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Michigan State football kicker Matt Coghlin 'rocks' another trick play into a touchdown

Chris Solari
Lansing State Journal
Michigan State Spartans wide receiver C.J. Hayes (4) jumps into the end zone to score a touchdown during the second half of the game against Indiana at Memorial Stadium. The Michigan State Spartans defeated the Indiana Hoosiers 35 to 21.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Little Giants. Mouse Trap. Hey Diddle Diddle.

Add another name to Mark Dantonio’s trick play catalog: “Rocks.”

That was the call for the third-quarter, fake field goal option pitch that kicker Matt Coghlin turned into a 6-yard touchdown run during No. 23 Michigan State’s 35-21 victory over Indiana on Saturday night.

“Don’t ask me why,” Dantonio said with a grin. “I don’t know why.”

MSU led 21-7 and got the ball into the red zone midway through the quarter. A jet sweep to Darrell Stewart Jr., who was hurt on the play, netted two yards.

Then the Spartans ran a double reverse, with Brian Lewerke handing the ball to Brandon Sowards, who then flipped it to Cody White. White ran right and threw to Lewerke on the sideline with no one open in the end zone. The play picked up six yards, and Lewerke took a big hit that knocked him out of bounds.

Sowards got the ball again on a third-and-2 jet sweep at the Hoosiers’ 5. He lost a yard.

On came Coghlin for a field goal, armed with a play MSU had been working on for months.

“We practiced that fake with Coghlin a lot. We’ve been working on it since fall camp, I think,” Lewerke said. “We knew Indiana had the perfect look for us.”

Lewerke picked up the snap and dashed to his right, with Coghlin trailing him. When an Indiana defender dashed toward the QB, he flicked the ball to his kicker. Coghlin danced around the end, down the sideline, and slipped over the goal line inside the pylon for the score.

Coghlin said it was not his first touchdown – he played running back “back in the day.” In second or third grade.

“What we worked on was (Lewerke) keeping it, because the edge guy was actually supposed to take me and not really be a part of the play,” he said. “But he kind of stayed in the middle, so I guess I was the best option.”

The decision to go for the fake, with the Spartans struggling to run the ball and going bankrupt on offense in the red zone, fell to Dantonio.

“We had looked at some things. I felt they were susceptible a little bit, and I felt like we could execute it,” Dantonio said. “At some point in time, I think the head football coach has gotta take some chances, too. You can’t put it all on the players.”

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Coghlin then got an even more rare moment: Kicking the extra point after his own TD.

“I got back (to the huddle) and I said, ‘Hold on, I need a second,’” the 5-foot-9, 190-pound Coghlin said. “Never getting tackled, my body was kind of dinged up.”

The sophomore said he did not get to keep the ball from his first college touchdown, saying that he "didn't need it, because I got the memory." And with his game-winning field goal in last year's upset over Penn State, Coghlin already has a career worth of those in just two seasons.

"I'll just put them in two different categories, because one is a kick and one is a touchdown," he said. "I don't know how to explain it, especially right now."

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.