It's Plummer to the rescue

Sporting News, The, Dec 23, 1996 by Scott Bordow

Steve and Marilyn Plummer wanted something different for their lives and family. What that was, they weren't sure but they knew what they didn't want.

Deadlines. Pressure. The dad-leaves-at-8-gets-home-at-6 and-is-too-tired-to-play-with-the-kids monotony. Even serene Boise, Idaho, a long way from the rat race, seemed too busy, too big. "We were kind of hippies back then," Marilyn says with a laugh.

Steve took a sabbatical from his brokering business, and the Plummers--with boys Brett, Eric and Jason (a k a Jake) in tow--moved to Smiley Creek (pop. 50) at the base of the Sawtooth Mountains in south-central Idaho.

If the tiny town wasn't nowhere, it was close. In order to get Monday Night Football on television, Steve would have to climb onto the roof and move the antenna until one of the boys yelled, "Got it!"

When it snowed, which was often, the two-room schoolhouse in which Marilyn taught kindergarten through fourth grade was inaccessible so the Plummers would grab their skis and head for the cross-country ranches. When it was nice, the backpacks came out.

"It was the best thing we ever did," Marilyn says. "It's paradise up there."

Jason, the youngest of the three boys, was 3 years old when the family traded success for serenity. Today, Jake Plummer is 22 and the starting quarterback for the No. 2 ranked and 11-0 Arizona State Sun Devils. But who he is, who he has become, can be traced to those three years in Smiley Creek, when a boy began learning how to become a leader.

Jake Plummer had just thrown his third interception of the first half against the USC Trojans. As he sat down on the bench, he slowly took his helmet off and wiped back his hair. Teammates came by to cheer him up, to tell him not to worry about the three picks. They didn't need to bother. If they thought they'd find their quarterback's confidence shattered, they were wrong. It was Plummer who gave the pep talk, telling anyone who would listen that the Devils would rally and beat the Trojans. And they did in double overtime, 48-35, to put a choke hold on the Pacific-10 championship and a Rose Bowl berth, the school's first since the 1986 season.

"He's so good," ASU coach Bruce Snyder said after the game. "You can't kill him. He's like a big grizzly bear you have to shoot 10 times in the heart"

As Plummer has engineered comeback after comeback this season and driven ASU to the brink of a possible national championship, opposing players coaches and reporters have marveled at his coolness in the clutch. at that special ability to play his best when it counts the most.

USC coach John Robinson dared to compare Plummer to Joe Montana, and Trojans defensive tackle Darrell Russell said, "Plummer is the heart and soul of their team. They would not function without him. He makes them believe."

You mention these compliments to Plummer and he breaks into the white-toothed, aw-shucks smile that leads some of ASU's sports information staff to call him Jimmy Stewart.

"The team relies on me to be a cool-headed guy every time we get in the huddle," says Plummer who in his career has led the Sun Devils to 10 victories after they were trailing or tied in the fourth quarter. "My job is to play through the ups and downs and keep a level head out there."

Plummer did just that at UCLA this season, when ASU trailed the Bruins, 34-21, in the fourth quarter. He proceeded to stun the crowd by throwing a TD pass, running for a TD and catching a TD pass in the final eight minutes to pull out a 42-34 victory. Despite heroics like that, Plummer still doesn't understand what the fuss is about. After all, hasn't he been doing this all his life?

When you're the youngest of three boys and nine cousins who spend a considerable amount of time together, you quickly learn about toughness, about independence. You have no choice. So it was with Plummer.

Steve often made up contests when the family went backpacking or skiing in the mountains. Who could throw the rock the farthest into the lake. Who could stick an axe in the tree. Who could do a flip over a mogul.

Eric, the middle son, was three years older than Jake, and Brett, the oldest, was six years Jake's senior. That the two older boys almost always won these games fueled Jake's drive. What they did, he was determined to do. "He was always the littlest, so he always had something to prove," Eric says.

When Jake was 5, his brothers opened a lawn-care business, and a friend printed them some "B and E Lawnmowing" cards, Jake was offended. "Where's mine?" he asked.

"It was always so competitive." Marilyn says. "I think that probably determined to some extent his mental toughness. Once he made the decision to do something, he had a lot of tenacity and stubbornness."

Those qualities were forged further in 1983, when the Plummers got divorced. Although Steve and Marilyn remain friends -- the family still goes on outings together, including witnessing Doc Gooden's no-hitter at Yankee Stadium and the Heisman Trophy presentation in Manhattan--Jake was forced to become more self-sufficient.