[pulsing music playing]
[music ends]
[clacking]
[dramatic music playing]
[Dan Wetzel] College football
has always been driven by scandal.
Your team never really loses.
Your rival just cheated.
No program in college football
is more historic than Michigan's.
[all] Hail to the victors valiant!
Hail to the...
[Wetzel] So now here comes
Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines...
[commentator 1] Open! Touchdown, Michigan!
[Wetzel] ...undefeated...
[commentator 2] Dominant in every facet
of the game.
...clearly capable
of winning the national championship.
On their way
to the first national title in decades.
[commentator 2] ...to remain undefeated!
When Michigan started winning,
suddenly something crazy was going on.
Bang, this guy in front of me
is recording the whole game.
[Brandon Walker] Wearing sunglasses
at eight at night
with a f*cking camera in 'em.
Throw the entire Michigan football program
in jail if this photo is real!
[Wetzel] Massive,
fascinating mystery of a scandal.
And now the entire
2023 college football season
is consumed by Connor Stalions.
[Dan Patrick] There's different pictures
every day of this kid.
Ex-captain in the Marine Corps.
[masked man] You know, this is
like a TMZ story. This transcends sports.
[Wetzel] He has a 600-page manifesto.
[Nicole Auerbach] Connor Stalions was
a household name.
- [action music playing]
- It was made for memeing.
[Dave Portnoy] The Boogeyman, Connor Sze,
Keyser Sze, everywhere you go,
he's like a spook story.
I'm like, "Oh,
Michigan better win the whole thing now."
[Mike Barrett] Michigan,
Michigan, Michigan.
Michigan broke a rule.
You'll never convince me otherwise.
[masked man] Why do people
keep lying about it?
[man] Nobody can find this guy,
Connor Stalions,
and everyone wants to hear him
tell his side of this crazy story.
[action music crescendos and fades]
[tense music playing]
[Pat McAfee] What's going on
up in Michigan?
[men] Oh!
[McAfee] I mean, there is
a lot of allegations happening,
and it's getting loud.
[Connor] When all this stuff came out
in October, I kind of went in hiding.
They dragged my name in the mud.
They dragged Michigan's name in the mud
for months.
Just like that, my whole life changed.
And when you really learn
what goes on in college football
and what went on with us in Michigan,
I think a lot of people
are gonna have some explaining to do.
[intriguing music playing]
[man] Well, I mean, I'm a sportswriter
for The Detroit News,
and Michigan obviously is of interest
in sports in our coverage area.
There's basically the Lions,
and then there's Michigan football,
and then there's everything else.
[music continues]
The 2023 Michigan Football Team put
Michigan back in people's consciousness.
[commentator 1] And the Michigan
Wolverines get the victory.
- This was a great Michigan football team.
- [commentator 2] Michigan has dominated.
They had a great quarterback
in J.J. McCarthy,
a great running back in Blake Corum...
[commentator 3] Blake Corum,
straight ahead.
- [cheers]
- Touchdown, Michigan.
[Tony Paul] ...an all-time defense.
[commentator 3] Timosciek into coverage,
and that is picked off.
[commentator 4] Michigan is 7-0,
ranked second in the nation.
[music stops abruptly]
[Paul] All of a sudden,
out of nowhere comes the story
of this elaborate sign stealing scheme
or whatever you want to call it,
and Connor was the guy.
[commentator 1] The NCAA is investigating
the Michigan football program
amid allegations of sign stealing.
[Paul] My bosses wanted something
on Connor Stalions.
"Who is this guy?
Find out anything you can about him,"
which was difficult. He wasn't talking.
His parents weren't talking.
His friends weren't talking.
His colleagues weren't talking.
No one wanted to talk about this guy,
which I found very strange,
so the first thing I decided to do
was try to figure out
who Connor was growing up in Lake Orion.
[jazz music playing]
I spent four hours in his hometown library
looking at his yearbooks.
He was in National Honor Society.
- He played basketball. He played football.
- [intriguing music playing]
Right here, you know, this chapter
is titled "Leaders of the Future,"
and there's a picture of Connor Stalions
talking about his desire
to be a good role model, be a good leader,
set a good example.
In one of Michigan football's best seasons
of all time,
the story becomes this kid
that no one knew anything about.
[dramatic piano playing]
[Connor] Ever since I was three years old,
I always knew I wanted to coach.
[mom] Who will you play football for
when you're bigger, Connor? Michigan?
[dad] Connor, give me your football look.
Yeah, my man.
Hut, hut, hike!
[dramatic piano continues]
[dad] Hi, Mommy.
[Connor] Even at a really young age...
[young Connor chuckling]
[Connor] ...their passion for Michigan
rubbed off on me right away.
My mom grew up a die-hard Michigan fan.
My passion for U of M directly,
I think, transferred to Connor.
[chuckling] We are crazed Michigan fans.
- Yeah, Dad.
- [dad] Yay, Michigan!
[Kelly] Connor! What's that?
[Connor] Football.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- [Connor] Football.
- [Kelly] You having a football game?
- Yeah.
[dad] Cool.
National champions, baby!
[Kelly] Connor,
are you a little choked up?
- [cheers over television]
- [Kelly and dad chuckle]
[yells]
Connor has always been
a very focused, driven kid,
and he knew from a young age
that he wanted to be
the head football coach
at University of Michigan.
[Kelly] Trick or treat.
For Halloween,
when he was seven years old...
[Brock] Who are you for Halloween?
- Michigan coach.
- [Brock] A Michigan coach?
He dressed as a Michigan coach,
and he wore, like, these headphones.
That was like his headset,
and he was Bo Schembechler for Halloween.
Growing up, it was always Bo Schembechler
and the history of Michigan football,
and what always resonated with me
was his "The Team" speech.
- [fans cheering]
- [dramatic music playing]
[Bo] We want the Big Ten championship,
and we're gonna win it as a team.
"We're gonna win the Big Ten championship,
and we're gonna win it as a team."
No man...
"No man is more important than the team."
No coach...
"No coach is more important
than the team."
- The team. The team. The team.
- "The team. The team."
[Bo] Everything that you do,
you take into consideration,
"What effect does it have on my team?"
After you leave here,
you will never play for a team again.
You'll play for a contract.
You'll play for this.
You'll play for that.
"You'll play for everything
except the team."
When the old season is over,
you and I know
it's gonna be Michigan again.
Michigan.
[music crescendos and ends]
[intriguing music playing]
[Auerbach] So Michigan football
is the winningest program
in college football history,
and there's all sorts
of crazy records and undefeated seasons
when the sport first started
in this country.
[commentator] Culligan passing. It's good!
- [fans cheer]
- [fanfare playing]
[Auerbach] And then you get
to a period of time
where the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry
takes center stage.
You have a ten years w*r,
was the name for it.
Bo Schembechler. Woody Hayes.
But that starts to establish this
as one of the great rivalries
in all of sports.
[fans cheer]
[Auerbach] So Michigan is one
of the biggest brands in college football,
but others are winning national titles,
and Michigan breaks through in 1997,
a national championship.
- [clapping]
- [chanting] Hail, hail to Michigan!
[Auerbach] After that, Michigan's
kind of grasping for that type of success.
As Michigan, you want to be winning
Big Ten titles and national championships,
and to do that,
you have to beat Ohio State.
[reporter] Here's how it goes
at the University of Michigan.
You can have great season
after great season,
but if you can't beat Ohio State,
you've got a problem.
[pulsing music playing]
[Connor] When I was in high school,
I began to research coaching.
And 15 of the top 20 coaches of all time,
Mike Krzyzewski, Gregg Popovich,
John Wooden, Bear Bryant,
Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler,
they all had one thing in common.
They all served in the military.
That's why I began
to pursue the Naval Academy.
- [teenage Connor] Aye, aye, sir!
- [seaman] Aye, aye, sir! Aye, aye, sir!
Sir, the mission
of the United States Naval Academy
is to develop shipmen!
[cheers]
[fanfare playing]
[fanfare fades]
[Connor] I'm an 18-year-old.
I'm at the Naval Academy.
All of my primary time dedicated to that.
But I also knew
that I wanted to coach at Michigan,
and so I needed to get involved
with the football program at Navy.
Not knowing any better,
I just walked right into
Coach Niumat's office,
and I simply asked him
if I could student coach.
And he stands up,
and he says, "Follow me."
He walked me into
the offensive coordinator's office.
"Here's your new student coach."
[mysterious music playing]
I said, "Oh. Thanks, Coach."
"Hey, what do I do on game day?"
The staff member that I asked
kind of thought about it.
He said, "Well,
deciphering opponent signals,
if you want to try that,
then knock yourself out."
[action music playing]
[commentator] We welcome you
to Baltimore, Maryland,
as the brigade of Midshipmen
arrive in style.
