Ten years ago, Michigan and Michigan State produced one of the most unforgettable finishes college football has ever seen.
In an instant, two unlikely figures became forever linked — and the faces of that play: Spartans backup safety Jalen Watts-Jackson and Michigan fan Chris Baldwin, a sophomore at the school.
Under coach Mark Dantonio, Michigan State arrived in Ann Arbor undefeated and ranked in the top 10.
But in his first season, coach Jim Harbaugh had quickly turned around a Wolverines team that had gone 5-7 the year before under Brady Hoke. With a 23-21 lead, Harbaugh was 10 seconds away from his first signature win.
“Then all of a sudden,” Baldwin said, “things started moving in the wrong direction.”
In those final 10 seconds, Watts-Jackson became a Michigan State legend. As Michigan prepared to punt, the snap was fumbled, and Watts-Jackson snatched the ball out of the air and rushed into the end zone for an improbable game-winning touchdown — dislocating his hip as he did.
Just a few feet away, standing in the third row of the student section in that end zone, Baldwin put his hands on his head in disbelief. ESPN’s cameras caught the reaction, creating a viral image that cemented a new phrase in the sports lexicon: “Surrender Cobra.”
As Michigan and Michigan State prepare to meet again for the 118th time Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC), ESPN went inside that iconic moment — through the words of those who witnessed it firsthand.
Baldwin grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, a lifelong Wolverines fan. He saw his first game at the Big House when he was 5 years old. During his freshman year of college, he formed a close group of friends — Tim Worley, Blayze Damron, Ian McKenzie and childhood friends Brandon Freudenstein and Jacob Pitcher — who loved Michigan football just as much. By their sophomore year in 2015, they all lived together and had season tickets. On Oct. 17, Michigan State was coming to town for the biggest Wolverines game in years. Underscoring its magnitude, ESPN’s “College GameDay” broadcast live from Ann Arbor.
Baldwin: That was our first “College GameDay.” Being big football fans, that’s the crown jewel. We got in line to get in around 3 p.m. on Friday.
Worley: They told us tents weren’t going to be allowed. Then we ended up being the only ones without a tent. So we just camped out in lawn chairs and stayed up all night.
Damron: We were all pumped. When they opened the gates, we walked in and easily got on the front row.
Worley: Steve Spurrier was the guest picker. He had retired that week. He picked Michigan. We thought it was going to be one of the best days ever.
After back-to-back double-digit winning seasons, Michigan State was off to a 6-0 start, highlighted by a win over No. 7 Oregon in Week 2. A win at Michigan would propel the Spartans into the thick of the four-team playoff conversation. But the Spartans were battling injuries, especially to their secondary. They would start a pair of true freshmen, Grayson Miller and Khari Willis, at safety. Dantonio also bumped Watts-Jackson up to second on the safety depth chart. Then he injured his shoulder in practice two days before the game.
Watts-Jackson: I wasn’t even supposed to play. But the day before we travel, Coach D is like, “Hey, man, we might need you. Are you going to be able to play?” I’m like, “Hell yeah, I’m playing.”
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Dantonio: When we pull the bus up to Michigan Stadium, everybody’s there razzing us. We had three buses. I was thinking we’ve got to get our guys hyped somehow. When we get there, I told everyone, I’m going to count to 10 and then we’ll all get off the bus. I asked them to think about what we’re going to do during those 10 seconds as a football team. It’s going to take something special to win. … I never even realized until after the game there were 10 seconds left on the clock.
Watts-Jackson’s dad, Rick Jackson: I live like 20 minutes from Michigan. When Jalen went to Michigan State, I had to throw all my Michigan gear away. … I wasn’t really expecting Jalen to play, but we went to the game to support the team.
Watts-Jackson: I roomed with [running back] Gerald Holmes in the hotel. I’m kind of down because I got hurt. He’s like, “Bro, I don’t know, I got a feeling that you’re going to do something special tomorrow.”
Clinging to a 23-21 lead, the Wolverines came through with a big stop late in the fourth quarter. Dymonte Thomas batted down Connor Cook’s desperation heave on fourth-and-19, giving Michigan the ball near midfield with 1:47 remaining. The Spartans had only one timeout left. After three straight runs, Harbaugh called timeout to set up a punt with 10 seconds to go.
Dantonio: They could’ve taken a delay of game penalty. But they called timeout. I don’t know why. But that timeout gave us the opportunity to talk about what we were going to do. The call was “10 block left.” We took out the returner and added an extra guy up front, [freshman] Brandon Sowers.
Sowards: I didn’t know really where to line up. So I just lined up next to Grayson.
Miller: It’s something you work on, but once you finally line it up in a real game that nobody has ever had to do before, it’s a little bit of jumbled chaos.
Watts-Jackson: My position in that punt block was almost like a decoy. I was supposed to run straight towards the end guy and then run out to make him reach towards me, and then we shoot somebody through the gap.
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Dantonio: I told them we have to block it and return it. Don’t be offsides. But it doesn’t matter if you rough the punter. Go get him. We might get a flag. But that guy was going to get hit.
