Memorable plays live on via Legos
Thanks to an Idaho man who creates Lego animations as a hobby, Brigham Young fans can relive the glory and Nebraska fans the misery of the Hail Mary that ended the Cougars’ victory over the Cornhuskers last year.
Same with the Michigan State and Michigan fans who saw the Wolverines’ botched punt decide that game.
The plays are captured in stunning detail with those classic plastic toy building pieces, and the videos have generated a buzz among fans.
Jared Jacobs, a 38-year-old marketing specialist in Boise, said Wednesday he recreated each play on the kitchen table in the apartment he shares with his wife and three children.
It took 30 hours to make the Lego video of BYU’s Mitch Mathews catching Tanner Mangum’s 42-yard pass with no time left to beat Nebraska 33-28 in Lincoln. Jacobs said the play was a memorable start to the 2015 season, and he was encouraged to make the animation by a friend who works at BYU.
Jacobs said he spent considerably more time recreating the scene of Michigan punter Blake O’Neill bobbling a low snap, fumbling the ball away, and Jalen Watts-Jackson running it back to give Michigan State a 27-23 victory. Jacobs said the Big Ten Network asked him to make that one, but a licensing issue with Legos prevented the network from using it.
Jacobs said he started messing around with Legos a few years ago when he recreated a scene from the AMC show Breaking Bad. He put the animation on Instagram, and one of the show’s actors, Daniel Moncada, shared it.
“All of a sudden, I got a cult following from people who were fans of Breaking Bad,” Jacobs said. “I felt I had to keep making more. Had he not shared that and reached out, I probably wouldn’t be doing this.”