Former Michigan Staffer Connor Stalions Claims He Helped Ohio State Steal Michigan State’s Signals In 2021

Former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions – the alleged ringleader of the Wolverines’ impermissible sign-stealing scandal who resigned from his position last October – claimed he helped Ohio State steal signals prior to the Buckeyes’ game against Michigan State in 2021.

On a Tuesday appearance on the Barstool Sports podcast “Bussin’ With The Boys,” hosted by former NFL players Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, Stalions said that following a Michigan loss to Michigan State earlier in the 2021 campaign, he put the Spartans signals into a package and gave them to a friend where they ultimately ended up in the hands of someone within the Ohio State football program.

That season, Michigan needed Ohio State to defeat Michigan State in its Week 11 game to avoid a potential three-way tie between the Wolverines, Spartans and Buckeyes for first place in the Big Ten.

“In 2021 we lose to Michigan State, (former Spartans running back) Kenneth Walker had a great game, and we needed some help,” Stalions said. “So I gave Michigan State’s signals to a buddy of mine. I changed all of the logos, I made it look like it came from a different school. I don’t want to give Ohio State something from Michigan, right? They might not use it, who knows.

“But we needed Ohio State to win, and I know they steal the crap out of defensive signals, so (I said), ‘Here you go.’ So I gave it to a buddy, who may have given it to a buddy, who then gave it to Ohio State and said ‘I got this from so and so at Name Your School University.’ I’m sure they probably already had them, but it just confirmed everything. And then they won like 60-0.”

Ohio State would go on to trounce the Spartans 56-7, not 60-0 as Stalions said, taking a 49-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Buckeyes would then go on to play Michigan in a winner-takes-all quasi–Big Ten East division championship game the next week, where Stalions used his sign-stealing expertise against Ohio State enroute to a 42-27 victory over the Buckeyes in 2021.

Stalions added insult to injury with his words on the Oct. 8 podcast episode, responding to former Ohio State and current Houston Texans tight end Cade Stover’s comments on how Stalions and Michigan knew what play Ohio State was running in the 2022 iteration of The Game while in a formation they hadn’t used all season long.

“We tried to throw a tight end screen in a formation we’d never used before, like ever,” Stover told CBS Sports on Sept. 6. “As soon as I lined up outside, we had one play where I was going to motion back in, and (former Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud) was going to throw a screen to me. When they start yelling ‘screen’ when you’re throwing a tight end screen, that’s when you know. It’s like, ‘What the f— is this? We’ve never run this before.’ “

Stalions retorted: “Here’s the thing: Ohio State had like eight signalers all year, something like that. Everyone signals the formation. Mistake No. 1. Mistake No. 2: They never changed who their live signaler was the entire season.”

“Slot Y-Y, they motioned into Slot Y-Y,” Stalions said. “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, ‘Oh, I don’t know what this is.’ I said, ‘This has got to be a Y-delay screen.’ ”