SI article on Connor Stalions (with text conversation from 2021)
I really hate to add another thread to this whole b.s., but... there is actually some new/relevant information in this article. Provides insight into Stallions previous duties and his character.
The guy seemed a bit... too emotionally invested, for quite some time.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:25 PM ^
Dude used his real name and added "UofM."
Like buying tickets in your name.
Definitely him.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:25 PM ^
He was in the preliminary stage.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:28 PM ^
Great catch. He stopped posting in 2014. That means he probably created a new account and has been here all along.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:36 PM ^
f) Apropos of nothing having to do with this diary post ... Chris over at "Smart Football" has a book out -- "The Essential Smart Football" ... so for those who like to dig into the X's and O's. I've ordered it ... at less than $10 it seems like a good off-season read.
In reply to Feedback ... by DonAZ
Where to order it?
And now we know how this all got started.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:39 PM ^
Is it wrong that the Penn State guy is the one that found out that Connor Stalion was an MGoBlog member?
You've been observing Michigan a little too intently, buster.
SCANDAL!!
October 25th, 2023 at 2:41 PM ^
LOL - I saw it on reddit, a Florida State fan over there found it first (CTRL-F giants888):
https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/17ewg00/devin_gardner_i_remember_connor_stalions_he_used/
October 25th, 2023 at 12:53 PM ^
Let the speculation begin.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:54 PM ^
I was thinking that exact same thing.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:00 PM ^
The last few days have made me think about how many people with high and wide connections to the University's leadership - not just in athletics, but everywhere on campus - at least lurk here and see our posts and think to themselves, "OH FUCK NO, NOT THIS LOT."
October 25th, 2023 at 12:52 PM ^
Sorry, this is fucking hilarious.
sir this is a wendys
October 25th, 2023 at 12:54 PM ^
Jim Stapleton's Manchurian Candidate?
October 25th, 2023 at 12:55 PM ^
So, uh... how long before we can get a pdf of this 600 page "Michigan Manifesto"? I kind of want to see it, in the way you can't look away from a train derailment.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:52 PM ^
About the same time WD releases his Michigan SuperGuide to the masses.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:55 PM ^
Definitely getting Ronnie Barnhardt (from Observe and Report) delusional vibes from this guy.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:55 PM ^
Yowzers. I like my UM coaches to be quirky weird like JH, not batshit, potentially kidnap an opposing player/coach for an afternoon weird.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:41 PM ^
I think the travel time between the two is less than you think.
Woody Hayes.
October 25th, 2023 at 2:23 PM ^
I’m listening to a 4hr call for year end at work, didn’t have my zoom on mute and just laughed my balls off while the COO was talking. This post was worth it.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:55 PM ^
Work ethic and dedication level 1000.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:56 PM ^
Still less insane then those two idiot OSU super fans that dress up in makeup and are in front row for every game.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:18 PM ^
Hate those guys
October 25th, 2023 at 12:56 PM ^
This quote is definitely giving Wolverine Devotee vibes
“Stalions claimed to have a Google document between 550 and 600 pages long that he managed daily, containing a blueprint for the Wolverines’ future.”
October 25th, 2023 at 1:01 PM ^
We have never seen WD and Connor Stalions in the same room.
Coincidence? I think not.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:19 PM ^
He thought "Manifesto" sounded less creepy than "SuperGuide."
October 25th, 2023 at 12:56 PM ^
When will we know his MGoHandle and when he got banned
October 25th, 2023 at 1:24 PM ^
Nittney posted it 3 mins before you asked...
October 25th, 2023 at 12:58 PM ^
IMO this is where our HC owns some measure of responsibility in this matter whether he knew of Stallions methods or not. Stallion was close enough to the program to get a job and important enough to the game to have the ear of both the DC and OC in those 30 seconds between plays. Obviously he was pretty damn good at his job of decoding the opponent's signals or there's no way he'd be given access to the ear of our coordinators in those precious 30 seconds.
So why didnt occur to Jim to ask him exactly how was he able to do this? I mean the dude is clearly a WD-type supporter of the program, Harbs HAS to question and question hard how this guy is able to do what he does with such accuracy. If we take a hit on this thing of magnitude (and it's my opinion we will) it's going to be because of questions we didnt ask but should have.
Sort of exactly like the Shemy hire but on a much bigger, and unfortunately much more damaging, scale.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:00 PM ^
I think that's the realest concern I have over this - Harbaugh and his staff hired an obsessive fan and Shemy without really vetting. The biggest concern is that this results in penalties, of course. Also it's already taken away from the best Michigan team I've seen in 25 years.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:02 PM ^
I'm not remotely arguing with you when I ask this: is it possible that the coaching staff wasn't even aware of the ban on in-person scouting? I don't know that it helps their cause if they weren't, but I can imagine a world in which they're just not thinking about in-person scouting at all.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:07 PM ^
No. Knowing the NCAA rulebook inside and out is part of the job responsibilities of every single coach -- and staff member, for that matter.
It strains credulity that Stalions didn't know. I suspect he thought he'd found a loophole. I'm still not sure he didn't.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:13 PM ^
Possible sure but definitely wont help us any if the NCAA comes in looking for their pound of flesh.
"I had no idea this was against the rules"
That definitely wont help.
"Yeah we asked him and he said he got it from TV broadcasts"
That will get shot down quickly because there arent enough camera shots of the sideline to decode all the play calls. And no way does he get the DC and OC ear during the game unless he's got nearly ALL the calls down and down accurately.
"No we never thought to ask him, we just knew he was really, really good at it".
