That looks a little like a version of the trick play from Little Giants that actual football teams have used before, such as the Carolina Panthers (albeit without linemen taking possession of the ball and so forth):
(I do not mean to imply the Boilermakers aren’t a real football team. Well, sometimes they aren’t. I’m sorry.)
Two things that went wrong for Purdue here: not having a decoy as convincing as Cam Newton, and Penn State’s Torrence Brown stepping up to shut down any potential option runs in his direction, which happened to be the poor ball-carrier’s direction.
It’s also kind of like a Fumblerooski, except Purdue didn’t put the ball on the ground here.
It also looks a little like a play Texas Tech used last year to beat Texas, which the Red Raiders called “Little People, Big World:”
