When Jake Plummer walked away from the NFL in 2007 to devote himself to his handball career, it seemed like a long shot that he’d one day become a coach.
Life takes some strange turns sometimes, though. Plummer has done some high school coaching and he’s now tutoring Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein as Klein prepares for April’s draft.
“The coach-player relationship is unique, and I probably took it for granted when I was playing a little bit,” Plummer said, via Jeff Legwold of the Denver Post. “It’s a strange thing when you get out of playing in the NFL. There’s nothing that would make you feel the way the game does. I struggled for a while with that, but I think I can give back something, and the time just felt right.”
Klein was a sensational college player for Kansas State, making plays with his feet and his arm on his way to finishing third in the voting for the Heisman trophy. He didn’t play in a pro style offense, though, and his performance at the East-West Shrine Game raised serious concerns about his ability to make the plays necessary for success in the NFL.
Plummer might not be able to fix that, but he’s using the drills he learned from coaches like Hue Jackson and Marc Trestman to give it his best shot. If Klein does wind up panning out, he probably won’t be the last prospect to look to Jake the Snake for help on the way to the NFL.