If you attended the Shrine Bowl practices in 2024, you noticed the energy the defensive unit brought right away, especially when compared to the offense. They would storm the field after any big play in situational drills and generally kept the communication – and vibe – levels high.
However, you could still hear a few scattered voices and leaders on the offensive side of the ball, trying to keep up as best they could with the defense. Chief among them was former UCF QB and newly signed Pittsburgh Steeler John Rhys Plumlee, whose attitude and effort led me to seek him out for an interview.
“I’ve never had an issue being introverted. I’m a pretty extroverted guy and I like being outspoken,” Plumlee told me at the Shrine Bowl. “When you are here at an All-Star game where you have to learn quick and learn on the run, somebody’s gotta try to lead the charge. I always take pride in trying to lead where I can.”
Plumlee’s leadership was the first thing you noticed about him when watching him practice. The second thing you might have noticed was his unique helmet situation. Throughout his pre-draft process, during events like the Hula Bowl and Shrine Bowl, he would sometimes wear a UCF helmet and an Ole Miss helmet. Occasionally, he would sport a helmet with the UCF logo on one side and the Ole Miss logo on the other side.
“I wanted to showcase my journey that I had taken to get here.” Plumlee explained.
And what a journey it was. Plumlee started his collegiate football career at Ole Miss, where he started at quarterback as a true freshman. That season, Plumlee broke the Ole Miss freshman rushing record with 1,023 yards.
“Early on in my Ole Miss career, I didn’t know a ton of football,” Plumlee explained. “I was just an extremely athletic, fast guy, and they utilized me the way they did. We were successful at times. But I just didn’t know a lot of football. So I wanted to really grow in the passing aspect of my game. I tried to make leaps and bounds at that aspect of it.”
Calling yourself “extremely athletic” may be cocky coming from some, but Plumlee might actually be selling himself short. Throughout his time at Ole Miss, and later at UCF after he transferred there, Plumlee also played on the baseball team. He was a legit contributor, posting some solid stats and starting in center field. He batted .286 for UCF in 2023, leading the team in stolen bases with 18 and hitting 10 home runs in 58 games.
“Starting freshman year, you’re required by the NCAA to have an off day where nothing is scheduled,” Plumlee said. “In football season, I would take that off day to go and hit in the cages. In baseball season, I would take that off day to go watch some film or go get into a meeting that’s happening over at football.”
Plumlee had one of the craziest nights any collegiate athlete has ever had last spring. He started in UFC’s baseball game at 5 PM against Memphis. He was 2-for-3 with a triple by the time seventh inning rolled around. Suddenly he sprinted out of the stadium and hopped in a golf cart. Plumlee had another game to go – UCF football’s spring game. He zoomed across campus to get there, promptly changed, ran onto the field, and casually threw two touchdowns.
Though others received less fanfare, Plumlee’s schedule was constantly jam-packed.
“We were mornings football. And so I’d go, for a 7:30 start,” Plumlee said. “You’re doing your meetings, your treatment tape, all that. Then you practice. Then I would go get lunch, usually grab it to go and then head over to baseball, eating on the way. When you get there, it was time for baseball. And you do baseball until, sometimes 5:30, 6 o’clock. Maybe 6:30. And then after that you’re grinding on school. Then you go to sleep and wake up and do it all again. I had a blast doing it.”
Most college students can’t squeeze in time to hit the gym. Plumlee made playing two sports look easy. But even though he was constantly on the move from sport to sport, assignment to assignment, he took time to connect with the community and those in need.
“I just remember being little John Rhys. We would go to Southern Miss football games sometimes, and it didn’t matter who it was. It didn’t matter if they played every snap or no snaps at all. But you could get on the field after the game and you could go and say hey to the players, and I loved that,” he said.
“I remember living for ‘Hey, we gotta run out there to go see whoever, or we gotta go out and see if we can get a high five or a towel off of somebody’. Now that I’m in the different seat of that scenario, I try to excite little John Rhys. What would make little John Rhys’ day? And so I try to do that just because I remember when I was that age, I really enjoyed it.”
Plumlee didn’t only develop a relationship with the fans, he also did with his teammates.
NIL deals started infiltrating college football while Plumlee was at school. Being such a big figure on campus, Plumlee was a natural target for companies looking to sell their product. However, he turned down one NIL offer, stating that he would prefer the money to go to one of his offensive linemen or offensive weapons instead.
“They asked, ‘Hey, is there any way we can, help you maybe give you an NIL deal?’ I said, ‘Don’t worry about me as much. I know that we got a tight end or an offensive lineman that possibly needs that money.’ So I said, ‘I’ll get it elsewhere.’”
My interview with Plumlee was one of the best I had all weekend at the Shrine Bowl, and quickly got much deeper than I was expecting. We talked a lot about self-identity, our sense of purpose, and how to separate who we are as a person from our careers.
“You wanna be great at what you do, right? You want take a hundredth off a second of your 40-yard dash or throw it one yard further,” he told me. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be the best at what you do. But I think that there’s a fine line of I want be the best at whatever I do, but there is more to me than just what I do. And so that’s what I try to kind of balance out as well.”
Meeting Plumlee was a great experience, and I quickly found myself rooting for the guy just a few minutes into meeting him. He’ll look to find a spot on the Steelers’ roster this year at training camp, possibly at quarterback or possibly using his athleticism to move elsewhere like wide receiver. Making the Steelers would be just another chapter in an already incredible story.
