Chad Plummer is tired of being labeled as a scrambling quarterback. With two years remaining at the University of Cincinnati, he wants to become one of the top passers in school history.
"I want people to say, 'He had good running skills, but he could throw the ball,' '' Plummer said. "I still have a chance to set a lot of records here.''
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound junior leads UC into its season opener against Tulsa tonight. He begins his second full season as starting quarterback after part-time duty as a freshman in 1995.
With 1,794 career passing yards, Plummer still needs more than 700 yards to crack the Top 10 in UC history. Danny McCoin (1984-87) holds the record with 6,801 yards, but Plummer figures he is in range of 5,000. Greg Cook (1966-68) stands No. 2 on the career list with 4,906 yards.
"This season, I'm looking to throw for between 1,500 and 2,000 yards,'' said Plummer, who threw for 1,335 last year. "I want over 10 TDs, too, and no more than four interceptions. And win our conference and win the Liberty Bowl.
"I'm not being cocky. That's just what I want to do.''
Plummer sometimes battles his own reputation as an athletic scrambler, forged during his freshman year. UC had a 5-2 record in games Plummer played at quarterback that season, as he sometimes improvised his way to victory. He engineered fourth-quarter drives to win two games, including a 60-yard rushing game. He threw
for two TDs and ran for two. And he played some downs at wide receiver.
As a sophomore, Plummer was suffocated by high expectations. Largely because of him, UC was favored to win the inaugural Conference USA season. But the Bearcats finished tied for third in the league, partly because of Plummer's inexperience. He tried to be a pocket passer, and when that didn't work, he'd be off and running again.
"The pressure . . . it got into my head last year,'' Plummer said.<
(Tony Jones photo)
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He rushed for 108 yards in the season finale against Northeast Louisiana, becoming the first UC quarterback in 26 years to rush for more than 100 in a game. But despite leading UC to its second straight 6-5 record, losing the conference title bothered Plummer.
"The pressure . . . it got into my head last year,'' he said.
UC coach Rick Minter blames himself for that.
"We gave him too much to do,'' Minter said. "He ad-libbed and improvised, but those were not called things. That was a mistake of ours.''
And this year?
"It will be a little mix of his first two years,'' Minter said. "We'll still call his number to run, but he's more comfortable in the pocket now. We'll do a little option, some misdirection, but yet keep him in the pocket too. He's more of a complete quarterback.''
And a bigger one. At 230, he has added more than 40 pounds since his freshman year but has not lost any speed or quickness.
"He's one of the strongest quarterbacks we've ever had here,'' said Bill Walker, in his 21st year as UC's head athletic trainer. "Chad has gained weight, but there's been a decrease in body fat. His body fat is only about four percent now.''
Plummer is bench-pressing 370 pounds. He can also do 20 repetitions at 225 pounds, compared to "about one or two'' when he arrived at UC.
He also has gone from carefree freshman to serious leader, according to teammates.
"You can see that Chad knows this is his team, that he can have a big year,'' UC starting tailback Robert Cooper said. "He's much more comfortable with taking charge back there. All the guys believe in him.''
Confidence has rarely been a problem for the 21-year-old Plummer, who was born into a football family in Delray Beach, Fla., and later moved to Tallahassee. An uncle and two cousins played college football, including a cousin now at Tulane, wide receiver Tim Carter.
"I love the attention you get from playing quarterback,'' Plummer said. "Growing up in Florida, you had the Florida Gators and Florida State in the paper and on TV all the time. I thought, man, I'd love to do that.''
But when those schools recruited Plummer to play wide receiver, he declined. Cincinnati offered the chance to play quarterback, so he jumped.
The attention, you know.
"I don't like the negatives when you lose, but I know that's all part of it,'' he said.
Then his eyes light up.
"But there's just nothing like the adrenaline rush of playing football. When that time comes to get on the field, make something happen, it's something you thrive on. It's something that not a lot of people get to experience, especially as a quarterback.
"I love it.''