[fans cheering]
My first game as a student at Navy
was against Ohio State.
[commentator] Out of Columbus,
the Buckeyes of Ohio State.
[Connor] For Navy football,
you are the underdog.
Every ounce in my body
despises Ohio State...
[music stops]
...so I'm going to do everything in my power
to figure out
what Ohio State's signals mean.
[man] I've always felt that football
was pretty closely related to warfare.
[Connor] Most people at the Naval Academy
are much smarter than I am,
but I told myself, "I've got to be smarter
than the guys on the field,"
especially at Ohio State, no offense.
In the NFL,
the quarterback and the linebacker have
the helmet communication
from their coordinator.
College, however,
there is no communication in the helmet,
so how do you get the play?
- Well, you signal.
- [pulsing music playing]
Those signalers on the sideline
will signal the formation and the motion,
the route concept,
the pass protection, and the tags.
- [commentator 1] Uh-oh.
- [commentator 2] Oh boy. Oh.
- That one very nearly picked off.
- [whistle blows]
[Connor] An offense has
up to eight signalers.
- [intriguing music playing]
- They're not all live.
Some of them are bluff,
they're fake signalers.
You have to have that
if you wanna try to protect your signals.
They could shuffle them around.
They could switch it every drive.
[music continues]
I realized pretty quickly
how simple it is to just know
which signaler is the live signaler.
You can just look at
the players looking at them
when they look away and say, "Okay,
that guy's definitely the live signaler."
Then you start writing down what he does,
and if you run a play twice, well,
I'm going to know it the second time.
By the third possession of the game,
I'm yelling out,
"Power right! Power right!"
The defensive coordinator
didn't even really know who I was.
It was my first game,
and he's kind of looking, "Who's this?"
And I'm just yelling out
what they're about to do.
[commentator 1] Option play, right.
Oh, good pursuit.
Wow! Wow! Wow!
Excellent defensive play.
[Connor] And we lost the game.
It was a very competitive game.
- And that was my first game.
- [music fades]
The birth of signal deciphering
in my life.
So from the NCAA's perspective,
obviously sign stealing at a game,
you know, I look across
and I see you're doing this and I'm smart.
I'm Connor Stalions,
and I can pick that up.
- Um... That's okay.
- [dramatic music playing]
You can watch all the film in the world,
and that's perfectly legal.
Clearly there's a lot of impressive traits
and drive with this kid,
but there's so much drive.
I mean, maybe too much drive.
[music crescendos and stops]
[Connor] December of 2014,
Michigan football
was struggling a little bit.
[reporter 1] Brady Hoke is out,
and now Michigan begins another search
for a new football coach.
The Wolverine football team
got progressively worse.
[reporter 2] The only place
for this program to go would be up.
Coach Harbaugh gets hired.
[man] Head coach
of the University of Michigan,
Jim Harbaugh.
[applause]
[Harbaugh] To come back
as a football coach
at the University of Michigan,
I have thought about that,
dreamed about that
since the time I was a young lad.
[Paul] Harbaugh's interesting.
He had the advantage of coming in
as not just a Michigan man but a hero.
[commentator] Oh, quarterback draw!
Great call!
[dramatic music playing]
[Harbaugh] We're gonna play
in the Rose Bowl this year.
I guarantee it.
Uh... We'll beat Ohio State,
and we'll be in Pasadena on January 1st.
[Paul] You know, the hometown kid
coming home. Everyone was excited.
To get the best coach
in the pros and college
to come to the University of Michigan,
it's a game changer.
He was the story in town for years.
Everything he did would make the paper.
He was climbing trees.
He was having sleepovers
with the recruits.
He was running these satellite camps
in the SEC country.
[man] He was running!
[Isaiah Hole] We're going to talk about it
on this episode of Locked On Wolverines.
Everyone cares about a name.
That name is Jim Harbaugh.
He's still the most polarizing coach
in college football.
I started covering the team
in his first year.
I remember after he got hired,
everyone saying,
"He's gonna turn around Michigan
in a hurry,
but don't expect him to make a bowl game."
"He's a great coach,
but he's not a miracle worker."
It became pretty evident in a hurry that,
no, he can turn it around pretty fast.
[dramatic music intensifies and fades]
[Connor] My class, the class of 2017,
was the winningest four years
in Navy football history.
I went into the military knowing that
I was gonna come out and coach football.
- [thunder cracks]
- [rock music playing]
[man] The Marines.
We're looking for a few good men.
[Connor] I was the logistics officer
for my battalion,
and even while I was at the Naval Academy
and in the Marine Corps,
my heart was always set
on the future of coaching at Michigan.
I went back home to Michigan,
and I go to this coaches' clinic
with my dad.
[reporter] Jim Harbaugh's coaching clinic
bringing over 2,000 coaches
from around the state and the country
to Ann Arbor.
[Connor] Between speeches,
I introduced myself to Coach Partridge,
and I asked, "Is there any way
I can help out next week?"
He said, "Yeah. Show up on Monday.
We'll find something for you to do."
- [quirky music playing]
- Similar to Navy, I'm not on the staff.
So there's not a specific role
that needs to be done
that's not otherwise being done.
So I said, "Well, at Navy, on game days,
I deciphered opponent signals."
"You want me to do that?"
And he said, "Yeah. Sure.
I don't think we have anyone doing that."
So in 2018, that's what I did.
I was stationed in California.
I'd go to the game.
And anything I was tasked with,
I would treat it like
my life depended on it.
[somber music playing]
Here is a guy who was so dedicated
to helping Michigan football
that on his own dime would fly
to wherever Michigan was to help out.
I mean, he was going back and forth,
taking the red-eye
from California to Detroit.
His house, an hour away
from Camp Pendleton, where he worked,
and instead of making
that drive every day,
he would Airbnb his house out
and would sleep in his car
at the I-5 rest area,
whatever, right outside of Camp Pendleton.
[somber music continues]
[man] Connor Stalions, he's one of
my good friends from the Marine Corps.
I had just gotten back from deployment,
and so I walk into this shop,
and I see this second lieutenant there,
which is Connor,
and he... the first thing he says to me is,
"Hey, you like football?"
Like, he hasn't even said his name
or anything, and I'm like,
"Yes, sir, I do."
And that's how our relationship built.
[music continues]
Connor wasn't like
your average lieutenant or Marine.
I knew that he had, like,
a special tick to him about football
because of how much it was brought up
in every single conversation,
and every single thing
that he planned out throughout the day
revolved around football.
He's like, "I got some family tickets.
Would you like to go?"
I said, "Yeah, absolutely."
He got me that ticket
to Michigan State-Ohio State.
Went to a Michigan-Nebraska game.
I remember taking pictures
for my Instagram,
and I was like, "Man, I'm really close."
"I'm, like, almost on the field.
This is intense."
These people next to us talking about,
"Hey, you guys need to be careful,
because when people have
their phones out too long,
they could be recording the other team."
"We just gotta be careful with that."
I'm like, "Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, sure."
You know, "Okay, no big deal."
[tense music continues]
[Connor] When I was at Navy,
I only deciphered signals
just from watching TV copy.
In 2018, after the regular season,
we lost to Ohio State,
and I get a phone call
from a buddy of mine
at a different school,
and he says, "Hey,
just gave your number to so-and-so."
"He's gonna call you."
So that's when I learned
there's an underground community
of college football analysts
who will call each other on every Sunday
and trade with each other
anything scheme-related.
It could be playbooks,
game plans, whatever.
They make a trade, and they go into
the game knowing what the signals are.
Every team has a guy
who's in charge of sign stealing,
and it is a subculture
of college football.
It's worth remembering
you're allowed to steal signs.
A team is allowed to watch a TV broadcast
and see the offensive coordinator
move his arms one way and say,
"Hey, that's the corresponding play."
They are allowed to watch coaching film,
which they exchange,
that has different angles,
and they can try to decipher
all the signs from that.
And they will. There's this many people
looking at this stuff.
They can call their friend
who played that team two weeks ago
and say, "What signs did you pick up
while you were standing there watching?"
And these are very smart people
who are the sign stealers.
Connor Stalions went
to the United States Naval Academy.
He's a very smart guy,
and this is what they are trained to do,
and they spend their time
not coaching football
but learning how to figure out signs.
- They're code crackers.
- [music continues]
[Connor] Here Michigan is
at the bottom of this
intelligence operations totem pole,
and you don't know
that you're at the bottom
if you don't have a guy
who focuses on that.
Based on my experience,
80 to 90% of teams have one
of those intel operations staff members,
so when I started to learn this culture of
college football intelligence operations,
well, here I am, a captain
in the Marine Corps, figuring out, "Well..."
[tense music continues]
"...they can't be better
than I could be at this, right?"
[music stops]
In 2020, Jim Harbaugh was pretty close
to being fired.
He wasn't beating
Michigan State regularly.
