Michigan is the leader and the best in cheating on the football field. Last season, the Wolverines were caught in an epic sign-stealing scandal. One of their staffers, Connor Stalions, sent people out to record opposing teams’ signs, which is highly illegal.
Stalions stepped down from his role with the team after the sign-stealing scandal was made public, and the Big Ten suspended former head coach Jim Harbaugh for the last three regular season games.
Many rival teams spoke out against Michigan cheating and even brought up plays where they knew the Wolverines had their signals. One of them was Ohio State’s former tight end, Cade Stover, who is now a member of the Houston Texans.
Right before Stover made his NFL debut over a month ago, reporters asked him if he had ended up watching the Netflix show on Stalions. Of course, Stover said no, but he did bring up an instance where Michigan knew a play was coming that Ohio State had never run before in a game, and according to Eleven Warriors.com, Stover stated.
We tried to throw a tight end screen in a formation we’ve never used before — like ever — and as soon as I lined up out wide, we had one play from it. I was going to motion back in, and they were going to throw a screen to me. And when they started yelling ‘Screen!’ when you’re throwing a tight end screen, that’s when you know like, ‘What the f— is this? We haven’t run this before,”
Cade Stover on his rookie debut. What he brings to the table and his style. And why he didn’t need to watch the Michigan sign stealing Doc, he lived it. Young man is ready to play. #HTownMade pic.twitter.com/TQ60aIXJc3
— Landry Locker (@LandryLocker) September 5, 2024
Connor Stalions Goes After Ohio State’s Cade Stover
Stalions was on the podcast Bussin’ With The Boys with former NFL players Will Compton and Taylor Lewan. Lewan is a former Michigan football player, so everything he says will be biased towards his former school. Still, they brought up the clip of Stover, and Stalions had a lot to say about his biggest rivals’ offense.
Chase Brown from the Eleven Warriors stated the full conversation between Stalions and the Bussin’ With The Boys and here were his comments.
“So I guess their Connor Stalions wasn’t that good then,” Lewan interrupted.
“Apparently not as good,” Stalions responded.
The producers for Bussin With The Boys then pulled up the clip of Ohio State’s failed tight end screen. Stalions’ memories of the moment flooded back to him.
“Slot Y-Y, they motioned into Slot Y-Y,” Stalions said while watching. “They signaled their signal for Slot Y-Y formation, and then the guy who was live the entire season signaled Y then delay. Am I supposed to see that and be like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what this is.’ I said, ‘This has got to be a Y-delay screen.”
It seems like Stalions was able to read Ohio State’s signals in a few different ways, with one being illegally knowing their signs. Also, it didn’t sound like the Buckeyes did a good job of changing up who signaled in plays all season.
Michigan has not been penalized by the NCAA for the cheating scandal. However, it is coming soon, so we will know who was right in all of this, and the conversations about whether Michigan really cheated or not will end.