Miller: I blocked a lot of punts in high school. You pick a spot, get in a track stance, find the angle and go all out. That’s all I ever did in high school. And that moment felt very similar.
Dantonio: Why Michigan didn’t come out in a tight punt formation just to get the ball off is beyond me.
Michigan All-American tight end Jake Butt: Those gunners outside should have been checked down. But I also understand where Coach [Harbaugh] was coming from. We didn’t need to block the edges because, mathematically, they couldn’t get there. Usain Bolt could’ve gotten there. They couldn’t.
Watts-Jackson: I’m not going to lie. Of course it’s not over until the end. But in my head it’s like, damn man, we really outplayed these guys, but we lost this game. At the same time, you had film that next day and you do not want to be that guy on film lollygagging that last play and be made an example of. So I’m going to do my job. Whatever happens, happens.
For Michigan, the unthinkable happened next. Punter Blake O’Neill dropped the ball, prompting ESPN announcer Sean McDonough to shout, “Whoa! He has trouble with the snap.” O’Neill picked it up, but before he could do anything with it, multiple Spartans, led by Miller and Sowards, crashed into him, popping the ball up into the air.
Butt: I wasn’t even nervous in the shield. We’ve done this a hundred times. But you can always hear the thump of the punt. You can hear a thump. I didn’t hear a thump. I heard the crowd noise shift, and you could sense the nervousness. I’m like, something’s not right.
Dantonio: If the punter just falls on the ball or we fall on the ball, the game is probably over.
Miller: After I saw him drop the ball, I threw my body in there. I don’t know how the physics of it led the ball to land in Jalen’s hands.
Sowards: I remember the look of shock in Jalen’s face.
Watts-Jackson: As I come off the edge, I don’t know what’s going on. Then I see the ball floating in the air. I don’t know what made me just reach out with one hand. I just take off running.
Baldwin: The play was coming right at us. For better or worse, we had a great view of it.
Watts-Jackson: By the time I look up at the clock, there’s six seconds left. I’m thinking I’m going to get out of bounds for the field goal. I don’t want to be caught running out the clock and not score. But as I’m running, I see only one guy in maize and blue [Wayne Lyons] in front of me. So then I’m thinking, we pick up this block, we can go all the way. Jermaine Edmondson is looking at me, and we’re thinking the same thing. He turns around and picks up [Lyons]. At the 7-yard line, I dip my head and cut back inside both of them. Once I cut back, I was going for it.
Worley: I remember having a glimmer of hope maybe that we can tackle him at the 1-yard line when the clock hits zero.
Butt: I’m chasing him, but I knew where we were on the field. I knew if I tackled him, he was going to be in the end zone. So I tried to punch the ball out. I was hoping to just get a fumble out of the back of the end zone. I felt the ball move. I just didn’t get enough of it.
Watts-Jackson: I’m thinking of my celebration, what dance I’m going to break out. But as I’m diving, I lift my left leg up and [Butt] wrapped me up by the leg. So I couldn’t bring my leg down. We both fell on my knee and my leg just popped out of my hip.
Watts-Jackson’s touchdown lifted the Spartans to a miraculous 27-23 victory as time expired. Jackson, his friend Reginald Haynes, Watts-Jackson’s uncle, Julian Watts, and his pregnant fiancée, Kia, were on the other side of the stadium. With the game presumably over prior to the punt, Julian and Kia started walking up the stairs to beat the crowd. Rick walked with them to make sure they made it out.
Jackson: Then [Julian] says, “Did you just see that? I think Jalen just scored.” I’m like, how in the hell did that happen? Because it was in Michigan Stadium, they weren’t replaying it. … I didn’t even know he was injured until I went to the locker room.
Watts-Jackson: I know my hip is broken. It’s dislocated. Something’s not right. When I’m going down, I throw the ball. I don’t throw it out of excitement. And as soon as I throw the ball, I just see white jerseys piling on me.
Dantonio: He was on his back screaming.
Watts-Jackson: The first person I remember was [defensive lineman] Lawrence Thomas. He was like, “You did it, you did it.” Then I blacked out for a second. [Running back] LJ Scott was trying to pick me up, and I’m telling him like, “No, no, my hip.” They carted me off the field and put me straight in the ambulance.
Miller: Nobody knew what happened to Jalen. We didn’t hear about that until we were in the locker room. I wasn’t even sure it was Jalen who had returned the ball at that point. That’s how chaotic it was.
Jackson: I go to the locker room. I still haven’t seen the play. I see one of Jalen’s friends that played little league football with him, Tyson Smith. I ask him, “Where’s Jalen?” He says, “I don’t know, but he the man right now.”
While pandemonium filled the Michigan State locker room, the Wolverines and the home crowd were in shock. Unbeknownst to his teammates, an ambulance shuttled Watts-Jackson to Michigan’s University Hospital. Baldwin and his buddies, meanwhile, began walking home — unaware he was already going viral.
Pitcher: I couldn’t process how we just lost. It felt fake.
Baldwin: You were trying to comprehend it.
Butt: I’m truly telling you, it was a psychedelic experience. It’s like my vision was changed. The colors looked different. Even walking to the locker room, it was like, am I in a dream? Did that really happen?
