Junior Bubba Jenkins said he will likely redshirt for the 2009-2010 season, pushing his final year of eligibility back to the 2010-2011 campaign.
Jenkins said he and the coaching staff discussed redshirting this season, but because he did wrestle, the coaching staff felt he should redshirt the following year.
"It's absolutely what I want to do," he said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "I wanted to last year but they thought it'd be better if I wrestled. I did it, and I had a pretty successful year up until the postseason."
The 149-pound wrestler has been injured for the majority of the season -- sitting out for seven of the eight Big Ten dual meets with an ankle sprain.
In the NCAA Tournament last weekend, Jenkins said he was plagued by back spasms, causing him to lose two consecutive matches and end his season going 0-2 at nationals.
As he was lying in bed of his hotel room in St. Louis watching television the night before the first round of NCAAs, Jenkins said his back would start to spasm for 10 to 12 minutes at a time. After about a three-minute break, it would start to spasm up again.
Athletic trainer Dan Monthley gave Jenkins heat for his back, and Jenkins said his back felt well enough to wrestle. However, in the first round of the tournament, up 6-1 on Matt Fittery, Jenkins was scrambling when his back "started to go crazy."
"It was kind of like slow motion," Jenkins said. "The crowd was going crazy because the kid was taking me down, in the first round and I'm the No. 2 seed going down. The crowd was indifferent, a lot of them were rooting and the rest were in awe. As far as what was going through my mind, 'I can't feel my back. I can't move my legs.' It's so disappointing."
He would not record another takedown for the remainder of the tournament.
Jenkins said his legs were numb and he "really had no control" over them during his two matches. If the matches were not at the NCAA Tournament, Jenkins said he wouldn't have likely wrestled in them.
To end an undefeated regular season on three losses is disappointing, but Jenkins said it would have been a lot worse if it was his senior season, or if he had control of the situation.
The worst part, though, was sitting around watching the best wrestlers in the country compete, while he was in street clothes.
"Walking around for the rest of the tournament and people looking at you like, 'Is he hurt?' 'Is he faking?' 'Was he just not ready?' " Jenkins said. "But after the word was out that I had back spasms, a lot of people came up to me and expressed their condolences, because no one really knew what happened. You could just tell I wasn't wrestling the same and that I was seriously hurt."
Jenkins said he wants to take the summer off to give his body the proper rest it needs. Since wrestling in high school, his body has constantly went through a grind, never receiving time off.
With NCAA champion Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State and rival Brent Metcalf of Iowa likely graduating after next year, Jenkins may be the favorite when he returns to wrestle in his fifth year.
"I won't look back on this too much," Jenkins said. "It happened and I couldn't do anything about it. Now I'm looking forward to making things right in a redshirt year and coming back."
