Horses ‘did not receive cues through individual scouting’

East Michigan Football staff member Connor Stallions told NCAA investigators he never participated in advanced personal scouting and never purchased tickets for others to attend games of the Wolverines’ future opponents to record their signals.

The Stallions made the claims during a video interview with NCAA investigators in April, excerpts of which were included in Netflix’s new documentary “Sign Stealer,” released Tuesday.

Stallions, a lifelong Michigan fan and retired captain in the United States Marine Corps who is hired as an analyst in 2022, is the alleged ringleader of a massive sign-stealing operation in which he is accused of sending people to spy on the Wolverines’ future opponents, including recording game signals from the teams’ sidelines. The NCAA sent Michigan a notice of charges of prohibited off-campus sign stealing last week. According to the documentary, Stallions could face a three-year ban from coaching, which he intends to challenge.

When the Stallions were asked by an NCAA investigator if any Michigan coach or staff member was aware of the alleged scheme to obtain opponents’ signals through personal advanced scouting, which is prohibited by the NCAA, he responded, “I did not obtain signals through personal scouting.”

An NCAA investigator asked Stallions if he ever directed anyone to attend a game that Michigan was not participating in. “No, I don’t recall ever directing anyone to attend a game,” he responded.

Records provided to ESPN by several Big Ten schools – and some from outside the conference – showed that Stallions purchased tickets to numerous games involving future opponents. Stallions told NCAA investigators that he often purchased tickets to multiple games and either resold the tickets or transferred them to friends. Michigan suspended Stallions with pay on October 20, pending the outcome of its internal investigation. He resigned on November 3.

In the documentary, Stallions told the NCAA that “there were some people who attended games using tickets that I purchased and recorded portions of those games.” Stallions told investigators that he did not remember who recorded the games, but that he had received films from some of them. Stallions’ friend and fellow Marine Zachary Couzens said in the documentary that he used Stallions’ tickets for several games, but that there is “no evidence” of him taking videos or photographs.

“Some of my friends send me films,” Stallions says. “It’s like when your aunt gives you a Christmas gift that you already have. You’re not going to be rude and say, ‘Oh, I already have that. I don’t need that.’ It’s more like, ‘Oh, thank you, appreciate it.’ They think they’re helping whereas I already have the cues, I’ve already memorized the cues.”

An NCAA investigator asked the Stallions if he was the same person as Central Michiganin the bench area, wearing team-issued gear and sunglasses for the inaugural 2023 season michigan statewhich occurred the night before Michigan’s first game in Ann Arbor. The Stallions responded that they did not recall attending any specific game, though Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said in the documentary that the Stallions acknowledged being on the Central Michigan sideline. Central Michigan has told ESPN that it continues to cooperate with the ongoing NCAA investigation.

The Stallions’ attorney, Brad Beckworth of Austin, Texas, intervened during the NCAA interview, claiming that the Stallions’ personal information had been illegally violated, leading to the NCAA investigation of Michigan.

“If it’s true, it’s certainly a violation of civil law and it’s probably a felony,” Beckworth told NCAA investigators. “And if it’s true it came from somebody who is involved with or connected to the Ohio State The university – and we think it was – that’s where I could have focused if I tried to do right.” When an NCAA investigator refused to explain how the information about the Stallions was obtained, Beckworth ended the interview.

In the documentary, Stallions says he realized Michigan was at the bottom of the “intelligence operations totem pole” shortly after joining the staff on a volunteer basis in 2018. Late in the 2018 season, Stallions got a call from someone at another school who introduced him to an “underground community of college football analysts” who exchange schemes and elements of game plans to figure out certain signals.

“If you don’t have someone focused on that, you don’t even realize you’re at the bottom,” Stallions says. “Based on my experience, 80 to 90 percent of teams have an intel operations staff member.”

Stallions said he was able to decipher opponents’ signals by watching tape, getting input from other staff members involved in the network and memorizing thousands of signals.

“One, I never did advance scouting,” he said in the documentary. “Two, if it was about signals, I got the same signals as every other team, by watching TV copies and talking to other intel guys from other teams. What set me apart was the way I organized that information and processed it on game day.”

Stallions is now working as a volunteer defensive coordinator at Mumford High School in Detroit.

Former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, now the coach at the University of Michigan, Los Angeles Chargers In the NFL, NFL running backs have denied knowledge of the sign-stealing scheme.

New Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore is one of seven members of the 2023 football program accused of violating NCAA rules in a draft NCAA notice of allegations, ESPN reported Aug. 4.

The NCAA’s notice of allegations said Moore could face a show-cause penalty and possibly a suspension for allegedly deleting a thread of 52 text messages with the Stallions in October 2023, the same day media reports revealed the Stallions were leading an effort to intercept playcalling signs of future opponents.

The draft states the texts were later recovered through “device imaging” and Moore “subsequently presented them to enforcement staff.” Moore, who is charged with a Level II violation, said earlier this month that he is waiting for the texts to be released.

Harbaugh, former assistant coach Chris Partridge, former staff member Denard Robinson and the Stallions are also accused of Level I violations, the most severe category in the NCAA’s enforcement process. According to the draft, Michigan is also accused of Level I violations because of a “pattern of noncompliance within the football program” and institutional efforts to obstruct or thwart the NCAA’s investigation. Former assistant coaches Jesse Minter and Steve Clinkscale are also accused of recruiting violations unrelated to the Stallions in the draft.

The Big Ten Conference suspended Harbaugh from coaching his team’s final three games of the 2023 regular season after saying his program violated the league’s sportsmanship policy.