[commentator 1] Touchdown, Michigan State!
Mel Tucker gets a huge win.
I got to tell you what.
- He wasn't beating Ohio State at all.
- [commentator 1] Touchdown, Buckeyes!
[commentator 2] Michigan is 0
of the last 8 against Ohio State,
and they've lost 14 of the last 15.
That ain't a damn rivalry!
[Mike Barrett] I was at Michigan
for six years.
I was there from 2018 to 2023.
When you're coaching
at a team like Michigan,
losses don't come regularly,
and, you know,
fans don't really like losses,
especially, you know, against Ohio State.
You lose that game,
regardless of how your season's going,
it's a failed season if you lose.
[reporter] This talented coach,
great player, has yet to figure out
the Rubik's Cube that is Ohio State.
After a few years
of not beating Ohio State,
life changed a little bit
for Jim Harbaugh.
[fan] What happened?
He forgot how to coach quarterbacks?
Quite frankly,
I think Jim Harbaugh as an elite coach
is a total fraud and charade.
[Hole] When I first started conversing
with Connor, he was telling me
all about the nefarious world
of sign stealing outside of Ann Arbor.
All the things
that Ohio State was doing to steal signs
and why that was trouble for Michigan
and Michigan's failure to adjust.
I'm sitting up in the press box.
I'm looking down on the field,
and I'm seeing teams
that normally wouldn't necessarily
even stand a chance against Michigan
suddenly having the perfect play call
to diagnose defensively
to stop Michigan's offense.
It was the same
on the other side of the ball.
Their offense seemed to know
where the blitz was coming from.
I'm seeing other teams very clearly
knowing what Michigan's signs were.
When it comes to Connor,
he was just hyperfocused
on anything he could do to help Michigan.
So it wasn't surprising to me
a couple years later
he had kind of become a savant at it.
[soft music playing]
[Connor] So 2021, when I was transitioning
out of the Marine Corps,
my coach comes up to me and says,
"Hey, I heard
that we've been getting our signals stolen
by pretty much everyone,
and I heard
that you are the man with the answer."
"How do we protect our signals?"
I knew, "Okay, now I'm full-time staff."
I have to set my game up,
and I have to be really on point,
and I have to treat every opponent
like it's the game, like it's Ohio State.
[Hole] What Connor did
essentially was find a way
to really put himself on the radar
with the other coaches,
and he essentially created
an espionage network,
and that helps him advance
from intern to being a permanent staffer.
- [music continues]
- [Kelly] I was excited.
Like, "You're officially on staff now.
You're not a volunteer anymore."
The first time
I saw Connor run out with the team
and jump up and touch that banner,
I just start bawling. It's ridiculous.
That is when
Connor really, I think, shined.
[Connor] Signal deciphering is
essentially a cat-and-mouse game.
If you signal first, you are the mouse.
- How can we be the cat?
- [music becomes more dramatic]
The first thing that I evolved
that made me good at deciphering signals
was my game-day sheet.
I took a couple weekends.
I found a white wall as the background,
and I wore dark clothes to contrast.
I propped my phone up
and just recorded myself
doing every possible signal
I could ever imagine.
- ["Body Talks" by The Struts playing]
- I need to know, know, know
What do you need, need, need...
[Connor] Any signal I've ever seen,
any signal that we've done,
any signal any other team's done,
and any variation of any signal.
Ooh, your body talks, your body talks
Ooh, ooh...
[Connor] So I recorded myself doing
probably two to three thousand signals.
When I was done,
I uploaded each photo into my sheet
where it belonged.
I developed my own database,
which is the next evolution
of my game-day sheet.
Instead of memorizing words,
I was memorizing pictures.
And I would say
that is the number one reason
why I became as good as I did
at deciphering signals.
["Body Talks" ends]
- [whistle blows]
- [pulsing music playing]
[Auerbach] I remember going
to spring practice
and being around
that team in the preseason
and just thinking
that Jim seemed loose again.
Like, he seemed like
he was having fun again,
and that's when I felt like
that team had a chance
to do something special.
- [crowd cheers]
- [commentator 1] Michael Barrett.
[Barrett] Everyone was locked in.
With all the new coaches brought in,
all the new techniques.
Yeah, we just kinda been on
that uphill rise from there.
[Wetzel] Michigan got
very, very good, 2021.
Now, Connor Stalions was operating,
so it's fair to say,
"What impact did he have?"
You watch the videotape
of Connor on the sideline,
and all of a sudden,
he realizes this is a pass. He points up.
The entire sideline's pointing up
trying to tell,
"It's gonna be a pass.
It's gonna be a pass."
I've been asked,
how many times am I wrong?
- [music stops]
- Well, I'm rarely wrong.
[commentator 2] Henning to the corner.
- [dramatic music playing]
- Henning. Touchdown, Michigan.
There's no way to understate how important
that win over Ohio State was that year.
They beat Ohio State at their own game,
and it was this breakthrough moment.
- [commentator 2] Finally!
- [cheers]
That started a three-year run
unlike Michigan football has ever seen.
[music intensifies]
2022, they win the Big Ten
and beat Ohio State.
- [fans cheering]
- [commentator 3] Donovan Edwards!
Touchdown, Michigan!
[Wetzel] They look like a team
that can win the national championship,
and it all happens kind of overnight.
[music fades]
I actually got the game ball
for the Iowa game in '22
for deciphering signals.
I'm the only one that has one
that says my name. [chuckles]
Understanding Coach Harbaugh
and his way of coaching,
I think that, if anything, it's like,
"Hey, we see you.
You're doing a good job."
Well, the funny thing he said
after I got the game ball is,
"Don't get the big head, Connor.
Don't get the big head."
You know, growing up as a kid,
going to over 100 Michigan games
and, you know,
the whole Naval Academy, Marine Corps
and, you know, sleeping in my car
for a couple of years.
As long as Michigan wins,
you know, that's what I'm there for,
and that's all I'm trying to do,
but getting this ball
is a pretty cool moment in my life of,
you know, just being acknowledged
as doing a good job at what I do
and helping Michigan win.
I'll remember that forever.
[Brock] Connor has a mind that is...
nobody can understand.
It's almost like
a Rain Man-ish kind of thing,
where he's a hard worker, he's got
a brain that figures this stuff out,
and you put those two together
and look out.
Because he's going places.
[adventurous music playing]
[Connor] I knew I'm about to experience
a lot of wisdom and knowledge,
and I need to organize
everything that I absorb.
So it started off as a binder.
After a few months,
I realized, I mean,
this binder's not going to suffice,
so I need to do it electronically.
So it turned into a Word doc,
and then into a Google doc,
and then into
dozens and dozens of Google docs.
Basically, any thought I've ever had,
any quote I've ever heard
or read from a book,
probably talking about
a couple thousand pages.
For example,
this is a map of the United States
with every single draft pick since 2010.
- People recruit by state.
- [music continues]
You know, based it
off of where recruits are,
and, I mean, this has been
years and years and years in the making,
by position, by year.
Oh, here's the data for that very map.
I've created my own formula
with all these regions
and gave a score to every little thing,
and it just helps
with strategy of knowing where to recruit.
And I'm not gonna give it away,
but, you know, everyone says,
"Oh, let me read the manifesto."
I'm not gonna give you the manifesto.
This is some competitive
advantage information right here.
It, you know, can create
a competitive advantage over anyone else.
I mean, why scout like everyone else does?
Whenever I have that opportunity,
I'm using this bad boy,
and we will be successful.
[adventurous music continues]
[Couzens] What the Marine Corps distills
in you is discipline.
Everything is done to a T,
and you are not gonna stop
until you get the job finished.
It doesn't matter how you're gonna do it,
what you have to do.
If somebody tells you to do something,
you're gonna do it.
It didn't matter if it was Michigan
or the Marine Corps, football.
He was just always, always gonna make sure
that he got the best outcome possible.
[soft music playing]
[newscaster] It's been over 20 years since
Michigan won a national championship.
2023 is the year!
[Connor] First few games
of the 2023 season,
I put pressure on myself to understand
the tendencies of the signalers
when they're live, when they're not.
[commentator 1] Patterson is stopped.
It was well-read.
There was not a lot of room
to make a play.
And when I see the coach do this,
I know I look exactly right there.
[commentator 1] Blake Corum found
an opening. Corum in the open field now.
[commentator 2] Said it earlier, there's
a good vibe around this Michigan team.
[commentator 1] There really is.
[Connor] Is the way that we're doing that
the best possible way to do it?
[dramatic music playing]
[commentator 1] Open, Wilson.
Touchdown, Michigan!
[Connor] They're both signaling
that five out wide.
I just know it's a pass,
and I'm pointing up, "Pass, pass, pass!"
[commentator 1] Denied! And that ball is
in the hands of Sainristil.
