SHEDDING HIS SKIN

A 6-year-old boy from Mesa named Levi was playing near a creek last year when he came upon a garter snake, no more than six inches long.

Levi retrieved the reptile from the gulch and rushed back to the family gathering, eager to show it to his hero, the star quarterback for the Arizona State Sun Devils.

“Get that thing away from me!” quarterback Jason Steven Plummer shrieked.

This would not have been ironic had, years ago, there not been three boys named Jason in Plummer’s third- grade class in Boise, Idaho.

To end the confusion, Jason Plummer raised his hand and told the teacher he was also known as Jake.

So Jake it was.

Jake the Snake.

Nothing he could do about it.

Brother Eric, two years older, officially dubbed him “Snake” after he walked in on Jake thumbing through former Raider quarterback Ken Stabler’s autobiography. You know, Stabler. The Snake.

When Plummer was 12, he was introduced on the public address system before a championship Little League game.

“At shortstop, Jake ‘the Snake’ Plummer,” the announcer said.

What was a kid going to do?

You can bet there are plenty of “Nate the Skates” out there who hate to skate, plenty of “Chet the Jets” who hate to fly.

They would understand.

So, as Jake “the Snake” Plummer continues his college football rise, passes his way into Heisman Trophy contention, leads his 5-0 and fourth-ranked team into the Rose Bowl on Saturday against UCLA and toward a national title, he would like to warn photographers:

Don’t get any cute ideas.

“I can’t stand snakes,” Plummer said the other day, only days after throwing for 203 yards and two touchdowns in two quarters in a 56-7 victory over Boise State. “I like animals. Dogs. Cats. Not snakes. Or rodents. You never know when they’re going to take a bite out of you.”

The Snake paused and considered his comments.

“I guess it is a funny thing,” he said. “Calling me ‘the Snake,’ and I don’t like them.”

Funny thing, too, that when Plummer drops back in the pocket, and the protection breaks down, and he starts scrambling, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

A sidewinder.

Plummer is pure in the pocket, but even better on the run, slithering--yes, snakelike--around the backfield before firing precision darts to pass catchers in an offense that ranks first in the Pacific 10 Conference and ninth nationally at 479.6 yards a game.

To say Plummer came out of a hole to national acclaim would be a stretch. His first college pass, as a freshman in 1993, went 78 yards for a touchdown to Carlos Artis against Utah. Plummer has started 33 consecutive games, in fact, the second-longest streak in Division I, and earlier this season broke Danny White’s yardage mark at Arizona State. Plummer currently ranks sixth nationally with an efficiency rating of 156.9.

In 1993, when analyst Beano Cook was hyperventilating about Ron Powlus winning two Heismans at Notre Dame, the hyperkinetic draftnik Mel Kiper Jr. was more coherently touting the young talent named Plummer from Boise.

To say that Plummer became an overnight sensation, however, would not be a stretch.

His world changed irrevocably Sept. 21, the night Arizona State upset No. 1 Nebraska, 19-0, ending the two-time defending national champions’ winning streak at 26 games. Plummer completed 20 of 36 passes for 292 yards and a touchdown, leading to a cult following and a web site.

The next week, Plummer had 146 interview requests.

Mark Brand, the Sun Devils’ sports information director, Coach Bruce Snyder and Athletic Director Kevin White sat Plummer down and asked if the quarterback was prepared to become a Heisman candidate.

“He kind of looked at us with a blank stare, like, ‘Really? Me? Heisman?’ ” Brand recalled.

Plummer is such an aw-shucks type that people in the athletic department call him “Jimmy Stewart.” Plummer is so conscious of not overshadowing teammates that when the campus newspaper wanted to interview him for a story last year, he agreed only if the paper promised to do a separate story on his offensive line.

But the Nebraska game changed everything.

Brand is now calling every newspaper in America, offering one-on-one telephone interviews with Plummer.

Last year at this time, after Arizona State had dropped to 2-4 in a 30-28 loss to Stanford, Plummer would have been hard-pressed to get relatives to take his calls.

“I was down in the gutter,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘This isn’t fun.’ It’s supposed to be fun.”

