Jake Plummer sat down with Jay Dieffenbach of the Arizona Republic recently to talk about Jake's time at the helm of the ASU Sun Devils football team in the mid-1990s, especially focusing on the fabled 1996-97 season, when they went undefeated in the regular season and played for the college championships in the Rose Bowl.
That season was a testament to grit, unity, and belief.
“We had one goal: get to the Rose Bowl,” Jake says of a team that captured the Valley’s heart. They battled through close games, leaned on each other in tough moments, and played with relentless determination. While they fell just shy of a national title, their legacy endures as one of ASU’s greatest teams.
"It was a team full of overachievers and guys that really worked hard and loved each other and really cared about each other."
—Jake Plummer, on his 1996-97 ASU Sun Devils football team
Jake’s leadership on the field wasn’t just about stats or highlights (though there were plenty of both). It was about inspiring a team to believe in something bigger than themselves—a lesson he carries into his work today with Umbo.
"Even if you don't go and play ten years in the NFL like I did, you are still under under this pressure to perform, you're putting your body through intense workouts, you're leaving it all out on the field and getting beat up and bruised and battered, and who knows how many other injuries or, you know, traumas to the brain and everything."
Watch the whole interview here:
