In appreciation of Jalen Watts-Jackson, who announced on Wednesday his plans to transfer from MSU:
DotComp Rewind: Of Rangers and Legends
Jim Comparoni • SpartanMag.com
@JimComparoni
Jalen Watts-Jackson announced on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, that he is leaving Michigan State in order to become a grad-transfer at another school for his fifth year of eligibility.
In a show of appreciation for his work and career at MSU, which was hampered by a career-changing injury during his miracle play as part of the Clusterpunt at Michigan, on Oct. 17, 2015, today SpartanMag.com re-publishes our DotComp account of one of the most famous plays in recent Spartan football history.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Oct. 17, 2015) - And just like that, Jalen Watts-Jackson became a Michigan State folk hero.
When he and the other 10 members of the "Rangers" special opps unit took the field with no chance to rescue victory, he might have heard Shilique Calhoun say, "Just believe."
He might have heard Riley Bullough say, "Rangers, everyone go get it!"
But did they really believe this band of 11 no-names could stage arguably the most incredible late-game heroic in the history of Michigan State football?
When the final play happened, Bullough, Calhoun, Connor Cook - the faces of this team, the stars, the leaders - were reduced to being spectators, just like the rest of us.
Michigan State trailed 23-21 with :10 seconds to play.
"I put on my helmet," Cook said, "just in case we needed to go in for a lateral play or something."
Bullough voiced support and belief. But really, he knew Michigan State had lost this game.
"I had turned my head for a second, and when I turned back, we were going the other way," Bullough said.
You all know what happened next. Every Michigan State fan on the planet knows. And there are Michigan State fans who aren't born yet who will learn the name Jalen Watts-Jackson.
And seriously, is there a cooler name than Jalen Watts-Jackson? If you were writing a script and needed a name for an action hero to save a local universe in the face of impossible odds, could you do better than the name Jalen Watts-Jackson?
And if you were writing a comic book about a football team trying to win in fictitiously ridiculous fashion, wouldn't you cast two sons of former superstars who once played for the same team, who were now thrown onto the field for really the first time in their lives in this capacity, as "Rangers," and have them arrive at the foot of the punter right as said punter was being struck down by the negative powers of some football gods somewhere?
"I want to thank God for this," Dantonio said. "Because there surely was something else to it besides physical."
Do these guys know something we don't know?
And here came Grayson Miller and Matt Morrissey off the edge, charging recklessly at punter Blake O'Neill.
O'Neill fumbled the snap as he tried to scurry to his right for a rugby-style punt.
Did O'Neill take his eye off the snap for a second? Probably so, when seeing Miller, Jermaine Edmondson and Brandon Sowards to his left, with no Michigan players in front of them to serve as blockers.
O'Neill is still new to football, having learned to kick as an Australian rules football player in his native country. This is his second year in college football. And he likely has never been presented with an 11-man rush. He has never prepared to take a snap while seeing THREE members of the other team to his left with no blockers to help him. So yeah, that might have registered as unfamiliar and uncomfortable. And he lost concentration on the snap.
O'Neill is being cast as the goat in this Wolverine tragedy. But his infallible coach, Jim Harbaugh, during his final timeout with :10 seconds left in the game, should have had an automatic check to bring the gunner in for tight protection if they saw 11 Spartans at the line of scrimmage. Or they should have anticipated MSU's 11 men at the line of scrimmage and brought the extra protection in as a pre-emptive move. Instead, Michigan put a gunner out wide left, but no Spartan went out there with the gunner. That gunner became a wasted resource. O'Neill probably noticed it, and that made him hesitate. A large part of that is on the coach. He set up O'Neill to fail.
Or Harbaugh could have gone for it on fourth-and-two. The Wolverines were at Michigan State's 47-yard line. They needed only six feet to secure victory. Michigan had gained four yards and three yards on first and second down. They didn't want to take a stab at two more yards? And even if Michigan didn't get those six feet, the worst-case scenario for Michigan would have been for Michigan State's Cook to be left heaving the ball from his own 35-yard line for a chance at victory. Who were they afraid he was? Kordell Stewart?
There's a chance Michigan could have fumbled it on a fourth-and-two play, resulting in the chance for a fumble return for a touchdown. Harbaugh said they went over all the scenarios on the sideline.
It would have taken some guts for Harbaugh to go for it in that situation. He didn't show any.
Wear The Pants, Take Some Blame
In light of the backlash and death threats O'Neill has received on social media, Harbaugh on Monday needs to attempt to take 100 percent of the blame for the mistake in the final :10 seconds. He needs to own it and protect his player.
But instead, he will probably complain about a face mask penalty that wasn't called, and his version of Joe Bolden's targeting foul. He'll blame the refs instead of himself. Michigan Man.
He'll leave out the part about Michigan's Jourdan Lewis getting away with interference against Aaron Burbridge on a third-and-three in the third quarter. And are we completely sure Michigan didn't get a gift TD on that 1-yard plunge in the third quarter? Did he really cross the goal line?
But don't let that stuff stop the masses from hailing once again to the victims vanquished.
Rather than blaming officials, Harbaugh should check his own mistakes and reflect on the decision to punt on fourth-and-two. He put the game in the hands of his Australian rules footballer who might not have been clear on American rules after he fumbled the snap. It looked as if O'Neill thought he was required to attempt a kick, once he fumbled the snap.
Some are saying he would have been better off taking a knee and letting MSU throw a Hail Mary from the 40. I'm not sure about that. Although he was in scramble mode, if he had just gotten a foot on that ball, it would have trickled 10 or 15 yards downfield, and that would have been the game. Punting on the run while being tackled? They do that all the time in Aussie football. His choice might not have been as outlandish as we think, based on O'Neill's skill set.
In the end, O'Neill tried to desperately get some sort of punt off, channeling Garo Yepremian, whom O'Neill has surely never heard of, (Google him, Super Bowl VII).
That's about when Miller (the son of former Spartan safety John Miller) and Morrissey (the son of former Spartan linebacker Jim Morrissey) began converging on O'Neill.
Miller had four interceptions in the Michigan game in 1987, a Spartan victory. Morrissey broke Harbaugh's arm in the 1984 game, a Spartan victory.
The only thing lacking was Levi Jackson Jr. throwing a crucial block on this play.
"I just blitzed off the edge," Grayson Miller said, "and I saw him fumble it, and I took off after him and Matt and I hit him as he was bobbling it."
The force from their hit sent the ball straight to Rangers super hero Jalen Watts-Jackson.
Jackson nabbed the ball out of the air and scooted toward the sideline and the end zone.
"I was on the ground and I just saw Jalen taking off," Miller said.
"You go from :10 seconds and a guy punting the ball and saying, 'Okay, this is done,'" said Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio. "And then all the sudden life gets flipped upside down."
"Once we saw him drop the ball and he got hit," Cook said, "I was hoping our guy was going to get tackled and the clock would stop and we would kick a field goal. But he just kept running and running and running. I was like, 'He might as well just score a touchdown.'"
Yeah, might as well.
Go ahead and put that in the script. It's fiction, after all.
"I didn't know what was happenin', man," Dantonio said. "I was just like … I was with all of you (fans, media). Some green, some blue, everybody with mouths dropped open.
"But we scooped it up. I thought if we could get down and maybe have one second to kick it, and then I saw the :00s go up and I knew he had to score."
The Rangers tried to rally toward him and offer support.
There was Miller, Morrissey, Edmondson, Sowards.
Sowards? Who the Hell is Brandon Sowards? And what is he doing on "The Rangers"?
(Shhhhh. It's a secret. They're special opps, remember? Special forces. You're not supposedto know these guys are part of a bigger plan).
A Need-To-Know Basis
Before Saturday, none of the Rangers had ever started for Michigan State. Five of the Rangers are freshmen. Three are walk-ons. Sowards is a walk-on freshman, for crying out loud.
If you must know, Sowards is registered officially as an accounting major from Wyandotte. They pass him through security as like a ninth-string wide receiver.
The 11 players on the Rangers special opps unit combines for four career letters won. Edmondson has two, Monty Madaris has one, and Matt Macksood has one.
Macksood blocked a punt at Notre Dame in 2013. And he threw a key block for Macgarrett Kings in the Rose Bowl, helping set up Michigan State's game-winning touchdown. But you might not remember those two plays from Macksood. The football gods might have erased that from your memory. That's all part of it. Just play along.
Three Rangers are true freshmen: Miller, Khari Willis, Andrew Dowell. And then there's redshirt freshman T.J. Harrell.
Willis and Miller started for the first time on Saturday, as Michigan State played 58 defensive snaps with true freshmen at the safety positions and Harbaugh sought to test them deep only once or twice (one of which they completed for 32 yards - the longest pass play of the day for Michigan). It didn't occur to Harbaugh to go after them more. Again, secret brain tampering might have been at work. We're not sure.
You might not remember the name Zac Leimbach tomorrow, but he was on the Rangers unit, flailing around, trying to create a diversion. They tell us he is a packaging major, likely under an assumed name. A bio was prepared for him, stating that he rushed for 1,500 yards and passed for 800 while leading Walled Lake Central to the Division 2 semifinals while in high school.
They all combined to get the ball to Watts-Jackson in the final seconds. Watts-Jackson had previously been a mild-mannered member of the third string. He played a few snaps against Oregon. Since then, he has been used only occasionally on special teams, and on this particular special opps group.
As Watts-Jackson weaved down the sideline with the ball, and fans around the world shrieking in joy or agony, he appeared to peek up at the game clock. And it also looked like a cape sprung out from the back of his jersey.
Michigan's Wayne Lyons was the only Wolverine with a chance to stop Watts-Jackson short of the end zone. Edmondson didn't see Lyons.
Lyons angled toward Watts-Jackson, and jostled Edmondson on the shoulder - as if he wanted to let Edmondson know he was there, as if he might have been in on this whole thing. Edmondson turned and saw Lyons and then thought, what the heck, might as well block this guy, too.
Then Edmondson latched into him at the 10-yard line, providing one last key block to secure the touchdown.
Watts-Jackson could have gone out of bounds at the 10-yard line with still :01 or :02 seconds on the clock, according to an ESPN replay. Instead, Watts-Jackson cut to the inside, gave Lyons a mini head butt, and leaped across the goal line.
"Everybody went crazy," said defensive back Demetrious Cox. "I thought he went out of bounds, but I was like, 'Man, he scored!'"
Through all of the confusion and celebration, don't overlook the fact that Watts-Jackson turned in a terrific piece of open-field running to complete the mission. Michigan's puntastrophe had been executed.
"People were diving and tackling each other," Cox said. "We couldn't believe it. I still couldn't believe it. That's a legendary play."
"Man, it was crazy," Bullough said. "It was insane. One of the best feelings ever."
They Believed In The Rangers
The big-name players believed in the Rangers. Bullough and Calhoun rallied the huddle during Michigan's last possession, imploring Michigan State's defensive 11 to prevent a Michigan first down.
"That whole possession," Bullough said, "we were saying, 'Guys, seriously, don't stop playing! We've got to get a stop here on these three plays.
"We were all hyping each other up, trying to get it going. That's just the kind of guys we are, competitive."
"We had faith in the Rangers," Calhoun said.
"The Rangers came through, and they came up with a huge play," Bullough said.
It was the craziest, most amazing finish we'll ever see. It made "Rocket" and "Little Giants," look conventional.
"There was no way," Cook said. "Anyone who was watching this game, there was no shot for us to win. For it to go down like that, I'm at a loss for words.
"And then when that happened, everyone rushed the field. I've never felt anything like that. I honestly felt like I was in a dream. Completely crazy."
It sent Spartan fans going crazy, world-wide. Watts-Jackson's play had Le'Veon Belljumping yelling around his kitchen, made Magic Johnson stand and yell in L.A.. Even Rich Homie Quan, down in Atlanta, was texting Darqueze Dennard about all this.
Bolden was probably planting an anger stake in the Michigan locker room.
What about John Miller?
"He's probably crying," Grayson Miller said. "This rivalry runs very, very deep for him."
After Watts-Jackson's touchdown, an MSU equipment guy had to scurry back near the Michigan locker room and grab the Paul Bunyan Trophy. The same MSU equipment guy had dropped off Paul outside the Wolverine locker room after Cook's fourth-down incompletion with 1:47 left. Even the equipment guy thought the game was over.
"To win in that fashion, when there were :10 seconds left, they were getting ready to punt, and the game was over, and then … that happened," Cook said. "And to win and experience that, and you're looking around for people to celebrate with, and everyone is just in tears, and everyone was just so mind-blown."
They ran to mob Watts-Jackson. But the one guy who made it happen was the one guy who couldn't enjoy it.
When Watts-Jackson crossed the goal line, his left knee drove into the turf while a Wolverine landed on his back, and something in his hip snapped. Fellow Rangers were the first ones to him. Morrissey and Dowell leaped on him in once-in-a-lifetime euphoria. Watts-Jackson flung the ball back toward the 10-yard line, not in celebration, but in pain.
Leimbach jumped on him.
Sowards jumped on him.