Taking it all the way.
[cheers]
[commentator 2] That is a program
clearly on the way back up.
[commentator 3] McCarthy scanning.
Loads of time for McCarthy.
Now he runs it downfield.
To the end zone, Roman Wilson!
Everyone just understood
that now's the time.
[commentator 4] The number two team
in the country, dominant
in every facet of the game.
It was really, you know, now or never
for us. It's natty or bust.
- [commentator 1] Wolverines a perfect 7-0.
- We're winning the national championship.
[commentator 5] We've been waiting
on the Michigan team
that can win a national championship,
and I'm inclined
to believe this team is really good.
[music ends]
[Paul chuckling] This was
a really good Michigan football team,
but we talk about this team
20, 30, 40 years from now,
they're gonna mention Connor Stalions.
They're gonna mention what went down.
[suspenseful music playing]
[reporter 1] According to Yahoo! Sports,
the NCAA is currently investigating
Jim Harbaugh's
Michigan Wolverines football program.
[Hole] So I was sitting in my bed.
It was a Thursday night.
I got the push notification from Yahoo!
saying that Michigan
was being investigated for something.
[reporter 2] Yahoo! Sports reported
the team allegedly sent...
[reporter 3] ...unnamed individuals
to attend games of possible
College Football Playoff opponents...
[reporter 4] ...and stealing
their offensive and defensive signals.
I open it up on my phone,
and I see Connor Stalions' name.
I'm like, "That's my guy."
Like, "They're trying to get my boy."
[reporter 5] One of the centerpieces
of this investigation is
a low-level Michigan staffer
by the name of Connor Stalions.
A former Marine.
He was educated at the Naval Academy.
[music continues]
[man] I started reporting
into the Stalions situation
shortly after the news broke
that the NCAA was investigating this.
[tense music playing]
Like most other people probably initially
assumed, "This can't be a real human being
'cause that name is just too perfect."
[reporter 6] There were some comparisons
to 2007 Patriots and SpyGate.
[reporter 7] They think it's more serious.
Like with the Astros.
Like what happened with the Patriots.
Coach came to my office
and asked me if I saw the articles.
[reporter 7] There was NCAA interest
in his computer.
The process of procuring that is underway
from what our sources said.
[Connor] Within minutes, they took
my work phone and laptop and computer,
and I even asked to answer any questions.
"What do you guys want to know?
What's going on?"
And they said that wouldn't be necessary.
You know, at the time,
I knew I was being investigated,
but no one told me exactly what for.
Connor Stalions was being accused
of basically being the ringleader
of Michigan's sign stealing operation,
of paying to have Michigan operatives sent
to games of upcoming Michigan opponents,
of having them videotape
the opposing coaches
as they relayed in
offensive and defensive play calls,
and then of being on the sideline
and actually conveying
to Michigan offensive
and defensive coaches
what he thought was being called in-game
based on his analysis of that footage.
[tense music playing]
By having someone at a game videotaping,
they were potentially violating
the advanced scouting rule, which said,
"You're not allowed to send somebody
on the road to scout an opponent."
First of all, one,
I've never advanced scouted.
Two, if this is about signals,
I obtain signals
the same way every other team does,
through watching TV copies
and talking to other intel guys
on other teams.
And what set me apart was the way
in which I organized that information
and processed it on game day.
[tense music continues]
I mean, I honestly really didn't know
what to think.
It was just surreal
from the very, very beginning.
My first worry was, of course, for my son.
And, you know, "What's gonna happen?
Where does he go from here?"
Sources had told us
that Stalions, who's an ex-military,
was a central part of this investigation.
Needless to say, I had so many emotions.
Being downright ticked off
because now here comes this media blitz.
[reporter 1] This morning,
one of the biggest schools in football
is caught up in a sign stealing scandal.
Harbaugh should be stripped
of his victories that were related to this
and suspended for the rest of the year.
Is there a chance
Michigan has to forfeit wins?
Could they be throwing away
a couple of seasons here
full of, you know, these victory totals?
Possibly.
- 90% of it is absolutely false.
- [mysterious music playing]
Yet we're not allowed
or Connor's not allowed
to say anything about it.
[McAfee] Also, video evidence
of sideline taping is expected to be sent
to the NCAA this week,
caught by stadium surveillance
around the Big Ten.
This guy was the chief operating officer
of the sign stealing operation,
and I'm fascinated to see
what video evidence gets turned in.
It was a little frustrating.
All of us was kind of mad
'cause it was taking away from
the kind of season we were having.
It's just unfortunate that, you know,
people don't think we put in the work
to get to where we are.
Once the Connor Stalions scandal breaks,
the pressure on the Michigan players
to win out was enormous.
[mysterious music continues]
[Connor] I got a phone call
from the athletic department.
"You're gonna be suspended with pay."
[reporter] Connor Stalions has
been suspended.
[man] He is a person of interest
in the sign stealing scandal
that has engulfed the program,
and he has just been suspended with pay
by athletic director Warde Manuel.
I think once his name got out there,
they just started to dig and dig.
They wanted to find anything
that they could find
to put a bad name for Michigan,
a bad name for Connor.
[Rich Eisen] We've got photos of Stalions,
hired by Michigan last year
as an off-field analyst.
Not sure what that is.
Suddenly it's, "This is so-and-so
from The Columbus Dispatch."
"We have record
that you went to an Ohio State game
from Connor Stalions. Is that true?"
I was like, "Oh my God,
am I supposed to be freaking out?"
Because of course it was true.
[McAfee] Connor, former captain
in the Marine Corps,
also was buying tickets
for maybe military vets
around Big Ten schools
trying to represent Michigan
in that particular way,
which might be the case.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Connor] When I was first suspended,
I went home that night
obviously a little nervous.
I'm thinking,
"Man, I'm gonna need a lawyer,"
so I researched
who had successfully beaten the NCAA,
and I found Brad.
[Brad Beckworth] My law firm has been
a dragon slayer since we were founded.
State of Texas versus tobacco industry,
represented the State of Florida
against British Petroleum
after Deepwater Horizon.
I spent a year fighting the NCAA
for Johnny Manziel.
The thing that draws me to cases like this
is the sense of injustice.
You have to understand, I hate the NCAA.
[music continues]
It's a corrupt organization.
It's a hypocrite.
So any time I see somebody getting
treated poorly by the NCAA,
I try to take a case.
Usually have to do those for free
'cause the kids that are coming to us
don't always have the means.
The university had asked Connor to come in
to do a disciplinary review hearing.
I told Connor there's no due process.
There's no fairness.
It works completely different
than any other thing you would see
in a real legal proceeding.
And so I told Connor, I said,
"There is no way
you're gonna go into a hearing
with the University of Michigan
when you don't even know
what they'll try to talk to you about."
[reporter] The Associated Press
is reporting
that Stalions refused to attend
a hearing today
and through his attorney,
informed the school
he would not take part in
any internal or external investigations.
[Connor] I was confused.
"What does this mean for the team?
What does this mean for me?"
We're in the middle of the season,
about to play Michigan State.
[tense music playing]
I've always done
everything I could for Michigan,
and Coach Harbaugh
has always been great to me.
He's been great to everyone.
[Beckworth] So he said, "Listen,
I'll throw myself on the grenade
for the school. I love it that much."
"And I just want to be treated fairly,
and I promise you
I'll do whatever it takes
to treat the school fairly."
[action music playing]
[reporter] 10TV news at 11 begins
with breaking news tonight.
Another bombshell has dropped
in the cheating scandal
involving Michigan football.
And so we sent them a note
that he was gonna resign.
Interestingly, Michigan leaked
that they had fired him.
[reporter 2] Initially, it was reported
that Stalions was fired,
but after the report was made public,
the university confirming
Stalions did indeed resign.
We gave them a statement from Connor
that was intended
to exonerate Coach Harbaugh.
[reporter 2] His attorney telling
The Athletic tonight,
neither Jim Harbaugh
nor anyone else in the staff told anyone
to break any rules
or were aware of any improper conduct
regarding the recent allegations.
He just wants to move on and concentrate
on them winning a national championship.
[reporter 2] Stalions making public
his love for Michigan
even after stepping away from the program.
And that was the last time
I heard from anyone.
You know, I went from
watching football film all day, every day,
prepping for practice,
prepping linebacker meetings...
[sad music playing]
...and then overnight,
now I can't do any of that.
Can't even talk to them.
And every day,
article after article after article,
and there's nothing I can do.
Ever since I could remember,
Michigan has been a huge part of my life,
and for that to be stripped away overnight
was pretty devastating.
I feel like they knew
they had a very good chance
to win the championship.
They knew
that this story was going to be a problem,
and I think Michigan did what it had
to do and hung him out to dry. [laughs]
[sad music continues]
I would've said
we were professional acquaintances
before all of this started,
but once all of this hit the pike,
I sent him a message checking on him,
and a couple of days later,
he called me and told me how he was doing.
Said, "Hey, I don't wanna talk
about any of this stuff,
and, you know,
I know you're a God-fearing man,
and I know that you're not gonna
burn me with any of this stuff."
Who else was he gonna go to?
All of his best friends were inside
of Schembechler Hall.
I wasn't covering it
from an insider perspective
as much as I was allowing the news to hit
and kind of aggregating it at that point,
even though I eventually had
a better understanding
of what was going on than anyone,
but that allowed me
just to be a friend to him first
and not worry as much about
what was happening with Michigan football.
What was unusual
about how the NCAA handled this
was really how quickly they responded.
Typically, allegations of impropriety
during one season
result in an investigation
that could take months or years,
and I think part of the reason
that they reacted that way was
there were concerns
Michigan was gonna continue doing this
and that it was gonna present
a competitive imbalance
between them
and upcoming opponents mid-season.
[suspenseful music playing]
[cheers]
So, Michigan-Michigan State.
Let me put it this way.
There is a lot of bad blood
in that rivalry.
- [loud bang]
- [screams]
[clamoring]
- Whoo!
- [glass shatters]
The previous year,
there was the fight in the tunnel.
Eight Michigan State kids get arrested
for that,
so there's tension in the rivalry
almost all the time.
[suspenseful music continues]
From Michigan's perspective,
they probably had something to prove
because everything comes out
the week ahead of time.
If Michigan lost that game
with all the Connor Stalions stuff,
would people delegitimize
this run for Michigan?
And then we started to hear,
"Does Michigan State want
to play that game?"
"Are they comfortable?
Are they worried about safety concerns?"
And Michigan State's apparently saying
before the game,
"I don't know if we should play.
If they know our plays,
we're gonna put our players in jeopardy,
in harm's way."
"Maybe we shouldn't play the game."
Michigan State, the little bro,
they didn't even want
to be on the field with us.
They, you know, really wanted
to forfeit a game for whatever reason,
but they kind of knew what was coming.
[commentator] We might see their new
quarterback, Katin Houser,
come to the sideline
to get play calls audibly
as a precaution tonight.
And it's like, "Okay, cool.
You still don't score any points."
[commentator] ...and he is.
Touchdown, Michigan.
On the run, touchdown, Roman Wilson.
J.J. McCarthy let it rip.
Here's a touchdown to Colston Loveland.
Michigan crushes them.
They were incredibly dominant.
[commentator] Touchdown, Michigan!
What Michigan did to Michigan State,
it got ugly out there.
That was kind of just that first game
of what is Michigan going to do now
that everybody "knows
that they've been cheating" or whatever.
[Eisen] These kids are k*lling it,
and it's got to be eating them up alive
that supposedly it's all
because they've had the plays.
[cheers]
[Connor] And I watched the game,
and I just kind of laughed.
Like, these guys ran the play in
every single play,
and after they lost 49 to nothing,
they're still complaining about signals,
and they didn't even signal.
You take the guy
who supposedly is the architect of it,
and you have that guy
ripped out of the system
two, three days before.
You should look a little choppy.
[Wetzel] After the Michigan State game,
it's clear just how good Michigan is.
It wasn't like they needed Connor Stalions
to be a really, really good football team.
Seems like maybe it's dying down
at least a little, and then, boom.
Central Michigan has now
fallen into the fray
because we've had some video surface
that certainly seems to show
Connor Stalions on the sideline
of their game with Michigan State.
You're just like, you know,
"The story is never going to end."
"It's never gonna go away.
It's getting more ridiculous by the day."
[Kayce Smith] Welcome to
the Barstool College Football Show,
week ten of college football.
So Dave, I'm gonna just give the floor
to you because every single day
there's more stuff that comes out about
this Michigan-Connor Stalions situation.
How are you feeling about everything
going on with your program right now?
Great.
[intriguing music stops]
[Smith] Just great.
[intriguing music continues]
When the story broke
and you start learning more about Connor,
I think I, within 48 hours,
said he had a lifetime job at Barstool.
If he was fired from Michigan
or whatever, come work for me.
Dressed in CMU gear
but on Michigan's payroll.
[man] And possibly sh**ting video
of Michigan State.
Some are wondering
if the glasses that Stalions wore
just might have a camera in them.
He can see across the field.
He's got the g*dd*mn camera in.
It's a much clearer point of view.
From... Why?
- Cameras are strong. You can zoom...
- Dumb m*therf*cker.
We're really doing this stupid sh*t?
[Portnoy] I absolutely loved it.
I loved being the boogeyman, the bad guy.
The team that kept people up at night,
worried, "What's Michigan doing?"
I loved it. I loved every second of it.
[Paul] There were people
on that Central staff
who were on the Michigan staff
with Connor,
so he clearly knew
some people on the staff.
We obviously are aware
of a picture floating around
with the sign stealer guy.
- Allegedly, if that is him.
- Allegedly, all that.
Hmm. What was he wearing?
He had, like, sunglasses?
I think it looked a lot like him.
If it wasn't, then, you know,
he's got a doppelgnger out there.
Could it be
that Connor was at that game? Maybe.
I haven't seen a picture of Connor
at that game.
I have seen the allegations
of somebody that people say is Connor,
but he would have to be wearing
some type of disguise,
and, you know,
whether that happened or not,
that would be up to Connor to talk about.
[director] Um... would love to get
your response on this.
[chuckles]
Well, I know the answer to that
because he told me. Um...
Yeah, that was Connor on the sidelines.
That was Connor on the sidelines.
[mysterious music plays and stops]
I mean, I don't even think
this guy looks like me.
[mysterious music continues]
[music fades]
Then you're heading into the last
three games of the regular season,
which just happened to be
the toughest games on Michigan's schedule,
and the Big Ten comes down
with this punishment,
and they're gonna suspend Jim Harbaugh.
More breaking news.
The Big Ten conference
just in the last few hours announcing
it is going to sideline
the University of Michigan's
head football coach.
...suspended University of Michigan coach
Jim Harbaugh
for the remainder of the regular season.
The punishment is a result
of a cheating scandal
that has shaken
the college football world.
We were on a plane, actually,
flying to Penn State.
Everybody was just
kind of laid out sleeping.
Then once we landed, everybody's phones
just got to clicking. [imitates clicking]
[dramatic music playing]
[Wetzel] The Big Ten's suspension
of Jim Harbaugh made people think,
"Well, he must've done something."
"He must have known something,
or why would the Big Ten do this?"
Jim Harbaugh certainly reaped
the benefits of this cheating
that crossed ethical lines, moral lines,
and has obviously gone too far.
Jim Harbaugh is insistent throughout
that he didn't know what was going on.
[man] "I do not have any knowledge
or information
regarding the University of Michigan
football program
illegally stealing signals."
[Connor] I felt like
I let Coach Harbaugh down.
There was nothing
I could even do about it.
[music continues]
It was a very helpless feeling.
It's a big game coming up
against Penn State tomorrow,
to which Coach Harbaugh
has already landed in Happy Valley.
[music fades]
Going into that game,
we felt like, "Okay, cool."
"You wanna take away our coach. You wanna
bring all these distractions on."
"You wanna do whatever you had to do
to kind of fog up our minds, our mindset,
to kind of get us unfocused
on what we had to do."
It was just like, "Bet, bring it on."
[tense music playing]
- [commentator] Touchdown, Michigan!
- [male fan] Be careful what you wish for.
You just created a monster,
and Michigan is now going to be
even better than they have been.
Waiting until the day before
their biggest game of the year
is kind of bullshit.
You give them added fuel.
You give them added motivation to say,
"Us against the world."
"The only way that you can beat us
is to try to take us down,
taking our head coach away."
[commentator] They said
Michigan hadn't played anybody.
[cheers]
[commentator] Penn State would be
their first major challenge.
[adventurous music playing]
[Portnoy] What makes this
such a great Michigan story
is the fact
that they kept winning all post-scandal.
When you know if you slip up,
they're gonna try to invalidate not only
this season but the last two years.
[commentator] Big trouble,
and Michael Barrett with the sack!
Loose ball, picked up!
Touchdown, Wolverines!
- [man 1] Michigan vs everybody.
- [man 2] Michigan vs everyone.
[man 3] Michigan versus everybody.
[Connor] Even though
I wasn't on the sideline anymore,
I still knew
that I was in the opponent's heads.
[commentator] Touchdown, Michigan!
[adventurous music continues]
They messed with the wrong team,
they messed with the wrong guy,
with the wrong brothers.
[commentator] Corum!
Touchdown, Wolverines.
Whatever you want to throw at us,
we're just gonna eat it up.
We're just gonna go out there
and just show you what we can do.
Proving our dominance as a team.
[commentator] Their interim head coach,
another great job.
