That student was Chris Baldwin. His stunned reaction, broadcast live on ESPN just seconds after the touchdown, became an instant meme — and over time, inseparable from the play itself. 

Now a 2018 Michigan graduate working in software development, Baldwin still remembers the way the Big House fell silent. 

"I felt like we stood there for a while just trying to comprehend," Baldwin said. 

Baldwin's reaction has become the visual emblem of "Trouble with the Snap," a snapshot that brings Spartans back to the chaos of 2015. 

“It's just kind of iconic,” computer science sophomore Jack Waters said. "You see it and [it] makes you immediately think of the play."

That recognition is instant, even for students who were still in middle school, or younger, when it happened. 

"That happened on October 17, 2015," advertising management senior Zachary Larsen said, looking at Baldwin’s picture. "Michigan had trouble with the snap. And yeah, we tackled their punter, got the ball, ran it back, won the game."

Larsen was in sixth grade when he watched it live — crying, he said, because he thought MSU was going to lose. When Watts-Jackson scored, he ran around the house screaming. 

Kinesiology sophomore Andres Kent grew up in Arizona, but when he saw the photo, he remembered the game. 

"I remember watching it on TV with my dad," Kent said. "I just remember jumping up and down, being a little kid, all of that, the call, the voice cracks."

Baldwin's pose resurfaces on social media every year as college football kicks off and the rivalry game approaches. It's inevitable — the moment is just that iconic, he said. 

"Our football team isn't doing too great," construction management sophomore Jacques Corpel said. "But it's always something we can fall back on when we need to make fun of U of M students."

The image symbolizes victory and is a reminder that U-M "lost a little brother" that night, accounting sophomore Benjamin Hollis said. 

Baldwin knows he became a laughingstock for the Spartan fanbase, and that he's still a meme 10 years later. But he likes to think he's taken it in stride. 

"I've had a lot of fun with it," Baldwin said. "I got some very unique experiences, doing things with ESPN or even just interviews with all sorts of reporters and taking pictures with people. As a sports fan, a college football fan, it's cool to be associated with one of the most iconic plays in the history of sports."

While "Trouble with the Snap" was a landmark win for the Spartans — and an easy way to taunt U-M fans — it's also become a point of connection among MSU students who still remember it, Corpel said. 

"I'm a senior, so I remember it, but we're starting to get to the point where a lot of freshmen and sophomores were pretty young during the game, like in elementary school," Larsen said. "I still remember it, but maybe not all students."

While not every student recalls the moments, Hollis, Corpel and Kent all said they believe most would still recognize Baldwin's picture. 

The image, and the game it reflects, will be talked about for as long as MSU plays U-M in any sport, Kent said.

And as long as that game lives on, Baldwin's brief appearance on the 2015 ESPN broadcast continues to follow him.

"Even to this day, on rare occasion, people do still recognize me somehow," Baldwin said. "They’ll still come up, and usually want to take a quick picture, and will say, ‘Man, that was crazy.’"

The photo is more than just a meme to Larsen. It's tied to one of his most meaningful memories as a fan.

"It's the rivalry," Larsen said. "It was one of the most memorable moments of my Michigan State fandom and probably a lot of other peoples'."