He'll face the team he dreamed of playing for as a child when OSU
plays Arizona State
By Tim May
Dispatch Sports Reporter
COSTA MESA, Calif. -- For years, Joe Germaine watched his hometown heroes play
football and dreamed of the day he, too, could join in the battles for the pride of his
favorite university.
"We'd go to games after my Pop Warner games in the mornings; we had season
tickets," Germaine said.
His eyes lit up with that memory. Then he smiled, laughing at the joke fate has played
on him.
The punch line comes Wednesday when he goes in at quarterback -- as the starter or
as the reliever of Stanley Jackson -- for Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Across the line
will be Arizona State, the team of his dreams.
He grew up in Mesa, Ariz., in a family of devout Sun Devils fans. Though he's trying to
wrangle tickets for many of them, he knows that aside from his parents, most of the
gang will have split allegiances.
"They're really happy for the Sun Devils because they watched them all year long,"
Germaine said. "But they're also Buckeye fans, and I know they're rooting for us."
If nothing else, they'll be in his corner from an "I told you so" perspective. Because
when Germaine came out of high school three years ago, the team of his dreams
wanted little to do with him. ASU coach Bruce Snyder told Germaine that Jake
Plummer was the Sun Devils' man of the future.
Snyder said it was a difficult message to deliver.
"When I arrived here five years ago, the first person that really befriended me might
have been a fella by the name of Max Germaine," Snyder said. "Max was older,
probably 70-something, a terrific person, he and I hit it right off. And he kept telling me
about this grandson of his. Well, it ended up being Joe.
"About four months after I was here, Max passed away. But I had known Joe since
that time. . . . I knew how competitive Joe was, and I knew he would end up playing
someplace."
However, Snyder said he explained to Germaine it probably wouldn't be ASU, as long
as Plummer was around.
"He landed at the right place for him and he's doing a great job," Snyder said.
In reality, few people wanted Germaine. He was drafted by the Colorado Rockies as a
pitcher but turned down a $50,000 signing bonus to pursue his dream of being a major
college quarterback.
He starred at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College for a year, graduated in three
semesters, but still there was no interest from ASU. He then signed with the Buckeyes.
Now he's poised to play against the Sun Devils. It's only ASU's second trip to the
Rose Bowl, and it's the first in 12 years for the Buckeyes.
"It is weird, and it's funny how things work out, being from Arizona, and going halfway
across the country to play football at Ohio State, and then you're going to play your
hometown team in the Rose Bowl," Germaine said.
"It is a funny feeling."
He said he can disregard that feeling for this week, though.
"I'm just going to get ready for ASU like I have every other game," Germaine said.
"We can't really change that routine. What we've done has gotten us this far, so we're
going to stick to what we're doing."
But there is pressure of another sort: trying to round up tickets for the Germaine gang.
It might number as many as 50, which means there are going to be a lot of disappointed
folks who didn't get a ticket.
"A lot of family and friends want tickets, but I can only do so much," Germaine said.
"There's going to be more than I have tickets for. But they're all going to go there and
enjoy the festivities."
He isn't going into it thinking he can change the lifelong rooting habits of those friends
and family members for one game.
"The fans out there are really great, just like the fans for Ohio State," Germaine said.
"They support them fully, so it's going to be an exciting game."
He found out just how exciting during his five days at home for Christmas break. He
might have been surrounded by friends, but there was no doubt he was in enemy
territory.
"They gave me a lot of grief, that they were going to kick our butts and stuff," Germaine
said.
He bit his lip, he said, and refused to retort. Judgment day, he said, comes on New
Year's Day.
