Another layer of the onion that is the Michigan football sign-stealing controversy has been peeled back.
Last week, after an NCAA investigation into accusations that the Wolverines had been stealing signs was announced, Connor Stalions, a United States Marine Corps veteran, was outed as the alleged mastermind behind the endeavors.
This has opened the floodgates for sleuths to analyze everything from Stalions’ social media activity to his whereabouts on Michigan’s sidelines in search of clues of nefarious behavior.
Tuesday, Adam King, a sports anchor and reporter for CBS affiliate 10TV in Ohio, published a video on X that appears to show Stalions discovering and communicating signs in last year’s Ohio State game.
In the video, then-Buckeyes quarterback C.J. Stroud looks toward his sideline for an audible.
After Stroud receives the sign, Stalions and a couple of other Michigan coaches and players start emphatically pointing up at the sky, apparently relaying a new sign to the Wolverines’ defensive unit.
In this particular instance, the sign-stealing was unsuccessful, as Stroud hit Emeka Egbuka for a 4-yard touchdown.
Nevertheless, Michigan won the game 45-23, and ultimately won the Big Ten en route to a berth in the College Football Playoff.
Michigan announced last week that Stalions has been suspended amid the investigation.
“He spearheads the operation,” a Big Ten coach told Yahoo last week about Stalions. “I once told him, ‘We know what kind of s–t you are doing and it’s f–ked up.’”
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh has denied knowledge of sign-stealing.
“I have no awareness of anyone on our staff having done that or having directed that action,” Harbaugh said a statement, per ESPN. “No matter what program or organization that I have led throughout my career, my instructions and awareness of how we scout opponents have always been firmly within the rules.”
College football rules do not prohibit sign-stealing, per se, but staffers are not allowed to scout opponents in-person in advance, dating back to an NCAA bylaw from 1994 that was passed to collectively save on costs.
ESPN reported earlier this week that, over the past three years, Stalions has bought tickets to 30 different games at 11 different locations.
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