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TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com

Breaking down Michigan State’s infamous array of trick plays

During his Monday press conference, a 
day when all eyes were on the Michigan-
Michigan State rivalry, Jim Harbaugh 
mentioned trick plays four different times.
It’s for good reason — Michigan State 
coach Mark Dantonio is notorious for 
his trick plays. He’s run them for years, 
with well-known plays dating back to the 
beginning of his tenure in East Lansing. 
The Wolverines are well aware how much 
hate goes into this rivalry, and they know 
that Dantonio’s trickery is another thing 
to look out for.
“(We’re) on high alert for everything,” 
Harbaugh said Monday. “We understand, 
Mark Dantonio’s a master motivator and 
there could be trick plays, special teams, 
punt fakes, field goal fakes. Everything 
needs to be alerted and prepared and 
ready.”
But what are these trick plays, and what 
can Michigan do to prepare for them? The 
Daily dug into the film, breaking down 
several of the Spartans’ trick plays from 
the 2018 season.
The fake punt
The opponent: Penn State
The down: 4th-and-6, MSU 34
The situation: First quarter, down 
7-0
It’s clear that this fake punt fooled the 
camera operator, too, so it’s a little tough 
to tell what’s going on at first.
Michigan State lined up in a normal 
punt formation, but the ball was instead 
snapped to No. 11, running back Connor 
Heyward. With the return team on the 
field, there’s no one there to stop Heyward, 
who gets outside for a 26-yard gain.
Later in the drive, the Spartans scored 
a touchdown.
The key to this play was the element of 
surprise. Nobody expects a fake punt in 
the first quarter in a team’s own territory. 
The Nittany Lions understandably weren’t 
lined up properly to stop such a play, and 
that’s why it worked. No matter how alert 
you are, you can’t line up on every punt 
like it’s going to be a fake.
As far as the actual playcall, this 
is pretty low-risk for a fake punt, and 
the main requirement is faith in your 
blockers. But the game situation increases 
the risk — Heyward had to make it at least 
six yards starting from behind the line 
of scrimmage, and had he been stuffed, 
Penn State would have taken over with 
excellent field position.
Heyward, one of Michigan State’s go-to 
guys on trick plays, is now in the transfer 
portal. But presumably, the Spartans have 
practiced this with a variety of players 
who know how to execute it. No matter 
who’s running it, the Wolverines have 
dedicated preparation time for these sorts 
of situations and they’re very familiar 

with how a play like this could work.
“We’ve definitely gone back, I wanna 
be accurate here, Michigan-Michigan 
State 12 years ago, they ran a fake punt or 
something,” said Michigan special teams 
coach Chris Partridge. “We’ve seen it all. 
We’ve seen every fake punt that they’ve 
run probably for 12 years. … The last three 
fake punts are exactly the same.”
The fake field goal
The opponent: Indiana
The down: 4th-and-3, Indiana 6
The situation: Third quarter, up 21-7
The fake punt was a fairly simple play. 
This one has a lot more moving parts.
Let’s be honest here: Michigan State 
didn’t really need to run an elaborate fake 
field goal up by two scores in the third 
quarter, but this is just what the Spartans 
do. And again, they had the element of 
surprise working in their favor.
On most teams, the holder doubles 
as the punter or backup quarterback. 
(Michigan’s holder, for example, is senior 
punter Will Hart.) But Michigan State’s 
holder is starting quarterback Brian 
Lewerke, allowing them to draw up a 
variety of fake field goal plays that have a 
higher percentage than what many others 
can do.
Instead of holding for a kick, Lewerke 
(No. 14) takes the snap himself and 
scrambles for a few yards before pitching 

the ball to No. 4, the kicker, Matt Coghlin, 
who runs a route towards the sideline and 
got enough separation to get into the end 
zone.
Most Indiana players, sticking to their 
assignments, seemed to have no idea what 
was happening as the play developed, 
and the Spartans had plenty of blockers 
for those that came over. It didn’t 
help that one Hoosier, attempting 
to block a kick that never came, fell 
down and was out of commission 
for the rest of the play. Indiana’s No. 
28 appears to have anticipated that 
Lewerke could keep the ball, but 
he wasn’t expecting the pitch and 
hesitated as Coghlin coasted into 
the end zone.
This play was very well executed, 
and clearly caught Indiana off 
guard. But it probably wouldn’t 
work as well with a longer distance to go, 
and even with no defenders in the area, 
Coghlin looked, well, like a kicker trying 
to handle the ball. It’s easy to see Lewerke 
mistiming his pitch or Coghlin bobbling 
the ball, and a fumble that close to the end 
zone could be disastrous. 
Against a bad team like last year’s 
Hoosiers, why not throw this one out? 
But Dantonio may want to try something 
lower risk against a better team like 
the Wolverines, where every scoring 

opportunity counts.
“Opportunities presented themselves,” 
Partridge said of Michigan State’s fakes. 
“They’re not going out there, and I know 
people are saying, ‘Hey, their trick plays,’ 
they’re not going out there doing crazy 
stuff for no reason. When you watch their 
fakes, they’re executing them because 
the 
opportunity 
presents itself for 
what 
the 
other 
team is doing.”
The 
double-
reverse pass
The opponent: 
Michigan
The 
down: 
2nd-and-goal, 
Michigan 4
The situation: 
Third 
quarter, 
down 7-0
You probably remember this play, 
and you probably remember that people 
called it the “Sparty Special” due to its 
resemblance to the famed “Philly Special.”
In reality, this isn’t quite the Philly 
Special. In that play, the ball was snapped 
directly to a running back.
Here, Lewerke lines up under center 
as if to run a normal play. He pitches it to 
running back LJ Scott (No. 3), who pitches 
it on a reverse to wide receiver Darrell 
Stewart (No. 25) running in the opposite 
direction.
If that wasn’t enough trickery for you, 
Stewart throws the ball back to Lewerke, 
who runs a corner route to the edge of 
the end zone after pitching the ball.
It’s clear here that Michigan has no 
idea what was going on. The Wolverines 
are in man coverage, and you can see 
most of the secondary move to the top of 
your screen when Lewerke pitches the 
ball, expecting a run play. Cornerback 
David Long (No. 22) sees Lewerke wide 
open and runs to cover him, but as Long 
originally lined up on the other side of 
the play, he doesn’t get there in time, 
and the rest of the defense is even more 
belated.
This was the Spartans’ only touchdown in 
a game Michigan won, 21-7. It’s quite possible, 
maybe even expected, that Michigan State 
will try a play like this again if it gets in the 
red zone. After all, the Spartans’ offense 
has struggled, and the Wolverines’ defense 
is one of the best in the country. Michigan 
State’s best chance will be to get weird.
Nevertheless, 
Michigan 
knows 
as 
much as anyone that against Dantonio 
and the Spartans, they should expect the 
unexpected.
“You look at everything that the team 
has done in terms of fakes or misdirection, 
deceptive types of plays, what they’ve done 
and then prepare for that,” Harbaugh said. 
“But also, what is a possible complement to 
something they’ve already done we could 
be working on, we could be practicing?”

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio was dubbed a “master motivator” by Jim Harbaugh this week.

You look at 
everything that 
the team has 
done...