One after another, they clubbed and ripped at him. They hugged him. He yelled as loudly as he could for them to stop. He was hurt bad. Demetrius Cooper grabbed him by the jersey and shook him around like a Christmas present. Watts-Jackson yelled to get the hell off of him.
But they couldn't hear, with all that joy going on in their heads, and the yells of the 10,000 Spartan fans who were maxing out their vocal chords at Michigan Stadium while the band played "Victory for MSU." Some of the other 100,000 in attendance were buzzing in anger that the Harbaugh Flux Capacitor hadn't yet garbaged the Wolverines into instantly being as good as they think they were in 1901.
There was chaos in the end zone. Macgarrett Kings hid his head in his hands and was about to cry, but this was even too sugar-sweet for tears. His face reappeared with a half-smile, shaking his head.
"I ran out to the pile," Dantonio said. "I was just sort of chasing everybody in white. Then I saw Jalen down and didn't really know what was going on."
Watts-Jackson frantically, finally got through to his his teammates, that he was hurt, and to stop pounding on him. We would learn later that he broke his hip on the play, most likely not during the dog pile.
Validation? Please
The scoreboard at Michigan Stadium never displayed the final score of 27-23. After Watts-Jackson's touchdown, the scoreboard went to all zeroes, and then someone probably named Wolverine Bob hit the switch and turned the scoreboard off - as if preventing it from going up in lights would somehow strike the victory from the record. Typical. If Dantonio had noticed, he would have gotten a chuckle out of it. He finds a lot of the things they do amusing.
Hatred for Michigan, however, didn't seem to be at the forefront of this story. Beating the rival was a fine accomplishment, because Michigan came into the game on a hot streak, and the Wolverines were getting the customarily inflated amount of credit for beating … Brigham Young and Northwestern and avoiding a blowout at Utah back in August.
Yeah … those are some accomplishments. Put those on paper, right next to your eight or nine "National Championships" that were won back when the ball was round.
I admit that I gave Michigan a 57 percent chance of winning this game, but I'm not shocked that Michigan State was able to hit most of the key marks necessary to pull off this win. I pointed out prior to the game that Michigan's offense, at times, can look very ordinary. Michigan State shut the Wolverines down. Of Michigan's 13 possessions, eight of them went three-and-out.
Michigan was able to lead via special teams and field position. That's part of football, and they milked that advantage for a while. But they didn't have enough substance to see it through.
Michigan State came into the game with the nation's fourth-longest win streak, a No. 4 ranking, and two consecutive seasons of finishes in the Top 5.
Michigan State is 20-1 in its last 21 games against Big Ten opponents, including 16 wins by double-figures.
Do we need to remind people of the Rose Bowl and the Cotton Bowl victories? Apparently so.
Michigan State is 33-3 in its last 36 games, yet Dantonio was asked if thisvictory validates the program.
"I hope that our program has been validated by now," Dantonio said. "We have won 11 games plus, four times. So we are not the weak sisters there. No pun."
Beating the rival was only part of the story for Michigan State, this time.
"The most important thing in all of this is that we are 7-0 now and we advance, 3-0 in the Big Ten conference, and so our dreams are kept alive and we are able to move forward," Dantonio said.
Dreams of winning a National Championship.
Maybe this is the best way for Michigan State to pursue the National Championship - sneak up on it while everyone thinks you're out of the picture.
RECRUITING UPDATE: In-State 5-Star & Ohio 4-Star Back in Play for MSU
Michigan State isn't good enough to compete in the College Football Playoff right now. But they're closer than they were a week ago. The staunch ground defense is back in effect. The passing game is dazzling at times. The running offense should get better as o-linemen regain better health. The biggest questions are on special teams and the defensive backfield. Starting two true freshmen at the safety position will likely cost the Spartans at some point. But maybe MSU has the goods to stuff the run, make opponents one-dimensional and outscore them with offensive balance.
You going to count them out?
Watts-Jackson raised his arm in triumph as he was carted off the field. The reserve safety from Dearborn, Mich., by way of Orchard Lake St. Mary's, didn't participate in the locker room celebration after this game. He never saw the Bunyan trophy. Dantonio never had a chance to congratulate him. He was taken straight to the hospital.
Watts-Jackson family members Tweeted that he underwent surgery for the broken hip and will be out for the season, although Michigan State has not yet confirmed that. Family members tweeted a photo of him from the hospital, with family and friends surrounding him in his hospital bed. They were all smiling. He wasn't. But that's part of the mission. He's Jalen Freaking-Watts-Jackson. He's a Ranger. And now a legend.
