Connor Stalions surprisingly admitted to helping Ohio State when he was still with Michigan Football
Connor Stalions, the face of the Michigan sign stealing "scandal" in the 2023 season (and far before that), made a surprising admission this week when he joined Taylor Lewan and Will Compton's popular show, Bussin' With The Boys. Apparently when he was still operating as Michigan's sign stealing specialist he went out of his way […]
Connor Stalions, the face of the Michigan sign stealing "scandal" in the 2023 season (and far before that), made a surprising admission this week when he joined Taylor Lewan and Will Compton's popular show, Bussin' With The Boys. Apparently when he was still operating as Michigan's sign stealing specialist he went out of his way to help the Ohio State Buckeyes back in 2021.
For those somehow unfamiliar with the Michigan scandal or the Netflix documentary that came out earlier this year outlining the Connor Stalions scandal in detail, you can find much more information if you click here. Long story short, Connor Stalions revealed that 80-90% of teams were sign stealing in the exact same way that he was for Michigan. In fact, there was an entire network of sign stealing specialists who in many cases knew each other and even worked together. And that's how his assistance of Ohio State in 2021 came about.
It wasn't as if Stalions was ever betraying Michigan to help Ohio State, but in one rare case that he shared it was mutually beneficial for him to make sure the Buckeyes defeated a Big Ten conference rival.
Connor Stalions set the stage, explaining that Michigan really needed some help after losing to Michigan State back in 2021.
"This is my favorite. Trading happens all the time, right? 2021, we lose to Michigan State. Kenneth Walker had a great game and we needed some help. [Michigan State] had to lose twice and we had to win out…Michigan State had to lose twice. And then that would have resulted in having a three-way tie–or, no, we would have beaten Ohio State–and then it would have just been us and Ohio State. Michigan State would not have been in that three-way tie."
Even with the help of just one Michigan State loss, Michigan was still in a difficult spot as they were hoping to climb back into Big Ten Championship Game contention at the time. But then as Stalions continued sharing, he explained that Michigan's comeback to make the conference title game was possible as long as Ohio State took care of business against Michigan State. So, he decided to make sure Ohio State had everything they needed to win against the Spartans.
"They lost to Purdue. Then I think it was the next week they played Ohio State, the week before we played Ohio State. So we needed Ohio State to win. So, I gave Michigan State's signals to a buddy of mine and said, 'Hey, I changed all of the logos. I made it look like it came from a different school. I don't want to give Ohio State something from Michigan, right? They might not use it. Who knows? But we needed Ohio State to win, and I know they steal the crap out of defensive signals, so here you go.' So I made it, gave it to a buddy who may have given it to a buddy who then gave it to Ohio State and said, 'Hey, I got this from so and so at name your school university.' I'm sure [Ohio State] probably already had them, but it just confirmed everything. Then they won like 60-0 [against Michigan State]."
It's wild to think that Connor Stalions and Michigan would ever want to help Ohio State win a game, but it was that victory over Michigan State that helped eventually seal Michigan's path to both the Big Ten Championship game and the College Football Playoff back in 2021.
The Connor Stalions saga continues to give us new and intriguing information on the inner-workings of college football. Hopefully this gift keeps on giving.
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If you want to see the full interview with Connor Stalions on Bussin' With The Boys you can find that in the video below. Stalions goes deep on all things sign stealing throughout his time with Michigan.
