Sam Webb: Schembechler Hall shocked & extra motivated by ESPN allegations

With the report that when he was stationed in San Diego, Stalions was using all his money to fly to Michigan games every weekend, including living in his car so he could AirB&B his house to afford this, seems like this guy is incredibly hard-core and was willing to do whatever it took, including essentially devoting all his own resources to furthering his future with UM football.  Doesn't seem like a far stretch to see a guy who would do this on his own, with his own funds, to try and bring any and everything he could offer to UM to make the grade.  

I asked about this earlier, but if someone went up and asked him "wow, you're really good at this, how?" and he responded with "I watch a crap ton of tape" or whatever, I'm not sure you could do much more. If he coordinated this using his personal cell phone and personal credit cards, you can't control that outside of compliance trainings and whatnot. It's why I have a work cell and personal cell so I never have to worry about my employer getting access to my personal stuff.

You'll get "lack of institutional control" people out there, but you can't police people on their personal actions. Again, there is probably a compliance requirement that was missed here, but you're not getting the whole staff on this unless there was a receipt that passed by Harbaugh or Warde (they don't approve expenses I bet) or something more than just a guy being good at his job.

Not to get political (as I get political), but this whole thing kinda reminds me of the duality of Joe Biden. He's simultaneously a senile old man who can't walk, but also a corrupt political mastermind. Jim Harbaugh is apparently simultaneously a weirdo football guy who loves to mow his lawn and couldn't use YouTube TV, but is also cheating and running a illegal spy network

Beware of eager beavers—they cause as many problems as they pretend to solve.

You’re right. They should all say they had arachnoid cysts on their brains and forgot. We know the NCAA and B1G accept this excuse as a valid defense. 

Of course it's not.  But it's also a matter of scale.  The NCAA can say the HC is fully responsible for everything, but the fact of the matter is that it's a lot different when the coach tells an assistant coach to break a rule, v. a non-coach secretly acting on their own to try and gain some advantage.  

You're right - for 'not knowing' you get 3 games.  But when you fess up and tell the NCAA to F-off because you don't care, you get off scott-free.

Well, get in line, because Ohio against the world is already a thing, same as it ever was. Everyone has always been out to get the Buckeyes.  

Totally unrelated, did you know that OSU made the playoff last year despite not winning their division?  

Excellent point, bd. High level athletes often LOOK FOR disrespect to use a motivator (Michael Jordan and Tom Brady both did). This team will undoubtedly use this to stomp on opponents. "Off field distraction"? Try blood in the water.

If the report produces nothing useful, you have no reason to ask, “How did you get/do this?”

if one of your staffers breaks a rule and it produces no results, would you notice?

Alan Alda could have this mystery solved in a day, with laughs.  

If he was helping decode signs in real time on the sideline, isn't that part totally allowed?

It was his job to decode signs. Perfectly within the rules. How does everyone not know this by now?

You are allowed to steal signs.  His role is not being questioned, just his methods.

Which, yeah, is completely stupid.

Like, you can rob a gas station, but you need to pump some gas first.  Then it's OK.

Has anyone answered the question as to why he was standing near the defensive coaches with the clipboard or whatever sheets he had?

Yes, because that was literally his job. His official job was analyzing video and stealing signs. It's just a matter of if went beyond that and committed violations. Stalions being on the sideline and calling out signs from the opposing sideline is not the smoking gun that everyone seems to think it is

Quit being an asshat.

I think it’s common and appropriate that no one in the department talked to him in the last few days. Otherwise it could look like they are trying to influence him and/or get their stories straight.