[McAfee] The Wolverines,
probably unprecedented circumstances
surrounding all the off-the-field noise,
come in here and gut out a huge win.
[music fades]
What made this scandal really interesting
from a reporting standpoint
is it was all happening in real time.
[reporter] The Big Ten investigation is
now closed, but the NCAA remains ongoing
as the university continues
to cooperate fully
with the NCAA's investigation.
Nobody had any idea
what was real and what wasn't,
and so in that initial vacuum, there was
just so much interest in this thing.
We go from the sideline to the courts
as the fate of Michigan
and its national-championship-caliber
season is in flux.
- What are the next steps?
- Next steps.
- Next step.
- What are the next steps here?
The investigation goes forward.
What... What happens from here?
[Brohio] I go by "Brohio."
[director] How did you become
a fan of Ohio State football?
[Brohio] You don't really become one.
When your family is
either an Ohio State or Michigan fan,
you're kind of baptized into it.
[dramatic music playing]
College football fans are crazy,
and that's why I look like a CIA operative
because for every person
that'll email me to say,
"You're a loser,
you have too much time on your hands,"
somebody will email my mom a death threat.
Investigation on the amateur level
has always been a hobby of mine.
The message board community created
this culture, this fandom.
It was like a giant locker room
that all the Ohio State guys got around.
We'd talk recruiting.
We would talk everything.
I remember I heard the name
the first time, Connor Stalions.
Like, that is
the weirdest Spy Kids movie name,
but you see him standing
there the whole time.
"How did I not notice this dude
just yapping in the coach's ear
before every single play?"
As a college football reporter,
I am aware of message boards,
and sometimes you scroll them
and see what's on there.
But this was the first time
everything I was seeing
on message boards ended up being true,
and it was so unusual
because you would hear something
or see something that seemed so outlandish
and then it would turn out to be
actually part of this story.
[music continues]
[Brohio] We had heard people
at games saying,
"This guy in front of me
is recording the whole game."
If there's nothing that was done wrong
or if this isn't a big deal,
like, why are you trying to tell me
with a straight face
that a coordinator is making
a million dollars a year saying,
"Let me see
what Connor thinks I should do here?"
So pretty much everyone
who plays Michigan hates Michigan,
and so if you add any fuel to the fire,
it's gonna take off.
[funky music playing]
You had the biggest game
still left on their schedule,
and Ohio State, after being beat
by Michigan multiple years, wondering,
"Hey, were those wins fair and square?"
Throw the entire Michigan football program
in jail if this photo is real!
It was a perfect storm
with so many different fan bases
that are already predisposed to hating
the winningest program
in college football history
getting involved in a scandal.
[Brohio] It's so stupid.
Like, he's literally sitting there spying
and, like, using disguises,
and it's so ridiculous.
You can't make this stuff up.
It's ripe for memeing, put it that way.
What else can we pile on?
Is there any more sh*t
we can pile on to the top
of the outcome of this case?
I love it. I was retweeting them all.
[funky music continues]
That's part of
the fun of college football.
The memes. [chuckles]
This probably was the best part
that came out of this whole scandal.
The Internet is undefeated
when it comes to things like that.
Yeah, they kept us laughing for sure.
[SpongeBob] What am I getting
so worked up about?
I'm sure that by tomorrow, this whole
ugly mess will be a funny memory. [laughs]
It was a circus. A totally enjoyable one.
I'm still trying to wrap my mind around
what kind of a sick person
wants to get paid
to destroy another person's life.
Destroy another person's life!
[Connor] I'm at the Last Supper.
I'm at JFK's assassination,
and where do people
even come up with these ideas?
[funky music continues]
It's a serious story,
but if you take a step back,
it's kind of funny.
[chuckles]
[Kevin Spacey as Verbal] My guess is
you'll never hear from him again.
[classical music playing]
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled
was convincing the world he didn't exist.
And like that, he's gone.
[Brohio] You think military,
you think discipline, you think secrecy.
You don't think
doing slapstick videos with Dave Portnoy.
Everybody says this and that
about what Michigan has done,
and you look at
what Harbaugh has done and all...
- [crowd clamoring]
- Uh-oh.
Who was that?
- [Smith] Who just handed you that paper?
- [Dan Katz] I don't know who that was.
I think I saw him
on the Central Michigan sideline
a few weeks ago.
- [cheers]
- Was that Connor Stalions?
- [Katz] I don't know.
- [mysterious music playing]
[Brohio] He loves it.
He does love the attention.
It's like the ultimate troll.
He is taking jabs at Ohio State fans.
He is someone who at this point
is starting to be, like, revered
by the Michigan fan base.
Before the 2023 Michigan-Ohio State game,
Zach posted a picture of us
outside the Horseshoe
after we beat them in 2022.
[music continues]
We had some fun on Twitter with, you know,
making Ohio State fans pretty upset.
We were reading all the replies.
They made fun of my teeth,
so I got braces for them.
He loved our trolling,
and he wanted to be part of it.
The sauce was separate than the pizza.
Austin didn't know
whether to go Detroit style.
Tomorrow's the big game.
Michigan-Ohio State,
the biggest game
since I've started Barstool.
But I do think
he was feeling some pressure internally
from some Michigan people, like,
"Just go away. We don't want the asterisk
with the Ohio State game."
[music stops]
[fans cheering]
[dramatic music playing]
I haven't been to a game
since I've been suspended,
but this one's Michigan-Ohio State.
[all] Go, blue!
The problem was
he couldn't talk to anybody, right?
He wasn't gonna talk to anybody.
At this point, I'm resigned,
and I figure I'm going to this game.
I'll sit up in, you know,
row 50 in the end zone.
I won't be in anyone's way.
I'll wear a ski mask.
I don't want any attention.
I just want to be there
to see us beat Ohio State.
[music continues]
You're heading into
the biggest game of the year,
the biggest game of any year
in Ohio State,
with an interim or acting head coach
in Sherrone Moore
and a chance to play
for a national title on the line.
Michigan had to prove that 2021's victory
and 2022's victory were justified
by winning in 2023
without Connor Stalions.
[commentator] The Wolverines
and the Buckeyes.
The stakes in this game
could not be higher.
Obviously, legacies on the line.
You're gonna be measured in each of these
programs by what you do in this game.
[Brohio] I was pretty confident Ohio State
would win all of our games up to Michigan
and Michigan would win
all their games up to Ohio State,
and we were basically playing
a one-game season for it all.
[Connor] Our defense showed up
when it needed to.
Mikey, big hit on running back Henderson.
[commentator] My goodness,
Henderson gets waxed!
It was just that tone-setting play
to let them know we're here.
[music intensifies]
[Connor] Our offense moved the ball
when it needed to.
[commentator] Touchdown, Wolverines!
Guys just showed up in clutch moments
in the most important game
in the previous 20 years
of Michigan football history.
Rod Moore with a cinematic interception
to end the game.
[music crescendos]
We won,
and everyone starts storming the field.
[music fades]
- I see a winged helmet walking towards me.
- [choral music playing]
It's Mike Barrett,
and I'm wearing a ski mask.
He kind of just slid it
just a little bit down to his nose,
and I'm like, "I know
that's not who I think it is." [chuckling]
I go, "Good game, Mike B, congrats."
And he looks.
"Oh my God!" Freaks out,
gives me a hug and keeps walking.
That made my day. It was hilarious.
It was a tremendous memory.
[music ends]
[Brohio] A lot of people want to just know
what happened one way or the other.
I think a lot of his defenders
don't give respect
to the nuance of the situation.
They say everybody steals signs,
and I think everybody does steal signs.
It's, "How are you getting the information
to steal those signs?"
It's ill*gal.
[Eisen] ESPN reported this week
that Stalions had bought tickets
to at least 35 games in 17 stadiums
the last three years,
including at 12 of the 13 Big Ten schools.
When I was in the Marine Corps,
I was going to college games all the time.
I went to an Ole Miss game, USC game,
Texas, Texas A&M, Florida State.
[tense music playing]
I just love college football,
so I'd go to a bunch of games.
[Brohio] No.
Thanks to Connor Stalions
not making his Venmo private,
we have found charges like this,
"GA," Ohio State-Georgia
in the college football semifinals.
They would've played
the winner of this game.
[Brohio] His Venmo payments were public.
That's what's so fascinating to me
about him.
Because you have this military-trained guy
who's really, really driven
and really smart
and then really, really stupid and sloppy.
We started to see things
that we were talking about
in the message boards carry over
to the beat reporters,
so there was a lot of payoff
for the work that we were doing.
[Paul] You know, there is a paper trail
of these tickets.
These tickets,
in a lot of cases for these games,
were in Connor Stalions' name
and being transferred to friends of his
to go to the games.
[intriguing music playing]
I can tell you,
one of Connor's buddies, Zach,
yeah, Connor bought tickets for him.