DotComp Rewind: Of Rangers and Legends
Jim Comparoni • SpartanMag.com
@JimComparoni
Jalen Watts-Jackson announced on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, that he is leaving Michigan State in order to become a grad-transfer at another school for his fifth year of eligibility.
In a show of appreciation for his work and career at MSU, which was hampered by a career-changing injury during his miracle play as part of the Clusterpunt at Michigan, on Oct. 17, 2015, today SpartanMag.com re-publishes our DotComp account of one of the most famous plays in recent Spartan football history.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Oct. 17, 2015) - And just like that, Jalen Watts-Jackson became a Michigan State folk hero.
When he and the other 10 members of the "Rangers" special opps unit took the field with no chance to rescue victory, he might have heard Shilique Calhoun say, "Just believe."
He might have heard Riley Bullough say, "Rangers, everyone go get it!"
But did they really believe this band of 11 no-names could stage arguably the most incredible late-game heroic in the history of Michigan State football?
When the final play happened, Bullough, Calhoun, Connor Cook - the faces of this team, the stars, the leaders - were reduced to being spectators, just like the rest of us.
Michigan State trailed 23-21 with :10 seconds to play.
"I put on my helmet," Cook said, "just in case we needed to go in for a lateral play or something."
Bullough voiced support and belief. But really, he knew Michigan State had lost this game.
"I had turned my head for a second, and when I turned back, we were going the other way," Bullough said.
You all know what happened next. Every Michigan State fan on the planet knows. And there are Michigan State fans who aren't born yet who will learn the name Jalen Watts-Jackson.
And seriously, is there a cooler name than Jalen Watts-Jackson? If you were writing a script and needed a name for an action hero to save a local universe in the face of impossible odds, could you do better than the name Jalen Watts-Jackson?
And if you were writing a comic book about a football team trying to win in fictitiously ridiculous fashion, wouldn't you cast two sons of former superstars who once played for the same team, who were now thrown onto the field for really the first time in their lives in this capacity, as "Rangers," and have them arrive at the foot of the punter right as said punter was being struck down by the negative powers of some football gods somewhere?
"I want to thank God for this," Dantonio said. "Because there surely was something else to it besides physical."
Do these guys know something we don't know?
And here came Grayson Miller and Matt Morrissey off the edge, charging recklessly at punter Blake O'Neill.
O'Neill fumbled the snap as he tried to scurry to his right for a rugby-style punt.
Did O'Neill take his eye off the snap for a second? Probably so, when seeing Miller, Jermaine Edmondson and Brandon Sowards to his left, with no Michigan players in front of them to serve as blockers.
O'Neill is still new to football, having learned to kick as an Australian rules football player in his native country. This is his second year in college football. And he likely has never been presented with an 11-man rush. He has never prepared to take a snap while seeing THREE members of the other team to his left with no blockers to help him. So yeah, that might have registered as unfamiliar and uncomfortable. And he lost concentration on the snap.
O'Neill is being cast as the goat in this Wolverine tragedy. But his infallible coach, Jim Harbaugh, during his final timeout with :10 seconds left in the game, should have had an automatic check to bring the gunner in for tight protection if they saw 11 Spartans at the line of scrimmage. Or they should have anticipated MSU's 11 men at the line of scrimmage and brought the extra protection in as a pre-emptive move. Instead, Michigan put a gunner out wide left, but no Spartan went out there with the gunner. That gunner became a wasted resource. O'Neill probably noticed it, and that made him hesitate. A large part of that is on the coach. He set up O'Neill to fail.
Or Harbaugh could have gone for it on fourth-and-two. The Wolverines were at Michigan State's 47-yard line. They needed only six feet to secure victory. Michigan had gained four yards and three yards on first and second down. They didn't want to take a stab at two more yards? And even if Michigan didn't get those six feet, the worst-case scenario for Michigan would have been for Michigan State's Cook to be left heaving the ball from his own 35-yard line for a chance at victory. Who were they afraid he was? Kordell Stewart?
There's a chance Michigan could have fumbled it on a fourth-and-two play, resulting in the chance for a fumble return for a touchdown. Harbaugh said they went over all the scenarios on the sideline.
It would have taken some guts for Harbaugh to go for it in that situation. He didn't show any.
Wear The Pants, Take Some Blame
In light of the backlash and death threats O'Neill has received on social media, Harbaugh on Monday needs to attempt to take 100 percent of the blame for the mistake in the final :10 seconds. He needs to own it and protect his player.
