Stalions states he ‘never ever advance scouted’ for U-M

• Adam Rittenberg Close Adam Rittenberg ESPN Elder Writer College football reporter. Signed up with ESPN.com in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.Mark Schlabach Close Mark Schlabach ESPN Senior Citizen Writer Senior college football author Author of seven books on college football Graduate of the University of Georgia Aug 27, 2024, 12:17 AM ET Former Michigan football team member Connor Stalions told NCAA investigators that he never participated in innovative in-person searching and didn’t buy tickets for others to

go to games of the Wolverines’future opponents to record their signals.Stalions made the claims in April during a video interview with NCAA detectives, segments of which were consisted of in the brand-new Netflix documentary”Sign Thief,”which was launched Tuesday.A lifelong Michigan fan and retired captain in the United States Marine Corps employed as an analyst in 2022, Stalions is the supposed ringleader of a huge sign-stealing operation in which he’s implicated of sending out people to search the Wolverines ‘future opponents, consisting of tape-recording play signals from teams ‘sidelines. The NCAA last week sent Michigan a notification of allegations relating to forbidden off-campus signal stealing. According to the documentary, Stalions deals with a three-year restriction from training that he plans to challenge.When Stalions is asked by an NCAA investigator if any Michigan coaches or team member were aware of the supposed scheme to obtain opponents ‘signals through in-person innovative scouting, which is banned by the NCAA, he responds,”I did not acquire signals through in-person scouting.”An NCAA private investigator asks Stalions if he ever directed anybody to attend a game in which Michigan wasn’t contending.”No, I do not ever remember directing anybody to go to a game,” he responds.Records offered to ESPN by several Big 10 schools– and from some outside the conference– revealed Stalions purchased tickets for several games involving future opponents. Stalions told NCAA investigators that he often purchased tickets to many games and would either resell tickets or move them to friends. Michigan suspended Stalions with pay on Oct. 20, pending the outcome of its internal examination. He resigned Nov. 3. In the documentary, Stalions tells the NCAA that”there are some individuals who went to games using tickets that I purchased and taped parts of those games.”Stalions informs investigators that he didn’t recall who taped the games but would receive movie from some of them. Zachary Couzens, a buddy of Stalions and fellow Marine, says in the documentary that he used Stalions’tickets for numerous games but that there is “no evidence” of him taking video or images. “I have actually had good friends send me film,”Stalions states.”It’s sort of like when your auntie gets you a Christmas present that you already have. You’re not going to be disrespectful and be like,’Oh, I already have this. I do not need that. ‘It’s,’ Oh, thanks, value it.’They feel like they’re assisting when I already have the signals, I have actually already memorized the signals.” Editor’s Picks 2 Related An NCAA private investigator asks Stalions whether he was the male standing in Central Michigan’s bench

area, wearing team-issued gear and sunglasses, for the 2023 season opener at Michigan State, which happened the night before Michigan’s first game in Ann Arbor. Stalions replies that he didn’t remember going to a specific game, although Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy states in the documentary that Stalions confessed to him being on the Central Michigan sideline. Central Michigan has informed ESPN it

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to comply with the continuous NCAA investigation.Stalions’lawyer, Brad Beckworth of Austin, Texas, interjects during the NCAA interview, claiming that Stalions’personal details was unlawfully breached, which caused the NCAA probe of Michigan.” If that’s true, it’s certainly an offense of civil law and it’s possibly a bigger criminal activity,”Beckworth tells the NCAA private investigators.”And if it holds true that came from someone related to or connected to The Ohio State University– and we believe it was– that’s where if I was going to try to do ideal I might be focusing.”When an NCAA private investigator decreases to supply how info about Stalions was obtained, Beckworth ends the interview.In the documentary, Stalions states he recognized that Michigan was at the bottom of an”intelligence operations totem pole”quickly after he signed up with the staff on a volunteer basis in 2018. At the end of the 2018 season, Stalions got a call from somebody at another school who introduced him to an” underground neighborhood of college football analysts” who trade aspects of schemes and strategy to discover particular signals.”You do not know you’re at the bottom if you don’t have a guy who concentrates on that,” Stalions states.”Based on my experience, 80 to 90 percent of teams have one of those intel operations team member.”Stalions said he was

able to analyze challengers’signals through enjoying tape, getting details from other employee who belonged to the network and remembering countless indications.”One, I’ve never advance scouted, “he said in the documentary. “2, if this was about signals, I get signals the method every other group does, through seeing television copies and talking with other intel guys from other groups. What set me apart was the method which I arranged that details 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 7 members from the 2023 football program implicated of violating NCAA rules in a draft of the NCAA’s notice of allegations.The NCAA notice of allegations stated that Moore might face a show-cause penalty and potentially a suspension for presumably erasing a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions in October 2023 on the same day that media reports exposed Stalions was leading an effort to capture the playcalling signals of future opponents.The draft specifies that the texts were later recovered via “device imaging”

and Moore “subsequently produced them to enforcement staff.”Moore, who is accused of dedicating a Level II infraction, said previously this month that he eagerly anticipates the release of the texts.Harbaugh, former assistant coach Chris Partridge, former staff member

Denard Robinson and Stalions are likewise accused of devoting Level I infractions, the most severe classification in the NCAA’s enforcement process. Michigan likewise deals with a Level I infraction charge, according to the draft

, because of its”pattern of noncompliance within the football program”and institutional efforts to prevent or thwart the NCAA’s investigation. Previous assistant coaches Jesse Minter and Steve Clinkscale are also implicated of recruiting infractions unassociated to Stalions in the draft.The Big Ten Conference suspended Harbaugh from training his team’s last 3 games of the 2023 regular season due to the fact that it said his program violated the league’s sportsmanship policy.