American (1990-93). The Sun Devils most-recent top-10 NCAA finish was in 2006, when they finished sixth.

"Townsend Saunders told me, 'Don't wait to be successful,' " Charles said of his former ASU teammate, the 1996 Olympic silver medalist. "I've taken that to heart in pretty much everything I've done at Arizona State. He said, 'Wrestle every year like it's your last year. Go get it when you can.' I like to think I wake up with that mentality every day. Why wait?"

Charles combed the country in signing an 11-man recruiting class he believes will launch a "new era" of ASU wrestling. But if he sticks with a plan to redshirt eight incoming freshmen, then the immediate difference makers would be transfers Jenkins, Luke Macchiaroli of Tempe (also formerly at Penn State) and Luke Ashmore (Oklahoma State).

It's no secret that Jenkins did not hit it off with Cael Sanderson, who left Iowa State to coach at Penn State weeks before ASU hired Charles.

"I don't like him at all," said Jenkins, whose release from Penn State to immediately compete elsewhere prevented him from transferring to another Big Ten or Big 12 school. "He's not someone I would send my kid to or want leading my team. It was time to move."

A combined 73-21 in three seasons at Penn State, Jenkins lost only to Iowa's Brent Metcalf at the 2008 NCAA Championships. He was undefeated (22-0) in the 2008-09 regular season despite injuries to his back and an ankle, which also led to a quick exit (he lost his first two matches) at the 2009 nationals.

Academically ineligible in the fall, Jenkins said he was forced out at Penn State before the second semester by Sanderson.

While considering his transfer options, Jenkins was named the Outstanding Wrestler after winning at the University Nationals (145.5 pounds freestyle) in April. Now Jenkins, who wrestles in open tournaments for Scottsdale-based Sunkist Kids, is preparing for what is likely to be a farewell wrestling tour. He already is planning for his next move, into mixed martial arts.

"Right when I win my national championship (at ASU), I'm starting to fight UFC," Jenkins said. "People are telling me I need to go freestyle, but it's a new era, and I've been doing this wrestling thing for a while. I'm trying to evolve into getting UFC while I'm young and my while body can still do things I need it to do.

"What intrigues me about it is wrestlers can now pick a sport and go professional with the basics of what they know already. The fact I could wrestle someone and punch them at the same time and not get in trouble for it, that's the most-intriguing part. And the money."

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