But instead, he will probably complain about a face mask penalty that wasn't called, and his version of Joe Bolden's targeting foul. He'll blame the refs instead of himself. Michigan Man.
He'll leave out the part about Michigan's Jourdan Lewis getting away with interference against Aaron Burbridge on a third-and-three in the third quarter. And are we completely sure Michigan didn't get a gift TD on that 1-yard plunge in the third quarter? Did he really cross the goal line?
But don't let that stuff stop the masses from hailing once again to the victims vanquished.
Rather than blaming officials, Harbaugh should check his own mistakes and reflect on the decision to punt on fourth-and-two. He put the game in the hands of his Australian rules footballer who might not have been clear on American rules after he fumbled the snap. It looked as if O'Neill thought he was required to attempt a kick, once he fumbled the snap.
Some are saying he would have been better off taking a knee and letting MSU throw a Hail Mary from the 40. I'm not sure about that. Although he was in scramble mode, if he had just gotten a foot on that ball, it would have trickled 10 or 15 yards downfield, and that would have been the game. Punting on the run while being tackled? They do that all the time in Aussie football. His choice might not have been as outlandish as we think, based on O'Neill's skill set.
In the end, O'Neill tried to desperately get some sort of punt off, channeling Garo Yepremian, whom O'Neill has surely never heard of, (Google him, Super Bowl VII).
That's about when Miller (the son of former Spartan safety John Miller) and Morrissey (the son of former Spartan linebacker Jim Morrissey) began converging on O'Neill.
Miller had four interceptions in the Michigan game in 1987, a Spartan victory. Morrissey broke Harbaugh's arm in the 1984 game, a Spartan victory.
The only thing lacking was Levi Jackson Jr. throwing a crucial block on this play.
"I just blitzed off the edge," Grayson Miller said, "and I saw him fumble it, and I took off after him and Matt and I hit him as he was bobbling it."
The force from their hit sent the ball straight to Rangers super hero Jalen Watts-Jackson.
Jackson nabbed the ball out of the air and scooted toward the sideline and the end zone.
"I was on the ground and I just saw Jalen taking off," Miller said.
"You go from :10 seconds and a guy punting the ball and saying, 'Okay, this is done,'" said Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio. "And then all the sudden life gets flipped upside down."
"Once we saw him drop the ball and he got hit," Cook said, "I was hoping our guy was going to get tackled and the clock would stop and we would kick a field goal. But he just kept running and running and running. I was like, 'He might as well just score a touchdown.'"
Yeah, might as well.
Go ahead and put that in the script. It's fiction, after all.
"I didn't know what was happenin', man," Dantonio said. "I was just like … I was with all of you (fans, media). Some green, some blue, everybody with mouths dropped open.
"But we scooped it up. I thought if we could get down and maybe have one second to kick it, and then I saw the :00s go up and I knew he had to score."
The Rangers tried to rally toward him and offer support.
There was Miller, Morrissey, Edmondson, Sowards.
Sowards? Who the Hell is Brandon Sowards? And what is he doing on "The Rangers"?
(Shhhhh. It's a secret. They're special opps, remember? Special forces. You're not supposedto know these guys are part of a bigger plan).
A Need-To-Know Basis
Before Saturday, none of the Rangers had ever started for Michigan State. Five of the Rangers are freshmen. Three are walk-ons. Sowards is a walk-on freshman, for crying out loud.
If you must know, Sowards is registered officially as an accounting major from Wyandotte. They pass him through security as like a ninth-string wide receiver.
The 11 players on the Rangers special opps unit combines for four career letters won. Edmondson has two, Monty Madaris has one, and Matt Macksood has one.
Macksood blocked a punt at Notre Dame in 2013. And he threw a key block for Macgarrett Kings in the Rose Bowl, helping set up Michigan State's game-winning touchdown. But you might not remember those two plays from Macksood. The football gods might have erased that from your memory. That's all part of it. Just play along.
Three Rangers are true freshmen: Miller, Khari Willis, Andrew Dowell. And then there's redshirt freshman T.J. Harrell.
Willis and Miller started for the first time on Saturday, as Michigan State played 58 defensive snaps with true freshmen at the safety positions and Harbaugh sought to test them deep only once or twice (one of which they completed for 32 yards - the longest pass play of the day for Michigan). It didn't occur to Harbaugh to go after them more. Again, secret brain tampering might have been at work. We're not sure.
