Michigan State's newest celebrity sat in a wheelchair in front of reporters, describing a play that was part euphoria, part agony.
"I looked up at the clock to see how much time we had left. At that point I knew I couldn't be tackled or didn't have time to kick a field goal or whatnot, and I started running," said Jalen Watts-Jackson, whose fumble return on the final play beat Michigan last weekend. "I was actually going to dive into the end zone before I got tackled because I didn't know if I was going to make it or not and who was behind me. After that it was pretty much pure pain."
What was already a surreal finish Saturday took an even more bizarre turn afterward, when Watts-Jackson was taken to the hospital because of an injured hip. He had surgery Sunday, so a few days elapsed before one of the play's main protagonists could even talk about it publicly. On Wednesday, Watts-Jackson spoke to the media, saying he could tell his hip was hurt when he hit the ground — before his celebrating teammates piled on top of him.
"It felt like I was under there for an hour," Watts-Jackson said. "After watching, I guess I wasn't under there that long, there were just a lot of people on top of me. Definitely being under the pile of all those people, being about 190 pounds, it's not that fun of an experience."
Watts-Jackson, a redshirt freshman from Dearborn, can appreciate the significance of this moment. His touchdown gave the seventh-ranked Spartans a 27-23 victory, their seventh in the past eight meetings with Michigan. It also kept Michigan State's unbeaten season alive.
With 10 seconds left, the Wolverines were set to punt, but punter Blake O'Neill fumbled the snap, and the ball ended up bouncing to Watts-Jackson.
"My teammates have been making jokes and stuff saying, 'Bro, you're about to get a statue made of you. You're going to get your name put up in the stadium,' " he said.
Calling all kickers
The 13th-ranked Florida Gators held a campuswide tryout in hopes of finding some help before next week's game against Southeastern Conference rival Georgia in Jacksonville, a huge matchup that will go a long way determining who wins the league's Eastern Division.
