Beaten by the Boy Next Door

You wonder how things will be at the next block party near the Germaine family home in Mesa, Ariz., now that young Joe has ruined New Year’s Day for the neighborhood.

After all, it had been 10 years--since Jeff Van Raaphorst and the ’87 team with the great victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl--that the folks in the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Tempe/Mesa area had been able to fly those Arizona State Sun Devil flags so proudly from their front porches. Ten long years, waiting for the next college football ecstasy, for something like Jake “The Snake” Plummer and his magical, mystical team to come along.

And now this. A 20-17 defeat at the hands of the Big Ten tough guys from Ohio State, a defeat that ruined an unbeaten season and possibly a national championship.

But even worse, it was a defeat engineered by the boy next door. Joe Germaine, son of Phillis and Joe Sr. Baby-faced Joe, soft-spoken, clean-cut, self-effacing.

How long had it been--had to be just the other day--when Joe and his buddies played their hearts out for the local Pop Warner team and then rushed off to see the Sun Devils? How could this happen, that the grandson of the late Max Germaine, one of the first people to befriend Sun Devil Coach Bruce Snyder upon his arrival in Tempe, took an ASU Kodak Moment and exposed the film?

This was Schwarzkopf sending battle plans to Saddam Hussein, Phyllis McGuire singing for the Pointers.

This was unthinkable.

But it happened, and Snyder--who made almost no mistakes in a season in which he brought his Sun Devils to the brink of a national title--can’t help but be kicking himself for one error in recruiting judgment. In his own backyard, at Mountain View High in Mesa, some 10 minutes away from Sun Devil Stadium, there was a pretty good prep quarterback named Joe Germaine.

According to various reports, Germaine was (or was not) offered a football scholarship to Arizona State. Arizona State was Germaine’s first choice, of course. The family bled maroon and gold. But Plummer was already there, and Germaine was encouraged to come, if indeed a formal offer was made, as an at-large recruit. Translation: Jake is here, so you can play cornerback.

Young Joe wanted to play quarterback, Ohio State said he could. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Germaine, a sophomore, didn’t start for the Buckeyes on Wednesday, but as he has most of the season, he came in for junior Stanley Jackson and was the man in charge when Ohio State needed the ultimate in heroics: 1 minute 33 seconds to go, a 17-14 deficit created by yet another slithering scramble by Jake the Snake, and 65 yards to go for a touchdown.

What came next? A magnificent march that featured a drive-saving third-down pass to Dimitrious Stanley to the Ohio State 46, a drive-saving third-down pass to Stanley to the Arizona State 41, another to Stanley to the 29 that preceded two pass-interference calls, and the game-winning five-yard toss to a wide-open David Boston with 19 seconds left.

It was right there, for all to see, 100,635 in person in the Rose Bowl and millions more on television.

But what they didn’t see, or know about, was The Speech. Germaine not only took his Buckeyes 65 yards to win, he did it in General Patton fashion.

“When we started on the 35, I looked in his eyes and he wasn’t nervous,” Boston said. “Then he got us in the huddle and told us, ‘This will be the biggest drive of the season. This will be the biggest drive of your lives.’ ”

Germaine was less dramatic afterward, leaving the impression that Boston had heard a speech that Germaine had forgotten he made, or had juiced up the drama a bit.

“When I went out there, there wasn’t much needed to be said,” Germaine said. “We knew what our job was, and we just did it.”

He said the scoring play was called a “Swarm Route” and that Stanley and Boston were both primary receivers, “kind of 1 and 1A,” he said.

His coach, John Cooper, called Germaine “the best at dropping back and finding the open receiver,” and added that the ending was “a Cinderella story for a guy like Joe.”

And, Snyder, the guy who should have been his coach had things taken a logical path, said, “That last drive they made was just a hell of a drive. I admire Joe, and I admire the way he kept his poise. I know his family . . .”

Yup, and so does all of Mesa, and Arizona for that matter, now. And somewhere up there, Grandpa Max is proud as punch, but a little bit confused, and Mom and Dad are happy but also making sure not to be too smug in front of the neighbors.

And somewhere, one of these days, Snyder will be sitting alone somewhere, wondering how it is that he had the Snake on his side, and it still all slipped away.

INSIDE

* Page Two / Randy Harvey: C2

* Ohio State’s David Boston: C8

* Ohio State’s Andy Katzenmoyer: C8

* By the Numbers: C9

* Arizona State’s Jake Plummer: C10

* Notes: C11