50 defining moments from the 2021 Michigan State football season: No. 2

Today marks only 48 hours until Michigan State football is back. I think we all know the final plays left, and no. 2 is Charles Brantley’s iconic play.

Welcome to the 49th article in the series. This marks the second-to-last time I will be covering the 2021 Michigan State football team, with the 2022 season beginning in only two days. Yesterday, I mentioned that Michigan State has a list of iconic moments from the last decade and a half. “Trouble with the snap,” Elsworth’s Rose Bowl tackle, and the like are all defining moments of their respective campaigns.

Charles Brantley provided that defensive moment from a successful Michigan State campaign. In fact, I know that I do not have to write this play out for every member of the Spartan faithful to remember it.

Before we begin, I would like to again thank Owen Oszust as well as CJ Mangum for helping me rank the final two plays on this list.

Additionally, I am thankful for every person who has read one of my articles or liked a post for this series. Going onto my Facebook account and seeing so many notifications has pushed me to keep writing this series.

For those of you who missed yesterday’s article, please click here. If you would like to look at previous articles of this series, feel free to scroll through my writing profile.

No. 2: Charles Brantley’s interception of Cade MacNamara

Why No. 2?

As I said in the introduction, I just have to mention Brantley’s name, and everyone knows which play I am referring to. This was “the” defensive moment for the 2021 Spartans. Charles Brantley went from a name mentioned as “part of Tucker’s first Michigan State football recruiting class” into a legend in the Michigan State-Michigan Battle for Paul Bunyan. Time will tell if Brantley can live up to this play. It is not an easy task, as Ricky White or Jalen Watts-Jackson can attest. Regardless, I doubt Brantley will have to pay for any food or drink in the East Lansing area for a long time.

On this play, Scottie Hazelton dials up a zone scheme for the Michigan State defense. After the usual Michigan State man coverage had been exposed by nearly every route in the book in both this game and the season, Hazelton called for zone to aid the defense. Brantley shaded towards the flat, making MacNamara try to dial up a pass a bit farther up the field. Unfortunately for the Michigan quarterback, Brantley planned on this.

By the time MacNamara was releasing the ball, Brantley had already flipped his hips to sprint back and have perfect positioning for the ball. Brantley then elevates and catches the ball at its high point, securing the ball and the game. Oh, did I mention his catch was one-handed? This play is directly out of a video game.

There is so much that is unbelievable about this play. The catch was a catch a defender should not make, to begin. That is a play you see out of NFL wide receivers on Sunday and maybe the occasional defensive back once a week. Not a play by a true freshman in college, which is the other unbelievable aspect. The discipline and ability shown by Brantley are amazing on this play. He timed everything perfectly, making MacNamara look off his first target but then jumping MacNamara’s throw.

The final element that is hard to believe is the 2021 Michigan State football team stopping an opponent’s pass. This entire year and even this game had been Spartan defensive breakdown after breakdown. The game started with a 93yd touchdown pass and had not gotten much better for the green and white until this point.

Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines got burned by Mel Tucker and his usage of true freshmen for the second straight year after Ricky White decimated the Wolverine defensive backs in 2020.

The game had featured many twists and turns to get here, from Kenneth Walker III completing the weirdest drive in college football history (moment No. 4), to Jacub Panasiuk capitalizing on the other Michigan quarterback committing a turnover (No. 8), to a punter’s fake going wrong and keeping the Spartans in striking distance (No. 19). This game was arguably the best game of the entire college football season or at least the best in the Big Ten.

This was the final twist in a back-and-forth saga. I recall telling my roommate at this game that “it was worth camping out 27 hours for this game, no matter the result.” As a fan of the sport, this was an amazing game. As a fan of the Michigan State football team, this was the best game I have ever witnessed.

Time to give out some credit to players. On this play, Scottie Hazelton has to get a lot of credit. In a crucial situation against your undefeated in-state rival, how many other people would have the guts to risk zone coverage with a shaky secondary? What a play call.

The second player to get credit here is Xavier Henderson. Regardless of what Brantley did on this play, Henderson was in the perfect position to break up a pass and force a second down. While not the highlight reel play, Henderson was perfectly disciplined and in position as the leader of the Spartan defense should be.

Next, the entire Spartan defense deserves credit. Jacob Slade and Jeff Pietrowski ensured that MacNamara did not have all day to tear apart the zone. Additionally, after Brantley intercepted the ball and turned upfield, you can see nearly the entire defense gesturing for the freshman to slide down. Notably, Slade, Darius Snow, and Cal Haladay are all pointing at the ground after the initial shock of a pick wore off. The few that are not went looking to pick up blocks. Every player is doing the right thing on this play.

Finally, who else but Brantley would get the most credit here? This was a phenomenal play. As I mentioned above, it is nearly impossible to believe that a true freshman pulled off this great of a play on this stage.

As I said yesterday, this play-by-play calling deserves a special look. Gus Johnson made an amazing play call here. We all remember it, with “Ballgame! The Spartans said they were tougher! The Spartans said they wouldn’t flinch! And they didn’t! Michigan State will win this game!” These lines still bring me chills.

At the end of this day, this play ranks No. 2 on my list. The only thing detracting from this moment is that the final play in this series was needed to set up this moment. Additionally, as pointed out by CJ, there was no assurance that Michigan would score on this drive. The Wolverines were down by four with just over one minute remaining and no timeouts. It was a dire situation for the Wolverines, but it is more dramatic to view this as a dramatic situation for the Spartans in our minds. Without cheating and looking at the play, can anyone tell me what down and distance this play occurred on? I remember believing that this was a second-and-medium play at least.

This play occurred on first-and-ten. The Spartans were in a favorable position to win this game, but Brantley secured it. The final element to push this moment to No. 2 is that Brantley was not in the midst of having a career game, unlike a certain Spartan running back.

This play hits every single factor needed to make it one of the best defining moments of Spartan football. It occurred at the right time and was clutch, was dynamic, and was most certainly a “wow” play. At the end of the day, it is just hard to beat out the K9 factor.

Statistically, this was Brantley’s only interception of the year. A few games after this, his season came to a close after an injury. The good news is that he should be back and ready for Friday night’s game. Hopefully he can build off a great freshman campaign. With his poise and discipline in this rivalry game, I firmly believe that Brantley will be more than a one-play wonder for Michigan State football.

Tomorrow marks the final moment of the series, and I believe everyone knows which play will be the No. 1 moment. Until next time.