You might not remember the name Zac Leimbach tomorrow, but he was on the Rangers unit, flailing around, trying to create a diversion. They tell us he is a packaging major, likely under an assumed name. A bio was prepared for him, stating that he rushed for 1,500 yards and passed for 800 while leading Walled Lake Central to the Division 2 semifinals while in high school.
They all combined to get the ball to Watts-Jackson in the final seconds. Watts-Jackson had previously been a mild-mannered member of the third string. He played a few snaps against Oregon. Since then, he has been used only occasionally on special teams, and on this particular special opps group.
As Watts-Jackson weaved down the sideline with the ball, and fans around the world shrieking in joy or agony, he appeared to peek up at the game clock. And it also looked like a cape sprung out from the back of his jersey.
Michigan's Wayne Lyons was the only Wolverine with a chance to stop Watts-Jackson short of the end zone. Edmondson didn't see Lyons.
Lyons angled toward Watts-Jackson, and jostled Edmondson on the shoulder - as if he wanted to let Edmondson know he was there, as if he might have been in on this whole thing. Edmondson turned and saw Lyons and then thought, what the heck, might as well block this guy, too.
Then Edmondson latched into him at the 10-yard line, providing one last key block to secure the touchdown.
Watts-Jackson could have gone out of bounds at the 10-yard line with still :01 or :02 seconds on the clock, according to an ESPN replay. Instead, Watts-Jackson cut to the inside, gave Lyons a mini head butt, and leaped across the goal line.
"Everybody went crazy," said defensive back Demetrious Cox. "I thought he went out of bounds, but I was like, 'Man, he scored!'"
Through all of the confusion and celebration, don't overlook the fact that Watts-Jackson turned in a terrific piece of open-field running to complete the mission. Michigan's puntastrophe had been executed.
"People were diving and tackling each other," Cox said. "We couldn't believe it. I still couldn't believe it. That's a legendary play."
"Man, it was crazy," Bullough said. "It was insane. One of the best feelings ever."
They Believed In The Rangers
The big-name players believed in the Rangers. Bullough and Calhoun rallied the huddle during Michigan's last possession, imploring Michigan State's defensive 11 to prevent a Michigan first down.
"That whole possession," Bullough said, "we were saying, 'Guys, seriously, don't stop playing! We've got to get a stop here on these three plays.
"We were all hyping each other up, trying to get it going. That's just the kind of guys we are, competitive."
"We had faith in the Rangers," Calhoun said.
"The Rangers came through, and they came up with a huge play," Bullough said.
It was the craziest, most amazing finish we'll ever see. It made "Rocket" and "Little Giants," look conventional.
"There was no way," Cook said. "Anyone who was watching this game, there was no shot for us to win. For it to go down like that, I'm at a loss for words.
"And then when that happened, everyone rushed the field. I've never felt anything like that. I honestly felt like I was in a dream. Completely crazy."
It sent Spartan fans going crazy, world-wide. Watts-Jackson's play had Le'Veon Belljumping yelling around his kitchen, made Magic Johnson stand and yell in L.A.. Even Rich Homie Quan, down in Atlanta, was texting Darqueze Dennard about all this.
Bolden was probably planting an anger stake in the Michigan locker room.
What about John Miller?
"He's probably crying," Grayson Miller said. "This rivalry runs very, very deep for him."
After Watts-Jackson's touchdown, an MSU equipment guy had to scurry back near the Michigan locker room and grab the Paul Bunyan Trophy. The same MSU equipment guy had dropped off Paul outside the Wolverine locker room after Cook's fourth-down incompletion with 1:47 left. Even the equipment guy thought the game was over.
"To win in that fashion, when there were :10 seconds left, they were getting ready to punt, and the game was over, and then … that happened," Cook said. "And to win and experience that, and you're looking around for people to celebrate with, and everyone is just in tears, and everyone was just so mind-blown."
They ran to mob Watts-Jackson. But the one guy who made it happen was the one guy who couldn't enjoy it.
When Watts-Jackson crossed the goal line, his left knee drove into the turf while a Wolverine landed on his back, and something in his hip snapped. Fellow Rangers were the first ones to him. Morrissey and Dowell leaped on him in once-in-a-lifetime euphoria. Watts-Jackson flung the ball back toward the 10-yard line, not in celebration, but in pain.
Leimbach jumped on him.
Sowards jumped on him.
