To secure a $200,000 endowment for his school, university president Charles A. Martin agrees to transform Jimmie "Doodle" Bugs, the mild-mannered, music-loving son of wealthy alumnus Ellory Bugs, into a star football player. In spite of their exaggerated compliments concerning Doodle's football potential, coaches "Offside" Jones and M. C. Hammond are unable to talk the timid scion into trying out for the team. When Martin's pretty daughter Janice, whom Doodle has been pursuing unsuccessfully for weeks, sweetly suggests that he go out for football, however, Doodle shows up at practice eager to play. Although weak and inept, Doodle makes the team and starts the next game as quarterback. Helped and protected by his teammates, including Mickey Wells, Janice's boyfriend, Doodle leads the school to victory and becomes an overnight athletic hero. His father, however, sees through Martin's scheme and refuses to pay the endowment until Doodle learns how to play in earnest. Janice, meanwhile, discovers that her feelings for Doodle are becoming serious and worries about the humiliation she knows Doodle will suffer when he realizes that his star status is a hoax. Consequently, at a dance before the big game with State, she tries to tell Doodle not to play, but to pursue his dream of becoming a successful band leader. Offside and Hammond, however, plot to keep Doodle away from Janice, and Doodle prepares for the game in ignorance. As thousands of fans and dozens of reporters watch, Doodle is shut down repeatedly by the State players, which include Larry Wendell, the egotistical son of his father's business associate. Devastated by his failure, Doodle leaves the game and refuses to play until Janice sends him a stadium-sized message of love. Inspired, Doodle puts himself back in the game for the final play, and after Janice tells the pep band to play "Pop Goes the Weasel," a tune that always makes him dance wildly, he kicks a field goal and wins the game.