New documentary on Netflix about Connor Stalions, the alleged Michigan Wolverines sign stealer. Interesting watch if you are a college football fan. Show tells all sides of the story and IMO Meat Chicken clearly cheated and this guy was really good at it.

Just watched it. I wish we had a guy like him. He was literally a Rain Man. That part where he photographed himself doing these signs was insane.

Need to watch this. Of course Michigan is a cheating POS program. I take satisfaction that Harbaugh's brain will forever roast in his numb skull that his staff cheated and that is the ONLY reason UM won in 2023. The guy absolutely cannot stand his brother is more successful. If Jim somehow wins a Super Bowl, it will be done unethically.

Yellerjacket said:

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GrapevineAg said:

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I wanted to believe Stalions but I think he lied his ass off in these interviews. He cheated, knew it was cheating, and then "threw himself on the grenade" to protect the program. Interesting watch though.

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I know he technically broke the rule, but I have a hard time seeing it as "cheating". He just did the same thing everybody else did, but better. Michigan had a better sign decoder than everyone else and they're gonna get punished for it.

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What he did reminds me of people that can count cards moving the odds in their favor against the House. Not illegal and takes a whole lot of skill to do but the House doesn't like it and has a fit if you do it and kicks you out and bans you. He didn't murder or abuse anyone but technically it's cheating.

Al Bula said:

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Need to watch this. Of course Michigan is a cheating POS program. I take satisfaction that Harbaugh's brain will forever roast in his numb skull that his staff cheated and that is the ONLY reason UM won in 2023. The guy absolutely cannot stand his brother is more successful. If Jim somehow wins a Super Bowl, it will be done unethically.

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They are both good dudes. Nothing wrong with stealing signs. Recently interviewed Arkansas coach said at least 80% of programs do it...it is very common.

bonfarr said:

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Yellerjacket said:

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GrapevineAg said:

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I wanted to believe Stalions but I think he lied his ass off in these interviews. He cheated, knew it was cheating, and then "threw himself on the grenade" to protect the program. Interesting watch though.

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I know he technically broke the rule, but I have a hard time seeing it as "cheating". He just did the same thing everybody else did, but better. Michigan had a better sign decoder than everyone else and they're gonna get punished for it.

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What he did reminds me of people that can count cards moving the odds in their favor against the House. Not illegal and takes a whole lot of skill to do but the House doesn't like it and has a fit if you do it and kicks you out and bans you. He didn't murder or abuse anyone but technically it's cheating.

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That's basically it. And it is technically cheating. I just can't bring myself to think of it that way. Especially knowing there's a 99% chance their opponents were doing the same things without getting caught.

Clemson was known for this as well under Dabo Swinney but apparently never got caught. They were in the CFB playoff 6 straight seasons, played in 4 title games, and won 2 of them.

Some of the stuff he did, as pointed out in the film, is head scratchingly moronic. How can you do all this stuff using your name and venmo and ticket app? Stalions comes off as a weird obsessed spectrum guy. He shows no contrition for anything and owns nothing. He deserves to be out of football. I don't think I would like him in real life.

I figured this was about the Astros and their cheating scandal.

Looks like some of their apologists showed up here.

The crazy thing for me was, he went to the Naval Academy and became a Marine Officer.
Either one of those things is a big deal in its own right & he did both of them.

But, the biggest thing in his life was still a college football program. I know college football is a big deal, but its not THAT big of a deal.

I haven't watched it, but what specifically made what he did "illegal"? I can't think of a way to write such a rule that without it being nearly impossible to enforce fairly.

Quote:

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In October 2023, the NCAA opened an investigation into the Michigan Wolverines football program for alleged sign stealing, the practice of trying to decode the coaches of opposing teams' hand signals used to call plays during a game. Though sign stealing itself is not banned by the NCAA in football, in-person scouting of opponents and using electronic equipment to record opponents' signals are and a low-level assistant named Connor Stalions was accused of doing both.

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https://people.com/what-did-connor-stalions-do-michigan-sign-stealer-8699366#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20NCAA%20investigation,to%20record%20opponents'%20signs%20while


Not that it really matters. Most fans would trade a national championship for getting busted for something like this and setting the program back for 5 years any day of the week. At the end of the day, Michigan got exactly what they wanted.

aTmAg said:

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I haven't watched it, but what specifically made what he did "illegal"? I can't think of a way to write such a rule that without it being nearly impossible to enforce fairly.

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He sent people to opponent's games to film the sideline to get signals.
That's it.
You can watch film, TV broadcasts, whatever, but you can't "scout" opponents in person.
No doubt there are tons of other programs that have done the same thing. Michigan is just the one who got caught. As another poster said, he wasn't very covert about it.

DannyDuberstein said:

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They should give the guy a medal for finally forcing CFB to do something the NFL did 30 years ago - implement helmet radios. Between limited practice time and offenses growing in complexity, how much time has been wasted installing and learning all of the signals to disguise playcalls when all along the coach could have just told him the dang play. Just pure stubborn stupidity trying not to be like the NFL

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why can't smart technical guys in 2027 figure out how to tap into the headsets and helmet comms?

LMCane said:

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DannyDuberstein said:

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They should give the guy a medal for finally forcing CFB to do something the NFL did 30 years ago - implement helmet radios. Between limited practice time and offenses growing in complexity, how much time has been wasted installing and learning all of the signals to disguise playcalls when all along the coach could have just told him the dang play. Just pure stubborn stupidity trying not to be like the NFL

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why can't smart technical guys in 2027 figure out how to tap into the headsets and helmet comms?

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I have heard that Michigan was trying to do those things as well, that is, trying to intercept coach to coach headset conversations. Part of the rumor from college coaches, with the other part being that they didn't expect to play TCU in the 2022 college football playoffs, so they hadn't invested in scouting them in person, but had sent people to watch Bama, USC and other potential opponents.



I don't buy the first part of the rumor, but I do think the TCU thing could be true.

I love the Harbaugh "Interview" on how it doesn't get more American than Michigan football

Jim Harbaugh explains why Michigan should be America's Team pic.twitter.com/cuuHh54Oxc

— Heavens! (@HeavensFX) November 13, 2023

I also don't understand the Central Michigan thing. He could get better footage by videoing from the stands. If he really wanted to be covert, why not dress like a stadium crew and stand on the sideline of the team he was scouting. Standing on CMU side doesn't help his cause.

Well, he "cannot recall" if that was even him at that game on the sidelines.

He got hired as a high school coordinator this summer.

Of course, it created a backlash, and the school backed out. Apparently he started working with the team before the paperwork was done. His move was to get super aggressive for several weeks and try to legally force them to keep him.

Like that's ever going to work out well.

Somehow got another high school assistant job, then the head coach has to take a leave of absence, so he became the head coach.

Lost his first game 60-0.