TEMPE – At the Rose Bowl on Oct. 12, 1996, senior quarterback Jake Plummer led ASU to a victory against UCLA, throwing for a touchdown and catching another.

The unusual accomplishment stood for more than three decades. 

Heading into ASU’s game against Colorado on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium, a Sun Devil quarterback hadn’t thrown for a TD and caught a TD pass in the same game since that memorable performance three decades ago. 

Then Jake Fette stepped on the field for his first home start.

On fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, up three points in the second quarter, ASU had to get creative to find the end zone after getting stuffed on three consecutive plays. 

The solution: Give freshman running back Cardae Mack, who played quarterback in high school, the option to throw. After Mack took the snap, Fette ran to his left.

Except Fette wasn’t expecting to actually see the ball.

“All week (the coaches) told me, ‘Be ready,’” Fette said. “He might throw it late, and I was like, ‘I don’t know, he’s gonna run it for a touchdown.’”

But Mack didn’t see the space to run it in, so he channeled his high-school self and tossed it to a wide-open Fette to give ASU its first touchdown of the game. 

“It actually happened,” Fette said. “I didn’t even know what to do. I’m just happy I caught it.”

It seemed appropriate that Plummer was at Mountain America Stadium to see ASU (5-4, 3-3 Big 12) beat Colorado (3-6, 1-5 Big 12), 20-10, and witness another Jake mimic his 30-year-old stat.

In his second career start, Fette went 13-for-19 with 222 all-purpose yards, throwing for a TD and catching the aforementioned TD. Despite the strong stat line for a true freshman, Fette wasn’t pleased with the offensive performance. 

“The first home win is a real special one,” Fette said. “But at the end of the day, I don’t think as an offensive unit we play well enough. But it makes it a little sweeter when you come out with the win.”

Off the back of a close loss to No. 9 BYU, ASU was motivated to get back into the win column. It did, continuing a season-long trend of alternating a win and a loss every week.

Despite being displeased with the offense’s performance, Fette said he has taken positives from being thrown into the fire over halfway through his freshman season. One is his newfound poise in the locker room.

“Turning into a leader myself,” Fette said of his presence as a teammate. “As a starting quarterback, you can’t just stand back there and be all quiet. You have to lead the offensive unit, and I’ve been trying to build on that in the couple games I’ve been playing.” 

Fette’s maturity under center was highlighted by a lack of typical rookie mistakes, something coach Kenny Dillingham noted after the game.

“He did a good job controlling the game once again,” Dillingham said. “Things like no penalties, no procedural issues, no 40-second clock, no misshifts or motioning the wrong guy. All very veteran-like operations for a young buck.”

Despite mature play from its quarterback, ASU’s coaching staff still turned to outside-the-box play calling. The second-quarter receiving touchdown wasn’t the only time the Sun Devils attempted a Mack-to-Fette touchdown near the goal line. 

Near the end of the third quarter, ASU went for a nearly identical play on the Colorado 4-yard line. This time, a wobbly throw made Fette play the role of defensive back, breaking up an interception attempt. 

After the game, linebacker Owen Long complimented Fette’s ability in a defensive situation.

“I think he could get some run,” Long quipped of the QB sitting next to him in the postgame news conference. “This dude’s a baller. The way he’s handled his business the last few weeks, but not just that. Since he got here in January, it’s been fun to watch. He’s been preparing for this moment forever. This is not surprising to any of us.”

Despite the victory, ASU still has work to do. Needing one win to secure bowl eligibility, none of the final three games will be easy for the Sun Devils.

First, ASU will travel to Orlando to face a Central Florida team that already upset then-No.2 BYU.

Then the Sun Devils will host an Oklahoma State team that just put up 66 points at Kansas State and beat Oregon earlier this season

The last test of ASU’s season will be traveling south to face their rival, No. 22 Arizona.

With a rough road ahead to finish the season, Dillingham noted ways the offense can improve.

“We were running the ball and being efficient so early that we got a 17-point lead and my human nature kicks in,” he said. “We have to be a little bit more aggressive on earlier downs and give him the opportunities to throw and catch because when we give him those opportunities, he does a great job.”

As the season winds down, ASU knows it won’t make the Big 12 title game or the College Football Playoff. But the presence on Saturday of the 1996 team that went 11-0 and nearly beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl served as a reminder of the task at hand.

“The goal is: How do we have a team get remembered, not every 30 years?” Dillingham said. “How do we get a team remembered here every three years, every four years, every five years? How do we create that to where those unbelievable teams and unbelievable moments become a little bit more consistent?”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.