Since that Stanford defeat, the Sun Devils have won nine of 10 games. In that span, Plummer has completed 61% of his passes for 2,208 yards and 21 touchdowns, with four interceptions.

But Nebraska changed everything.

Plummer never seriously considered turning pro after his junior season--he would have been a probable first-round pick, but was never more thankful than the night of the Nebraska victory.

“If I would have left last year, none of this would have happened,” he said.

In the postgame glow, Plummer sought out Snyder and embraced him warmly. Together, quarterback and coach had weathered 6-5, 3-8 and 6-5 seasons.

“My heart was pounding,” Snyder said. “We’d just beat Nebraska, and he gave me a hug and said, ‘Coach, this is why I came here.’ ”

Snyder’s mind kept racing back to the night he sat, teeth-chattering, in a Boise hotel room. It was the night he thought he had lost Plummer to Washington State.

Snyder had ruined his best pair of shoes pushing his rental car out of two-foot snowbanks in pursuit of the gangly quarterback from Capital High School.

To what end?

“I’m 53, I’m in this little hotel in Boise, my feet are frozen, I’ve ruined my shoes, my pants are wet, and I’ve just gone to look at this skinny kid with long hair not knowing if he was any good,” Snyder recalled. “What am I doing?”

Shortly before midnight, the phone rang.

It was Plummer. He was coming to Arizona State.

“That’s why you do it,” Snyder said.

It was a night Plummer wouldn’t soon forget either. The decision was fairly wrenching. He was scared. After he had phoned Snyder, Plummer had to place the “Sorry, coach” call to Washington State’s Mike Price.

“He told me I made a mistake,” Plummer recalled of the conversation. “Then he hung up on me. I was 18 years old, pretty thin-skinned. Everything affects me.”

The night the Sun Devils beat Nebraska, Plummer recalled all the twists that led him into the huddle against the No. 1 Cornhuskers.

Jake’s mother, Marilyn, had not let his older brothers, Eric and Brett, play youth football.

Jake played, though, after persuading his mom that he would end up playing tackle in the street anyway.

Plummer recalled that he was a receiver until the day he whipped the ball back to his youth league coach, who promptly made a position change.

Plummer remembered how bad he felt that he had displaced his best friend at quarterback.

Marilyn Plummer jokes now that she may have to put out for a new table on which to place her son’s Heisman Trophy, should he win it.

Raising three boys on her own--Plummer’s parents were divorced when Jake was in third grade--a mom learns quickly the futility of investing in quality furniture.

She says one of the best athletic moves she ever saw was Jake hopping over the back of a couch with a full plate of food.

“He told me he was going to play in the NFL when he was in third grade,” Marilyn said. “I said, ‘That’s good.’ ”

Marilyn is not surprised at the measured way in which Jake is handling success.

“He’s a pretty calm guy,” she said. “He doesn’t get real frazzled. He has the ability to stay focused, with all these things going on around him.”

Plummer’s vanity has always been checked by two older brothers who hit harder than the Nebraska secondary.

Until last summer, when the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Jake bulked up with a weightlifting program, Eric, now a roofer, could still throw a football farther than his kid brother.

Whenever talk of Jake becomes too much, Eric usually chimes in with something like, “Ah, shaddup, [Florida quarterback Danny] Wuerffel’s better than you.”

Plummer got another dose of humility less than a week after the Nebraska triumph when his car was stolen outside a Phoenix-area condominium complex.

Plummer’s family didn’t tell Jake until after the Oregon game. The car was found, but the culprits had broken the window and ripped out the stereo.

On his way to the wrecking yard the following Monday, Plummer’s friend’s car broke down and left them stranded in 101-degree heat.

“That’s one way to humble you,” Plummer said.

Here’s another: The thieves left a photo of Plummer and receiver Keith Poole on the dashboard.

Must have been Arizona fans.

Plummer is 0-3 against his rivals, with one chance left for redemption Nov. 23.

“I don’t want that to be the one knock,” he said. “I want to get one before I leave. If I don’t win, I’m applying for a fifth year and coming back.”

If he does, it might be as Jason “the Mason” Plummer.

“Nah,” Plummer said. “That would mean I’d be throwing bricks.”