Sun Devils Have a Plummer, but Too Many Leaks to Plug : College football: Sophomore quarterback quickly learns that he can’t do it all.

First, he was going to Stanford. Bill Walsh liked him enough to give him a day of personal attention in the big stadium after a summer quarterback camp.

But Stanford liked Scott Frost a little more than Jake Plummer.

Then he was going to Washington State. It was not too far from his home in Boise, Ida., and his parents could see him play. Also, it was a quarterback school--Drew Bledsoe, a No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, went there.

But then Bruce Snyder, Arizona State’s coach, stepped in at the last minute.

Snyder needed Plummer. He needed a lot of other players too. Still does.

But he doesn’t need a quarterback.

He has Plummer, who UCLA Coach Terry Donahue says is “a future superstar.”

Snyder agrees, but he tempers the praise with a challenge to himself: “I think there’s a chance of that if we do a good job of recruiting for him.”

It’s a pitch he makes daily, and you get the idea he draws recruits a verbal picture of Plummer, arm cocked and saying, “I Need a Few Good Men.”

Particularly if they are wide receivers.

“I think if I were a young kid who can run and catch, I’d want to go to a place where there’s a quarterback who can get it to me,” Snyder said, still selling.

Plummer has done that, completing 135 of 249 passes for 1,819 yards and 12 touchdowns in a season in which he has been the Arizona State offense.

Plummer has thrown successfully while a running game has been virtually nonexistent and despite an offensive line that is young and ever-changing because of injuries.

It’s a difficult situation for a 19-year-old quarterback.

The only thing worse might have been suffering through a similar fate as an 18-year-old freshman.

That happened last season.

Arizona State was struggling with quarterback Grady Benton, whose arm hurt and who couldn’t seem to spark an offense. Plummer had won the backup role and connected with Carlos Artis on a 78-yard touchdown play the first time he threw the ball.

Six games into the season, Plummer found himself starting and throwing for 237 yards and two touchdowns against Oregon. A week later, in somewhat familiar if disappointing territory at Stanford, he found himself beginning a four-game winning streak.

One of the victories came over UCLA, which Arizona State faces Saturday night in Tempe.

It would have been a heady experience for anybody. For a freshman, it was downright scary.

“When I first came in, I thought I would redshirt and get a year off from football, maybe playing scout team to learn what it was all about,” Plummer said. “But when I won the backup spot, I was thrust into being prepared in case the starter went down, and that’s what happened. He injured his shoulder and they had to call on me.”

Actually, it’s not that simple. The offense was ineffective and the Sun Devils were 2-3 with Benton as the starter, 4-2 with Plummer.

“Jake took over the reins about the fifth or sixth game of the season and kind of just ran around, because he didn’t totally understand everything,” Snyder said. “But he made some plays.”

He was erratic, running a slimmed-down offense designed to allow him to play more and think less.

He was exciting and frequently excitable, an 18-year-old a long way from Boise.

“The seniors gave me a lot of respect, so it was a lot easier than a lot of people would expect,” Plummer said. “When things would get crazy out there, they helped me out, telling me to calm down. At times, I would (get excited). I still do. That’s just football out there, and tensions are running high and things get a little crazy sometimes.”

Perhaps more important, he gave Arizona State a starting point. Snyder’s three seasons as the Sun Devil coach have involved addition by subtraction, weeding out players who did not belong in the Pacific 10. His predecessor, Larry Marmie, had recruited poorly for two seasons.

One of those recruits was Benton, who, like many other Arizona State players, sized up the situation and left for West Texas A&M.;

He leads the nation’s passers in Division II.

His former sub, Plummer, looked to a sophomore season as a veteran, more or less. Then he looked around the huddle.

“It was strange at first,” he said. “I was expecting to have some guys out here who didn’t make it because of academics and other problems. But you have to play the cards that have been dealt. . . . Depth has been a bit tough, but you can’t make excuses. You’ve got to win the games you have a chance to win.”

Oregon State, Stanford and Brigham Young have been beaten. Louisville, California, Washington State and Oregon could have been, but weren’t. Miami and Washington blew out Arizona State.

As the season has progressed, numbers have regressed. It’s as though a plague has struck Tempe. Blown-out knees seem to be the injury of choice.

Through it all, Plummer has thrown while being educated.

“At times it’s tough when you’re down,” he said. “It’s been a learning process, trying to deal with what’s happened this year. You tend to overlook things when you win.”

Plummer has learned that he is one player and Arizona State needs more.

“‘I’m still young, and I still have a couple of years left,” he said. “I can’t put so much pressure on myself and say, ‘I’ve got to go out every game and throw for 250 (yards) and throw two TDs.’ I’ve got to go out every game and give it my best shot and learn from mistakes.”

He’s still 19, after all.

“I’m impatient,” he said. “I want to get this program going.”

So does Snyder. Arizona State has extended his contract through 1999, but Plummer is there now. He is a cornerstone with which to build a program. Now, Snyder is looking for a few more good men.