Yeah, I've been with Zach to four games
that Connor's bought tickets.
So like, when Connor would buy me tickets
to the Nebraska games or Ohio State games,
I'm just a huge football fan,
so I'm gonna go regardless.
No, there's no evidence of me filming
or taking pictures of the other team
or trying to get a good picture of them.
No, absolutely not.
Whatever. I'm one of those people
that he bought tickets for.
I guess the accusation is
that my mom helped me
advance scout Purdue. [chuckles]
You know, I don't... I don't know.
He got me tickets. That makes the news.
I just find it crazy.
I've profited quite a bit
off of buying and selling tickets as well,
so, to me, if a friend,
you know, wants a $100 ticket,
"Sure, here you go."
[music stops]
[Brohio] That's ridiculous.
These tickets were on the 50-yard line
right off the field.
I don't know
if you've ever been on StubHub,
but it's not like...
these aren't $100 tickets.
I remember on the Ohio State board itself,
we had a guy post,
"Michigan is paying people
to go to games."
He was like, "My friend was offered money
to go to the game, video the game."
"They were gonna pay for his travel.
They were gonna pay for his tickets."
My colleague Dan Murphy
interviewed a former Division III coach
who said that Connor Stalions paid him
to record multiple Big Ten games.
I reached out to the schools
through Freedom of Information Act,
and stadium security video says
there's a guy in Connor Stalions' seat,
all by himself,
just videotaping the opposing signs.
Kind of stands out.
Six to ten tickets a game
for two, three years.
Travel expenses for these people
that are using the tickets.
If you were to add up the ticket costs,
there's no way
a guy is spending his entire salary.
I don't care how much he loves Michigan.
So the money is coming from somewhere.
People were really curious
who was paying for all these tickets
that were really good seats
at all of these games,
so I'm starting to call around
to different sources
that I have across the Big Ten,
and that's when the idea
and the name "Uncle T"
first got onto my radar.
[dramatic music playing]
That athletic booster named Uncle was involved
in partially funding
the Connor Stalions sign stealing scheme.
Yeah, this whole Uncle T thing.
Quite frankly,
I've never heard of the phrase "Uncle T."
Pretty quickly, Tim Smith became the name
that was associated with Uncle T.
[Brohio] He's a booster.
He's part of Champions Circle.
He unequivocally denied
that he was Uncle T,
that he had any sort
of real relationship with Connor Stalions,
and that he was funding
anything related to this.
[Brohio] Within a couple days
of us talking about him,
he's fired from his booster collective.
[sad music playing]
And then the news was released
that there was like
a countersurveillance measure going on.
New information is here
from The Washington Post
that a lot of people are saying
is a bombshell.
Within the article,
Washington Post details
that the NCAA opened
their investigation to Michigan
after a third-party independent law firm
alerted the NCAA
that they should look into this.
[music fades]
[somber music playing]
[Hobson] My understanding
is that there was an investigative firm
that, through the fall of '23,
was basically investigating
Michigan's sign stealing operation.
The firm had developed at least one source
on the inside of Michigan football,
and they had documents
from inside the Michigan football program
that showed the schedule of games
and identified the names of people
that were gonna be filming.
[somber music continues]
All of the NCAA's process has been based
upon a spreadsheet that Connor had.
That spreadsheet was never shared
with anyone.
The Washington Post got it.
We think his email was hacked.
[Hobson] I have no indication
that any laws were broken
in the way this firm did their job.
I would think
that if there were anything untoward
about the way this firm collected
the evidence they collected,
that the NCAA wouldn't have responded
the way they did.
[Connor] Just as much as
national journalists have been writing
conspiracies about me,
a lot of Michigan alumni
have conducted their own investigations.
Who may have hacked me?
Who this unnamed,
third-party private investigating firm
that the NCAA and The Washington Post
claims but won't name?
You want to talk conspiracy theories?
How did the NCAA get
a fully-baked investigation
placed in its lap?
- [knocking]
- Knock on the door.
"Hey, you should be looking
at this feller named Stalions
on the Michigan staff."
Do we want to know if Jim Harbaugh knew,
or do we want to know...
- Why Ohio State did this? Oh, sorry.
- [chuckling] No. Well...
[interviewer] Ryan, any reaction
to the reports out
that maybe Ohio State,
and you in particular,
or maybe someone close to you,
turned Michigan in?
- Yeah, no. No comments right now.
- [interviewer] Yeah.
Here. Here you go.
'Cause that's what you need to do
for the NCAA to investigate.
You can just take credit
when it's all said and done.
[Hole] I have theories.
There's certainly a rival school out there
that appears to have done some things
to try to get a hold
of Connor's personal materials.
I believe that that's what's happened.
[Eisen] If we dust for prints
on the dossier that got dropped off,
or the IP addresses,
are any of them based in Columbus, Ohio?
[man laughs]
Did Ohio State, did they catch Michigan
and Connor Stalions?
And did they report it to the NCAA?
Did that happen? We don't know.
Certainly, a lot of people on the Internet
think that happened.
Did Ryan Day hire his brother,
who's a private investigator,
to run this investigation
to get it to the NCAA?
- [somber music continues]
- I don't... Maybe.
Yeah, I'm not gonna
get into all of that right now,
but I can tell you this right now
that, you know,
nobody here, um...
you know, did any of that.
The journalist at The Washington Post
happened to go to school with Ryan Day.
So he had a private investigating firm.
Opens up an LLC in Michigan
the same exact time
an unnamed LLC private investigating firm
hacks into my computer.
I doubt that's a coincidence.
The people who made that connection online
between me and Ryan Day
is how I learned that Ryan Day was at BC
at the same time I was.
I mean, look, I can't say
with 100% certainty
that nobody from Ohio State was involved
'cause I don't know who paid this firm,
so it's entirely possible
somebody connected
to Ohio State, or, you know,
Michigan State was involved with this.
But whoever hired them
doesn't really change the fact
that the evidence was
what the evidence was.
The NCAA didn't open an investigation
because they got an angry voicemail
from Ryan Day.
They opened an investigation
because somebody collected evidence
that, in their opinion, suggested
there was an operation going on
in violation of NCAA rules.
[Eisen] What if somebody broke the rules
in handing that investigation to the NCAA?
What if there's information in there
that they broke a law getting?
In spite of everyone going crazy
with this speculation,
by the end of the season,
there's no Connor Stalions,
there's no signs stolen,
and they're still winning.
They go win the Big Ten championship game
against Iowa...
- [dramatic music playing]
- ...and now they're in the playoffs.
Then they get Alabama.
Nick Saban, the number one program going
in college football the last 15 years.
[commentator] Hand it to Corum again
and makes the cut. First down!
[cheers]
Spins, then scores!
Blake Corum puts Michigan on top
in overtime!
- [fanfare playing]
- [cheers]
[Barrett] Doing that against Alabama,
last game of Nick Saban's career,
you know... couldn't have drew it up
any better, honestly.
[commentator] Milroe stopped!
Michigan makes a stand
and comes up with
a milestone playoff victory.
- [cheers]
- [dramatic music continues]
[Wetzel] And now they're headed
to the national championship
for the first time since 1997.
[reporter] Michigan
and Washington will battle
for the national title next Monday night.
Michigan under Jim Harbaugh
is finally there.
[dramatic music crescendos and fades]
[sentimental music playing]
[Connor] For Michigan to be there
and watch my brothers compete
in the national championship,
I don't mind driving,
so I figured, why not road-trip it?
When all this stuff came out in October,
I kind of went in hiding.
I really never went out in public.
People recognize me.
[all chanting] Hail to
The victors valiant!
Hail to the conquering heroes!
Hail, hail...
And everyone was like,
"Oh, hey! Can I get a picture with you?
You're a legend," this and that.
And I'm like, "Okay."
Michigan nation has been
extremely supportive.
They had my back
and couldn't be more thankful for that.
[sentimental music continues]
At this point, it is what it is,
and people are gonna take pictures.
People are gonna post it.
"Oh my God, he's at the game."
But at this point,
it's like hiding in plain sight.
- [fans cheering]
- Let's go, Dawgs! Let's go!
[Connor] Yeah, just embrace it,
and just, we'll together watch us win
the national championship tonight.
[epic music playing]
[Barrett] For me, going into the natty
with all the things that we went through
throughout the season,
it was a sigh of relief, honestly.
You know, like,
"Yeah, we're actually here."
[commentator] Donovan Edwards rotates in
at the back. He's got the football.
Bumps into traffic and escapes.
- Donovan Edwards!
- [cheers]
- [shouting]
- [commentator] To the end zone!
Michigan flexing immediately.
[epic music continues]
Forty-one yards.
Boom! Boom!
[commentator] And he's loose again!
Edwards off and running!
Welcome back, Donovan Edwards!
