Michigan State’s season opener had the usual Week 1 chaos, but one first-quarter moment went far beyond the box score.
Cam Edwards took a handoff up the middle against Toledo and ran straight into a swarm near the line of scrimmage. Lucas Lambert-Pipkin finished the tackle, and in the process his hand caught Edwards’ pants and pulled them down past his backside. The compression shorts came down with them, and the FS1 camera caught the bare backside as Edwards hit the turf and tried to gather himself and pull everything back into place.
FOX College Football posted the clip with the caption: “He did whatever it took to make the tackle happen… pants included 🤣”
The video quickly took off online, piling up nearly a million views at the time of writing. Reactions came fast.
One fan wrote, “No model has a variable for losing your pants during a tackle. Week 1 remains undefeated.”
Another said, “Michigan State RB Cam Edwards just got pantsed in front of 75,000+ people. This is why we love college football!”
Edwards didn’t let the moment define his night. The UConn transfer carried 27 times for 98 yards and a touchdown as Michigan State beat Toledo 30-20 in Pat Fitzgerald’s debut at Spartan Stadium.
Edwards arrived in East Lansing after four seasons as UConn’s lead back, and Fitzgerald has described him as a featured part of the new run game. Friday night showed exactly what that role can look like: plenty of volume, plenty of contact, and one unforgettable clip that nobody will be unseeing anytime soon.
Michigan State’s offense had a rougher first half than the final score suggests, but the Spartans punched back in the fourth quarter and Toledo never fully recovered. The game fit right into a wild opening weekend that already included plenty of strange moments across college football.
For Edwards, though, the lasting image is simple. He got tackled, got pantsed, got back up, fixed his gear, and kept running.
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