It's your job to ask.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:18 PM ^
Disagree with you second comment. But he also has in person scouting at the games he is at to go off of as well. Plus there is the film exchange teams do. No one piece is enough, but pooling information from multiple places means could plausibly just be good at his job. But I get it; it does feel like the analogy that Sopwith said initially when he shared what Stalions did. The stock picker who keeps picking correctly and the senior brokers just take at face value the justifications the picker provides even if they maybe suspect they are not being honest.
But also, I am still not sure how much value the iphone footage, and how much there actually is, would give over traditional scouting of tendancies and formations.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:19 PM ^
"He told us he used a technique from the Marines that involved a careful study of the opposing staff's communication infetterence. I don't even think that's a word."
October 25th, 2023 at 1:14 PM ^
Agree. Whatever value he was bringing, he seems unhinged enough that someone's spidey senses should have been tingling enough to keep this guy at arm's length. I'm sure dealing with overzealous dudes like this is a really annoying part of the job if you're on the staff.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:26 PM ^
My guess is that if you work in an organization run by Jim Harbaugh you probably learn to turn that particular spidey sense off at the door. Too much zeal is never enough.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:02 PM ^
I mostly agree -- but if he started with signals from televised games, and said as much, I don't think anybody would have questioned him after if he got incrementally better at it. It's not impossible that he decided, on his own, to up the ante. This guy seems like somebody who would have absolutely reveled in positive feedback from the coaching staff.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:16 PM ^
What makes you think he got better at it or was even great at to begin with?
Just curious.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:21 PM ^
He was given a paid position, so he must have shown something.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:23 PM ^
Based on the text messages in the article, he was telling some other guy that he was able to decipher signals from TV broadcasts in 2020. I'm taking him at his word for that.
Presumably, if he then started this operation, he was trying to do a better job than what he could get from the video. It's at least plausible that it worked. But it's also plausible that he went from 15% to 25% and nobody raised an eyebrow. If he'd gone from 15% to 100%, that might have been more suspicious -- but the results of the games certainly don't bear out the idea that Michigan knew every sign.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:35 PM ^
I'm taking him at his word for that.
More to the (investigative) point, if that's what he's telling his buddy in a private chat we can be pretty damn sure that's what he was telling the staff.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:30 PM ^
Because our staff gave him access to the ear of both our DC and OC in the 30 seconds between plays. There is no more precious time for them than those 30 seconds when you consider everything they have to sort through mentally before making a call. To give someone that access speaks volumes to how important they were considered to be by the staff.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:21 PM ^
I'm certain that if he actually revealed to the main staff that in-person scouting from other games was a source of data, they would have called him out on it. There are too many cfb veterans, from various other programs, that would know it's against the rules. More likely he hid his side operation.
October 25th, 2023 at 2:33 PM ^
There's no way a guy like this didn't brag to somebody at some point about what he was doing and how he was doing it.
Plausible deniability is going to be extremely difficult here.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:04 PM ^
Agree, this article doesn’t help Harbaugh much at all.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:11 PM ^
I think that's the basis of this whole thing. It's not Michigan having a coordinated plan to steal signs illegally, it's Harbaugh (and the staff) being duped by a guy pretending to be some type of military code-deciphering genius (as he basically describes himself on fucking LinkedIn). He proved his ability to decipher signs from watching tv copies (as the article shows), and he proved that he could decode signs in real-time at an uncanny rate. They were probably attributing this to the military training he was selling them (like on LinkedIn), but in reality he was stepping outside the lines and cheating to acquire the information that sped up his sign stealing abilities on gameday.
Michigan didn't collectively plan to cheat. They got duped by a guy who was cheating from before he was hired, to make himself appear like he was a valuable asset.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:25 PM ^
Michigan didn't collectively plan to cheat. They got duped by a guy who was cheating from before he was hired, to make himself appear like he was a valuable asset.
This would be the best outcome. If Michigan staff/compliance had no reason to believe he doing anything other looking than watching TV tape, that's a good thing. But if they saw his success and nobody looked any further, or worse, they knew and said nothing, that's when it'll get dicey.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:29 PM ^
If he tells you he's getting it from watching tape and you see him spending 15 hours a day watching said tape, why would you look any further? They absolutely know he's not out scouting because he's on the sideline every Saturday. There's nothing that would ever even trigger a question about what he was actually, eventually, doing.
October 25th, 2023 at 2:15 PM ^
But if they saw his success and nobody looked any further, or worse, they knew and said nothing, that's when it'll get dicey.
Huh? Sherrone Moore has gotten really good at calling plays. Should Michigan now be suspicious of him and "look into him"?
You are hired for a role - decoding signs in Stalions' case - and you are good at it. OK, you're supposed to be good at it. Is the AD supposed to be surprised to the point of investigation every time somebody is good at their job?
October 25th, 2023 at 2:16 PM ^
That's what Im hoping the truth is. At that point your punishment is still gonna be some kind of LOIC but not the vast conspiracy opposing fanbases want to believe is happening. Still some major egg on our face
October 25th, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^
Harbaugh was probably drawn to Connor’s ENTHUSIASM UNKOWN TO MANKIND. If he said that he dissects film and gives useful data and information to the program as a volunteer, then why not take a flyer on a $55k staff position for the guy? I would probably be turned off by the obsessive behavior, but Harbaugh is probably the type to trust anyone who watches film as a hobby. If Connor said that he was scouting in person at other campuses, I doubt Harbaugh would be impressed by that since it’s illegal. Jim is weird but doesn’t knowingly break rules.