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. He caught Michigan’s muffed punt out of the air and crashed 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.
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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.
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.
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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.