Watts-Jackson: I remember the ambulance ride being super long. It felt like we were in traffic forever. I’m fully dressed, wearing everything except my helmet. They were doing whatever they could to calm me down … then we hit this bump, and I instantly got relief. I heard a pop. The bump popped my hip back into place.
Jackson: We talked to him before the surgery, and he wasn’t saying much. He was in a state of shock, like he didn’t even know what happened. He didn’t talk about the play.
Watts-Jackson: I was kind of down in the dumps going into the surgery. I’m just thinking like, damn, I’m not going to be playing for a while. Am I ever going to walk the same? Am I going to be able to run again? They compared my injury to Bo Jackson’s, and he didn’t come back from his injury to play football again.
Sowards: I texted Jalen that night to go to a friend’s house. No text back. I’m like what the heck? Maybe he’s too busy? On Sunday, when we came in to watch film and get a lift in, that’s when we found out he was still [in Ann Arbor] and was hurt pretty bad.
Pitcher: We didn’t get real cell service until we were like 10 minutes out of the stadium. I remember Chris saying, “Oh, people back home are saying they saw me on TV.”
Baldwin: As soon as I get reception, texts come flying in from all sorts of people in my life. That evening we had “SportsCenter” on, and the anchors were standing on each side of a big screen with my picture. I started to realize that this was going to be a little more than just a few family members recognizing me on TV.
Pitcher: Then we got on Twitter and we started thinking, this might definitely be a thing.
Watts-Jackson: I was in the hospital for 3½ days. All of my stuff, including my phone, went back to East Lansing. So I’m just blind to social media, blind to my friends and family reaching out. I’m a millennial. We’re attached to our phones. So it was a strange few days for sure. It felt like I was there for a month. … So I finally get back to Michigan State, I get my phone back. When I turned it on, I couldn’t use it the rest of the day because I was getting so many notifications, nonstop, to the point my phone froze. My phone was so crammed with text messages, phone calls, notifications from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. I couldn’t even operate the phone. It wouldn’t work. I couldn’t turn it off. I couldn’t close things out. So I just left it on the charger and waited until it cooled down.
Dantonio: He came back on Wednesday. Another surreal moment, him being with his teammates for the first time since making that play.
Sowards: He was in a wheelchair. He came down and we all went crazy because that was the first time we had seen him since the game. We were chanting, “Ja-len, Ja-len …” as he was rolling down.
Watts-Jackson: The day after, I got on social media and everywhere I would see the play, I would see this picture: Chris with his hands on his head, doing the Surrender Cobra. That was the first time I had ever even heard that phrase.
1:22
Replays of final play for MSU – UM
Replays of final play for MSU – UM
The Spartans went on to win the Big Ten championship and advance to the College Football Playoff, which remains the program’s only playoff appearance. Watts-Jackson eventually recovered from his hip injury and rejoined the Spartans the following season. The Wolverines ultimately bounced back from the stunning loss to win 10 games. Baldwin, meanwhile, became a campus sensation. He still lives in Ann Arbor and has season tickets. Once a year, his old college buddies come to town to go to a Michigan game together and stay at his house. Sometimes, they even meet up for a road game. While taping a podcast about the game a few years ago, Baldwin and Watts-Jackson finally met.
Miller: We were definitely a team of destiny. Beating Michigan on the way to making the playoffs was certainly sweet.
Butt: If any one thing had gone even partly wrong, we would’ve been OK. Truly, it was a nightmare scenario. Everything that had to go right for Michigan State went right. And we were on the other side of it. Even to this day, it stings.
Dantonio: It’s never over.
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Jackson: I missed the whole play. It still kills me to this day that I didn’t see the play at all. People still don’t believe when I tell them, I was there and never saw the play. I had to watch it on TV.
McKenzie: Chris was a minor celebrity all of a sudden. We couldn’t do anything without watching him take pictures for 10 minutes.
Baldwin: I definitely was getting recognized, walking to class, going to get lunch, going to parties. … People were ready to take pictures.
Damron: There was a T-shirt company in Ohio selling O-H-I-O shirts with a cartoon picture of Chris. We had to go find a lawyer to send a cease and desist to them.
Baldwin: They ended up sending me a couple grand and a freezer box of some [Montgomery Inn] ribs. There were some Skyline chili cans in there. I’m still friends with the guy on Facebook.
Worley: The following year, we were at a dive bar in Key West on spring break. We were trying to watch a Michigan basketball game. It was a sports bar and on the wall they had pictures of famous sports moments. And they had a picture of Chris.
Baldwin: I had never heard of the term Surrender Cobra before.
McKenzie: I had never heard it before, either. And now Chris is the face of it.
Butt: When I saw [the memes] after the game, I deleted my social media. I was like, I’m done. That picture is ingrained in our DNA. And when I see it, I still feel a little bit of what I felt in that moment.
Miller: Anytime you see that picture, you know what it means. I find that very satisfying.
Watts-Jackson: I’ve joked with Chris, you’re more famous than me from that play.
Baldwin: It’s bittersweet. I would’ve preferred that Michigan had just gotten the punt off. But … there are worse ways to be remembered.