46 yards!
- Oh!
- [all applauding]
Attaboy!
[commentator] Wolverines get a stop here,
and they can smell
their first championship in 26 years.
[epic music stops and continues]
And now, Penix looks the other direction,
down the seam.
It's intercepted by Sainristil.
[fans cheering]
Michigan
set up inside the ten!
Mikey Sainristil!
[all applauding]
Hail, hail, Michigan.
They are the champions
of college football 2023.
[epic music crescendos]
[music fades]
[melancholy music playing]
[Connor] Do I wish
that I'd be able to be with them?
Yeah.
But as long as Michigan football won
the national championship
and as long as
my brothers got to experience that,
that's all I care about.
To see us win
the national championship in person
and to just soak that moment in,
I mean, yeah,
I'll... I'll never forget that.
[music fades]
[Paul] I don't think
anyone is looking at Connor Stalions
and saying he's the reason
Michigan football had
the three-year stretch that it did,
three wins over Ohio State,
the national championship.
I don't think anyone's thinking,
you know, that's the only reason.
[somber music playing]
But the NCAA investigation is continuing.
I still don't think we know exactly
what the fallout's gonna be,
but as far as sanctions,
I think an asterisk
is about all you're gonna get.
Michigan's national championship
is tainted!
[Broussard] You know
people have said it'll be tainted
based upon
all the things that have happened.
[Parker] It's just a matter of time
because there's an investigation
that is not complete.
[somber music continues]
[Barrett] It's still frustrating,
you know.
The kind of team that we had,
the kind of players we were,
I feel like was, you know, overlooked
because I hear people talk about,
you know, our natty has an asterisk on it
or something and all of that.
[Brohio] Them winning
the national championship,
at least for me on an investigative level,
drove me to dig further
because we've never seen
a coach win a national championship
and immediately bolt
and route the whole staff with him.
[reporter] Jim Harbaugh, it is official.
He is now the new head coach
of the Los Angeles Chargers.
There it is.
[Brohio] All the rats have jumped
off the ship,
but the NCAA hasn't concluded
their investigation yet, months later,
and they still haven't talked
to Connor Stalions.
[somber music continues]
[Beckworth] So, do you have any questions
about how this is gonna work tomorrow?
As you know, we've asked the NCAA
to come here in person,
and they were scared to do that
and refused to do it.
It's gonna be by Zoom.
I have taken the position that this is
a completely voluntary thing for you.
[intriguing music playing]
[Connor] I have to do the NCAA interview
because if I don't,
then they're gonna assume everything
that they're currently assuming,
which is completely false,
and one, likely punish Michigan for it,
and then two, punish me.
So, I need to provide
the context that the NCAA needs.
I think that the NCAA would love
to make him a sacrificial lamb.
They'd be very content to say,
"All right, Connor Stalions,
you're done. You're out."
[Connor] To not know am I gonna be able
to stay in coaching at all
after everything I've done
to get into coaching, it's... it's tough.
[music becomes pulsing]
[interviewer] Good morning, everyone.
It is currently 11:17 a.m. eastern time.
I am conducting this interview remotely.
Mr. Beckworth,
you are recording this interview, correct?
[Beckworth] That's correct.
[interviewer] Connor, what coaches
or staff employed at any time
with the Michigan football program were
aware that you obtained and/or had access
to opponent's signals obtained
through in-person advanced scouting?
I did not obtain signals
through in-person scouting.
[interviewer] Connor, did you ever direct
anyone or instruct anyone
to attend a college football game
in which Michigan was not playing?
No, I don't ever recall directing someone
to go to a game.
[interviewer] Have you ever purchased
tickets for someone to attend
a college football game
in which Michigan was not playing?
I've... I've purchased tickets
to many games.
College football, obviously,
Michigan's playing,
so I don't have time
to go to another game,
but I either resell them,
or if a friend asks for a ticket,
then I transfer it to him or her.
[interviewer] Okay.
And would any
of those tickets that you purchased
that you would then transfer
to a friend or a family member,
did any of the individuals
who you purchased the ticket for
attend a game
that Michigan was not competing in
and film or record
the opponent's signal callers?
So, to my understanding,
there are some people who attended games
using tickets that I purchased
and recorded parts of those games.
[interviewer] And who are the individuals
that recorded parts of the games
that were sitting in seats
that you purchased?
I... I don't recall exactly who.
I've purchased tickets to a lot of games.
[interviewer] How do you know they
were recording parts of the game then?
Because sometimes
I would receive film from them.
[tense music playing]
[Connor] I've had a friend send me film.
It's kind of like when your aunt gets you
a Christmas present that you already have.
You're not gonna be rude and be like,
"Oh, I already have this.
I don't need it."
It's just, "Thanks. Appreciate it."
You know, they feel like
they're helping out or whatever
when I already have the signals.
I already have memorized the signals.
I mean, what's...
So, just say thanks, whatever. You know?
[tense music continues]
So why were all these Michigan interns
and his, like, buddy from the Navy,
why... why were they going to games
and videotaping the opposing coaches?
Just for their own personal interest?
It's how they get their rocks off?
Uh... Yeah, I do not find it plausible
that, um, his sign analysis
was based purely on game footage.
[interviewer] Connor, did you attend
the Central Michigan-Michigan State game
on September 1st of '23?
[tense music intensifies]
I don't... I don't recall
attending a specific game there, no.
[interviewer] You don't recall attending
the Central Michigan-Michigan State game
on September 1st of '23?
He answered the question.
He said he didn't recall a specific game.
Also, I need it to be done at 12,
so in closing, let me just say this.
We believe that Connor's personal,
private data was breached
by somebody
who did not have permission to do that.
If that's true,
it's certainly a violation of civil law,
and it's maybe a bigger crime.
If it's true
that came from somebody associated
or tied to The Ohio State University,
and we think it was, that's where,
if I was gonna try to do right,
I might be focused. Okay?
Do you know whether someone took this
without Connor's consent?
[suspenseful music playing]
[interviewer] I... We're not sure
anything more at this time
from our investigation.
I don't think that's information
that we're able to share at this point.
[Beckworth] Okay.
With that, we'll end the interview.
We appreciate it.
I wish you all the best of luck
and happiness in your lives. Thank you.
[tense music playing]
[crickets chirping]
Connor Stalions clearly crossed the line.
But he isn't the only one
that has likely crossed that line.
[music intensifies]
While we were investigating this, we sent
Freedom of Information Act requests
for lots of coaches,
particularly the known sign stealers
on different staffs.
Did they buy tickets at opposing stadiums?
And plenty of them came back.
You can talk to anyone
in college football,
and they will point their fingers
at five other schools
that they think crossed the "line,"
whatever that may be
when it comes to sign stealing.
If the NCAA wanted to look deeply
into this culture,
they would probably find
some interesting things.
[dramatic music playing]
[Portnoy] The other schools and everybody
who was complaining about Connor
wishes they had a Connor.
Every school in the world would die
to have somebody that dedicated
to bringing their school to success.
He's everything
that you want a Michigan man to be.
[Harbaugh] That means so much to me,
to be a Michigan man.
Bo Schembechler would talk about
"the team, the team, the team,"
when I was growing up.
Very proud to be a Michigan man.
[Paul] They love to talk
about the Michigan man, you know.
"The Michigan man.
You gotta be a Michigan man." Um...
[music continues]
Which I just thought was bullshit.
You may think you're perfect, act perfect.
You may present this perfect aura,
but when this happens,
there it is. It's bullshit.
You're not perfect.
[pulsing music playing]
[Connor] Am I a good guy or a bad guy?
I mean,
football is similar to the art of w*r.
[man] That's what football is,
controlled combat.
[Connor] How can you plan and prepare
better than the opponent?
[man] Discipline,
teamwork, responsibility.
It's full
of good, old-fashioned American values.
[Connor] That has nothing to do
with being a good guy or a bad guy.
[man] What we take for granted
at a college football game
is something that's evolved
into a genuine American article.
[Connor] I don't always break the rules.
In fact,
I'd argue I don't break the rules.
I just walk a very fine line in the gray.
I exploit the rules.
I don't break the rules. I exploit them.
I don't regret a thing.
Every single day,
I treated it like this day depends
on Michigan winning
the national championship.
[pulsing music intensifies]
[music crescendos and fades]
And I would do the same thing over again.
[calm music playing]
[Connor] Here you go,
close left, down, right.
Ready, set, hit!
Come on. Plug fit. Plug fit.
Good, good, good. Here we go.
[applauds]
Luckily, I was able
to get a defensive coordinator job
with Mumford High School in Detroit.
Ready, set, hit!
Back, back, back!
So I'm grateful for Detroit
and for Coach Will.
It's been a blessing.
[calm music continues]
[music continues]
[music ends]
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Untold: Sign Stealer (2024)
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