Le'Veon Bell says historic Little Giants play was "drawn up for me"

Some of the most exciting news that Michigan State football fans have seen all offseason is that the Spartans and Notre Dame will face off in a two-game series beginning in 2026. The announcement of this series has caused every Spartan fan to reminisce about the history of this historic rivalry.

And whenever you think Michigan State and Notre Dame football, you always think about the Little Giants game from 2010.

Recently I ranked the top five games from this historic rivalry and Little Giants took the top spot, but what if I told you that the play was never supposed to go to Charlie Gantt who caught the game-winning touchdown?

Spartan legend Le'Veon Bell was on the field during this play, and according to him, the play was designed to be run to him. Bell stated, "People don't even know this play was drawn up for me."

After seeing this I went back and looked at the post game quotes, and sure enoug Gantt confirmed this right after the game saying, "All throughout the week in practice, I never got the ball once."

When watching the play, you can see Bell, who wore No. 24, lined up all the way on the right side of the line. When the ball was snapped, he immediately took off down field but got caught up and brought to the ground by two Notre Dame defenders. That is what allowed Gantt to break free and be wide open for the game-winning 39-yard touchdown reception from punter Aaron Bates.

This in my opinion only adds to the lore surrounding this game, because how awesome is it that a lesser-known player caught the touchdown that was never supposed to go to him? To make it even better, Mark Dantonio said, "We actually put it (Little Giants) in on Wednesday."

So to sum it all up, the play was only in the playbook for three days and went to a player nobody was expecting to catch it.

Everything had to go right for this play to work, and everything did go right. And now Spartan fans have this play to look back on for the rest of time as it will always be remembered as one of the greatest plays in college football history.