College football’s man of mystery is telling his side of the story.
Former University of Michigan staffer Connor Stalions, the figure at the center of a sign-stealing controversy that changed the sport and consumed college football fans last season, is the subject of Netflix’s new “Untold: Sign Stealer” documentary.
The fallout from the controversy involving the reigning national champion Michigan football team, which went undefeated last season, continues to reverberate into this fall.
Here’s what to know about Stalions, the accusations against him, and the repercussions of the investigation.
Who is Connor Stalions?
The Michigan native grew up in a family of diehard Michigan football fans and played football in high school.
He’s shown in the documentary dressing up as a Michigan coach for Halloween as a 7-year-old and speaking about his lifelong desire to one day be a coach of the school’s football team.
Stalions went to the U.S. Naval Academy and became a Marine after learning that many legendary coaches in sports like football and basketball were military veterans.
He began his coaching career as a student at Navy, where he realized he had a knack for stealing opposing teams’ signals from the sidelines.
That began a trajectory that ended with him landing his dream position as an analyst on the football staff at Michigan due to his acumen with stealing signs. In 2022, he was given a game ball by now-former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh after a Big Ten victory over Iowa.
What is sign stealing in college football?
Up until this season, college football teams employed multiple coaches or players relaying hand signals to the players on the field to give them the plays on offense and defense.
Teams often used up to eight people giving fake signals while others are sending the real ones on to the field in order to confuse opponents. Stalions said he could figure out who was giving the real signals almost immediately.
“If you run a play twice, I’m going to know it by the second time,” Stalions says in the documentary.
Stalions estimates that “80 to 90%” of teams had a coach whose job it is to try to figure out the other team’s hand signals.
NCAA rules allow for teams to try to decipher opposing signals from the opposite sideline or from watching television footage of a team’s hand signals. However, sending someone in person to a game to take video of the hand signs of a future opponent is against NCAA regulations.
Teams now use radio communication to relay the plays in what’s informally referred to as the “Stalions Rule.” Coaches speak into a headset that relays the plays to an audio setup inside the quarterback’s helmet, like the NFL uses.
What is the controversy surrounding Connor Stalions?
Stalions went from a little-known, low-level staffer on Michigan to a household name among college football fans in the course of only days after media reports surfaced about the alleged sign-stealing scandal in October 2023.
Stalions has been accused of orchestrating a scheme in which multiple people were given tickets to games of future Michigan opponents and asked to film teams’ hand signals so that they could be deciphered, which is against NCAA rules.
Opponents have accused Stalions of then standing on the Michigan sidelines and advising coaches on what plays may be coming based off the stolen signs obtained from the illegal in-person scouting.
Stalions denies those claims in the documentary, saying he got hand signals through watching teams’ games on television and speaking to an underground network of coaches from other teams who also work to decipher signs.
He said he made money buying and selling tickets to college football games over the years, but never instructed anyone to film games for Michigan. A friend of his from the military also denied ever being asked to film opponents at games for Stalions.
“What set me apart was the way that I organized that information and processed it on game day,” Stalions says.
His parents, a military friend, a Detroit News reporter and Barstool Sports owner (and Michigan fan) Dave Portnoy are all interviewed, painting a mainly sympathetic portrait of Stalions.
The accusations against Stalions were made public in multiple reports in October 2023 as Michigan was in the midst of an unbeaten season.
An unnamed Division III college football coach told ESPN at the time that he was paid by Stalions to attend games and videotape hand signals.
Stalions says his phone, laptop and computer were seized, and the university’s athletic director initially suspended him with pay during an investigation. Stalions later resigned.
“Ever since I could remember, Michigan has been a huge part of my life,” he says on the show. “And for that to be stripped away overnight was pretty devastating.”
Footage of Stalions being questioned by NCAA investigators with his attorneys on either side is shown in “Untold.”
“I don’t recall ever directing someone to go to a game,” Stalions said when asked about the scheme.
“To my understanding, there are some people who attended games, using tickets that I purchased, and recorded parts of those games,” he later answers.
Stalions admits in the documentary that he was sent films of hand signals but it didn’t affect Michigan’s game plan.
“I’ve had a friend send me film,” he says. “It’s kind of like when your aunt gets you a Christmas present that you already have. You’re not going to be rude and be like, ‘Oh, I already have this, I don’t need it.’”
Washington Post reporter Will Hobson calls Stalions’ claims of innocence into question in the documentary.
“So why are all these Michigan interns and his buddy from the Navy, why are they going to games and videotaping the opposing coaches?” Hobson says. “Just for their own personal interest? I do not find it plausible that his sign analysis was based purely on game footage.”
Did Connor Stalions dress up as a coach of another team to steal hand signals?
One of the most notorious accusations is that Stalions dressed in Central Michigan team gear and posed as a coach on the sidelines of a September 2023 game against Michigan State so that he could film or decipher Michigan State’s hand signals.
Photos from the game show a mysterious figure in sunglasses who looks like Stalions standing on the sideline in a Central Michigan polo shirt. Stalions denies it was him in “Untold.” No one else has been identified as the mystery person.
“I mean I don’t even think this guy looks like me,” Stalions says while holding up a photo of the unnamed figure.
Portnoy, meanwhile, said it was Stalions on the Central Michigan sideline.
“Well, I know the answer to that because he told me. Yeah that was Connor on the sidelines,” he says on the show.
Stalions is also asked about the alleged incident in the interview with NCAA investigators.
“I don’t recall attending a specific game,” he says.
What was the fallout from the accusations against Stalions?
The NCAA issued notice of allegations seeking a three-year coaching ban for Stalions, according to the documentary.
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended by the Big Ten Conference for the final three games of the regular season last year. The conference said in a statement that Michigan was “conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition,” according to ESPN.
Harbaugh has since left Michigan and is now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers in the NFL.
On Aug. 25, the NCAA delivered a Notice of Allegations accusing seven Michigan staffers from the 2023 team of violating NCAA rules in connection with the sign-stealing controversy, according to the Detroit Free Press.
New Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore could face a suspension and an additional penalty after allegedly deleting 52 text messages with Stalions on the day news broke that Stalions allegedly led a sign-stealing operation, per the Detroit Free Press.
“Untold” also shows how opponents and fans flooded social media with comments that Michigan’s wins were tainted, saying their national championship season should have an asterisk next it.
There also was a lighthearted side to the allegations. Stalions popped up in memes showing him as “The Usual Suspects” shadowy figure Keyser Soze and hiding in the background at historical events like the Last Supper and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The alleged scandal also changed the sport. This season, college teams are using radio technology inside the helmets for the first time, eliminating the need for hand signals from the sidelines.
Where is Connor Stalions now?
Stalions is now coaching in high school.
He has been hired as the defensive coordinator on the staff at Detroit’s Mumford High School.
“He might be the most hated man in college football, but the coaches and kids at Mumford High School love him,” the school’s head coach told ESPN.
Stallions is set to coach his first game on Aug. 29.