Jake Plummer’s message to ASU Football
Oct 2, 2014, 3:11 PM | Updated: 3:21 pm
Jake Plummer has a message for ASU Football: “get up off your ass and go tackle.”
He shared the sentiment on Wednesday morning on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM‘s Bickley and Marotta broadcast, but it could use a little explanation.
You see, the urging comes from the sting Plummer said he felt when UCLA’s Ishmael Adams intercepted a pass by Arizona State backup quarterback Mike Bercovici at the 5-yard line and returned it 95 yards for a touchdown with just seconds remaining in the first half.
The pain wasn’t from the pick-6 itself, Plummer explained.
“Just watching the lineman still lying on the ground when (Adams) had already ran 20 yards past him, I mean, that was a little more disheartening than anything Bercovici did,” he said.
Hopefully Plummer missed this one:
All jokes aside, the former ASU quarterback’s message came mostly from positivity. He truly believes that the Sun Devils will come back from this loss, provided they fully embrace the learning experience that comes from such a defeat—he even compared it to ASU’s 77-28 loss to Nebraska in 1995.
“Our defense took (that loss) hard, that’s when they sort of took the leap,” he said. “All across the board every one of them started playing better from that moment on.”
He’s right about that one. The very next year, ASU shut out the top-ranked Cornhuskers 19-0 in an historic upset at Sun Devil Stadium.
Plummer’s sentiment paralleled by head coach Todd Graham and his players as they head into a big-time matchup against USC this weekend.
“Anybody can have a great attitude when things are going good,” Graham said earlier this week. “It’s when you get hit in the mouth, you get hit in the teeth. I can tell you these guys will get back up and they’ll give you everything they have.”