One after another, they clubbed and ripped at him. They hugged him. He yelled as loudly as he could for them to stop. He was hurt bad. Demetrius Cooper grabbed him by the jersey and shook him around like a Christmas present. Watts-Jackson yelled to get the hell off of him.
But they couldn't hear, with all that joy going on in their heads, and the yells of the 10,000 Spartan fans who were maxing out their vocal chords at Michigan Stadium while the band played "Victory for MSU." Some of the other 100,000 in attendance were buzzing in anger that the Harbaugh Flux Capacitor hadn't yet garbaged the Wolverines into instantly being as good as they think they were in 1901.
There was chaos in the end zone. Macgarrett Kings hid his head in his hands and was about to cry, but this was even too sugar-sweet for tears. His face reappeared with a half-smile, shaking his head.
"I ran out to the pile," Dantonio said. "I was just sort of chasing everybody in white. Then I saw Jalen down and didn't really know what was going on."
Watts-Jackson frantically, finally got through to his his teammates, that he was hurt, and to stop pounding on him. We would learn later that he broke his hip on the play, most likely not during the dog pile.
Validation? Please
The scoreboard at Michigan Stadium never displayed the final score of 27-23. After Watts-Jackson's touchdown, the scoreboard went to all zeroes, and then someone probably named Wolverine Bob hit the switch and turned the scoreboard off - as if preventing it from going up in lights would somehow strike the victory from the record. Typical. If Dantonio had noticed, he would have gotten a chuckle out of it. He finds a lot of the things they do amusing.
Hatred for Michigan, however, didn't seem to be at the forefront of this story. Beating the rival was a fine accomplishment, because Michigan came into the game on a hot streak, and the Wolverines were getting the customarily inflated amount of credit for beating … Brigham Young and Northwestern and avoiding a blowout at Utah back in August.
Yeah … those are some accomplishments. Put those on paper, right next to your eight or nine "National Championships" that were won back when the ball was round.
I admit that I gave Michigan a 57 percent chance of winning this game, but I'm not shocked that Michigan State was able to hit most of the key marks necessary to pull off this win. I pointed out prior to the game that Michigan's offense, at times, can look very ordinary. Michigan State shut the Wolverines down. Of Michigan's 13 possessions, eight of them went three-and-out.
Michigan was able to lead via special teams and field position. That's part of football, and they milked that advantage for a while. But they didn't have enough substance to see it through.
Michigan State came into the game with the nation's fourth-longest win streak, a No. 4 ranking, and two consecutive seasons of finishes in the Top 5.
Michigan State is 20-1 in its last 21 games against Big Ten opponents, including 16 wins by double-figures.
Do we need to remind people of the Rose Bowl and the Cotton Bowl victories? Apparently so.
Michigan State is 33-3 in its last 36 games, yet Dantonio was asked if thisvictory validates the program.
"I hope that our program has been validated by now," Dantonio said. "We have won 11 games plus, four times. So we are not the weak sisters there. No pun."
Beating the rival was only part of the story for Michigan State, this time.
"The most important thing in all of this is that we are 7-0 now and we advance, 3-0 in the Big Ten conference, and so our dreams are kept alive and we are able to move forward," Dantonio said.
Dreams of winning a National Championship.
Maybe this is the best way for Michigan State to pursue the National Championship - sneak up on it while everyone thinks you're out of the picture.
RECRUITING UPDATE: In-State 5-Star & Ohio 4-Star Back in Play for MSU
Michigan State isn't good enough to compete in the College Football Playoff right now. But they're closer than they were a week ago. The staunch ground defense is back in effect. The passing game is dazzling at times. The running offense should get better as o-linemen regain better health. The biggest questions are on special teams and the defensive backfield. Starting two true freshmen at the safety position will likely cost the Spartans at some point. But maybe MSU has the goods to stuff the run, make opponents one-dimensional and outscore them with offensive balance.
You going to count them out?
Watts-Jackson raised his arm in triumph as he was carted off the field. The reserve safety from Dearborn, Mich., by way of Orchard Lake St. Mary's, didn't participate in the locker room celebration after this game. He never saw the Bunyan trophy. Dantonio never had a chance to congratulate him. He was taken straight to the hospital.
Watts-Jackson family members Tweeted that he underwent surgery for the broken hip and will be out for the season, although Michigan State has not yet confirmed that. Family members tweeted a photo of him from the hospital, with family and friends surrounding him in his hospital bed. They were all smiling. He wasn't. But that's part of the mission. He's Jalen Freaking-Watts-Jackson. He's a Ranger. And now a legend.
