Stalions 'did not obtain signals through in-person scouting'
By: Adam Rittenberg & Mark Schlabach - ESPN.comFormer Michigan football staff member Connor Stalions told NCAA investigators that he never participated in advanced in-person scouting and didn't purchase tickets for others to attend games of the Wolverines' future opponents to record their signals.
Stalions made the claims in April during a video interview with NCAA investigators, segments of which were included in the new Netflix documentary "Sign Stealer," which was released Tuesday.
A lifelong Michigan fan and retired captain in the United States Marine Corps hired as an analyst in 2022, Stalions is the alleged ringleader of a vast sign-stealing operation in which he's accused of sending people to scout the Wolverines' future opponents, including recording play signals from teams' sidelines. The NCAA last week sent Michigan a notice of allegations regarding prohibited off-campus signal stealing. According to the documentary, Stalions faces a three-year ban from coaching that he intends to challenge.
When Stalions is asked by an NCAA investigator if any Michigan coaches or staff members were aware of the alleged scheme to obtain opponents' signals through in-person advanced scouting, which is banned by the NCAA, he replies, "I did not obtain signals through in-person scouting."
An NCAA investigator asks Stalions if he ever directed anyone to attend a game in which Michigan wasn't competing. "No, I don't ever recall directing anyone to go to a game," he responds.
Records provided to ESPN by several Big Ten schools -- and from some outside the conference -- showed Stalions purchased tickets for multiple games involving future opponents. Stalions told NCAA investigators that he frequently purchased tickets to many games and would either resell tickets or transfer them to friends. Michigan suspended Stalions with pay on Oct. 20, pending the outcome of its internal investigation. He resigned Nov. 3.
In the documentary, Stalions tells the NCAA that "there are some people who attended games using tickets that I purchased and recorded parts of those games." Stalions tells investigators that he didn't recall who recorded the games but would receive film from some of them. Zachary Couzens, a friend of Stalions and fellow Marine, says in the documentary that he used Stalions' tickets for several games but that there is "no evidence" of him taking video or pictures.
"I've had friends send me film," Stalions says. "It's kind of like when your aunt gets you a Christmas gift that you already have. You're not going to be rude and be like, 'Oh, I already have this. I don't need that.' It's, 'Oh, thanks, appreciate it.' They feel like they're helping out when I already have the signals, I've already memorized the signals."
An NCAA investigator asks Stalions whether he was the man standing in Central Michigan's bench area, wearing team-issued gear and sunglasses, for the 2023 season opener at Michigan State, which took place the night before Michigan's first game in Ann Arbor. Stalions replies that he didn't recall attending a specific game, although Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy says in the documentary that Stalions admitted to him being on the Central Michigan sideline. Central Michigan has told ESPN it continues to cooperate with the ongoing NCAA investigation.
Stalions' attorney, Brad Beckworth of Austin, Texas, interjects during the NCAA interview, claiming that Stalions' personal information was illegally breached, which led to the NCAA probe of Michigan.
"If that's true, it's certainly a violation of civil law and it's maybe a bigger crime," Beckworth tells the NCAA investigators. "And if it's true that came from somebody associated with or tied to The Ohio State University -- and we think it was -- that's where if I was going to try to do right I might be focusing." When an NCAA investigator declines to provide how information about Stalions was obtained, Beckworth ends the interview.
In the documentary, Stalions says he realized that Michigan was at the bottom of an "intelligence operations totem pole" shortly after he joined the staff on a volunteer basis in 2018. At the end of the 2018 season, Stalions received a call from someone at another school who introduced him to an "underground community of college football analysts" who trade elements of schemes and game plans to learn certain signals.
"You don't know you're at the bottom if you don't have a guy who focuses on that," Stalions says. "Based on my experience, 80 to 90 percent of teams have one of those intel operations staff members."
Stalions said he was able to decipher opponents' signals through watching tape, obtaining information from other staff members who were part of the network and memorizing thousands of signs.
"One, I've never advance scouted," he said in the documentary. "Two, if this was about signals, I obtain signals the way every other team does, through watching TV copies and talking to other intel guys from other teams. What set me apart was the way in which I organized that information and processed it on game day."
Stalions is now working as a volunteer defensive coordinator at Mumford High School in Detroit.
Former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who now coaches the Los Angeles Chargers in the NFL, has denied knowledge of the sign-stealing scheme.
ESPN reported on Aug. 4 that new Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore is one of seven members from the 2023 football program accused of violating NCAA rules in a draft of the NCAA's notice of allegations.
The NCAA notice of allegations stated that Moore could face a show-cause penalty and possibly a suspension for allegedly deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions in October 2023 on the same day that media reports revealed Stalions was leading an effort to capture the playcalling signals of future opponents.
The draft states that the texts were later recovered via "device imaging" and Moore "subsequently produced them to enforcement staff." Moore, who is accused of committing a Level II violation, said earlier this month that he looks forward to the release of the texts.
Harbaugh, former assistant coach Chris Partridge, former staff member Denard Robinson and Stalions are also accused of committing Level I violations, the most serious category in the NCAA's enforcement process. Michigan also faces a Level I violation charge, according to the draft, because of its "pattern of noncompliance within the football program" and institutional efforts to hinder or thwart the NCAA's investigation. Former assistant coaches Jesse Minter and Steve Clinkscale are also accused of recruiting violations unrelated to Stalions in the draft.
The Big Ten Conference suspended Harbaugh from coaching his team's final three games of the 2023 regular season because it said his program violated the league's sportsmanship policy.
