Connor Stalions goes on the record in documentary, and he is not sorry
Connor Stalions is on the record, and he is not sorry.
“I don’t regret a thing, and I would do the same thing over again,” Stalions said in a new Netflix documentary titled “Untold: Sign Stealer,” which launched on Tuesday.
Stalions, of course, has been at the center of an NCAA investigation into an in-person scouting and sign-stealing operation he is alleged to have run at the University of Michigan.
The NCAA has delivered a notice of allegations to the school. Sanctions could follow. Fans clamoring for an admission of guilt from Stalions and U-M will not get one.
What should be a story about the best Michigan team of all-time became a story about Stalions instead. His story is not only fascinating, but has been mostly told through second and third-hand accounts.
Stalions was raised to be a Michigan fan by Michigan superfans.
“We are crazed Michigan fans,” Stalions’ mother, Kelly, said in the documentary.
Featured in the documentary is video of Stalions crying after Michigan won the 1997 national title. As a kid, he dressed as Michigan coach Bo Schembechler for Halloween. Later, he decided to serve in the U.S. armed forces because he once read that 15 of the 20 top coaches of all-time had served in the military.
And that was the reason he chose to pursue appointment and selection to the Naval Academy.
Stalions first began deciphering opponent signals on his first game day as a student coach at Navy on August 30, 2014 — against Ohio State. Four years later, he graduated, joined the U.S. Marines and earned the rank of captain. And he still held close his ambition to coach at Michigan.
“There’s so much drive with this kid,” said Detroit News reporter Tony Paul in the film, “maybe too much drive.”
Stalions first made contact with the Michigan coaching staff at a large clinic. After meeting former Michigan assistant Chris Partridge, he began interning with the team, and he offered to contribute as their sign-stealer.
He called his job “intel operations staff member”, and he considered Michigan to be at the bottom of an established intelligence community. Importantly, he served in the marines while doing volunteer work for the team for three years.
While he was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California, he’d travel to Michigan games — on his own dime — meet with the team and stand on the sideline to decipher signals.
Over time, he created game day sign-stealing sheets on Michigan’s opponents. In total, he used between 2,000 and 3,000 signals as reference. To accomplish this, he videoed himself. He cut the images of himself out, and collated and memorized them. Stalions’ innovation coincided with Michigan’s historic three-year run that culminated in a 15-0 national title run in 2023.
In 2022, his contributions to the team resulted in him being awarded a game ball, given to him by Jim Harbaugh, after U-M’s 2022 victory against Iowa.
He wrote a manifesto — thousands of pages of what he believes is a competitive advantage. But he claims he learned other teams’ signals by using the same means as anyone else in the insulated, clandestine world of college football sign-stealing.
“I’ve never advanced scouted,” he said in the film. “I obtain signals the same way every other team does. What sets me apart is the way in which I organize information and process it on game day.”
However, after Michigan was caught cheating in 2023, Stalions made himself scarce and distanced himself from the program.
Stalions’ attorney, Brad Beckworth, alleged in the documentary that Michigan leaked that Stalions had been fired only after Stalions informed the university in writing that he had resigned.
What’s most glaring to me is that Michigan man Dave Portnoy is the most likable, honest and authentic person in the entire documentary. He knows Michigan cheated. He knows Stalions cheated. And he loves it. He loves that a Michigan analyst did what was necessary to not just beat Ohio State three years in a row, but to win the national title.
Portnoy says that Stalions told him he was the man in disguise on the Central Michigan sideline in a now infamous photo taken before Michigan played Central Michigan in 2023.
But when Stalions was asked about the same photo and whether it was him, he answered, “I don’t even think this guy looks like me.” He did not keep a straight face when he said so.
Even after publicly distancing himself from Michigan’s football program, Stalions attended the Ohio State-Michigan game last year.
At the center of the investigation into this scandal is Stalions’ unusual purchase of tickets to 30 games, including 11 at Big Ten stadiums, over the last three years. He claims he bought tickets to so many games because he likes watching college football.
An outside law firm performed an investigation that led to the discovery of documents of games scouted — and people being paid to scout them who had ties to Stalions. Stalions alleged his personal computer was hacked for information. On April 24, 2024, he was interviewed by the NCAA with respect to its ongoing investigation.
He denied the allegations.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young and subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube.
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