Was Connor Stalions going well beyond the scope of what other college football teams were doing with his sign stealing or was he just better at it?
As the new season has kicked off, Michigan football has struggled with a new head coach, mostly new staff and multiple key players from last year having moved on to the NFL. Rival fans have pointed to the Wolverines’ struggles and claimed it’s due to Stalions’ absence. Fox Sports’ lead college football color commentator, Joel Klatt, and Colin Cowherd recently discussed the Netflix documentary, “Sign Stealer.” The duo noted what happened after Stalions was summarily ousted from his role and what the Wolverines did after that.
“It’s a sore subject. I mean, you bring this up. I mean, people are saying, with their struggles, it’s like it was all the sign stealing, and they totally throw out the last half of last season, where they beat all of those ranked teams without Stalions, without the operation and they beat them worse,” Klatt said. “Were they stealing signs on fourth down against Bama in the Rose Bowl? Get outta here!”
One of the big revelations last fall was TCU head coach Sonny Dykes saying he was aware that Michigan was adept at sign stealing and that he changed his signs before the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. But Klatt has a revelation of his own: Some other entity may have helped TCU against Michigan, though Klatt does not say who or what they did.
“Well, there’s at least rumblings that TCU had help in the playoff game,” Klatt said. “Correct. I don’t know. I digress. We could do a whole hour on this subject.”
Given there was another report last fall that Ohio State and Rutgers helped Purdue with Michigan’s signs going into the 2022 Big Ten Championship game, it’s not far-fetched. But what’s the worse avenue of advanced scouting, if that is indeed the legal premise at work here? Is it potentially shaky iPhone footage — or as Stalions puts it in the documentary that he’s accused of having his mother scout Purdue — or other teams that have played Michigan actually sharing their own intel with other teams?
It’s a mystery that likely will never be solved.