Former Michigan football staffer Connor Stalions has responded to ex-Ohio State star Jack Sawyer’s assertion that the Wolverines knew the Buckeyes’ plays during a 45-23 victory in 2022. Sawyer said it felt like his team dominated the game but wound up losing by multiple touchdowns, the second of four consecutive losses in his career to Ohio State’s arch rival.
“You know, we ran a screen pass that we had never put in — not the formation, not the look, anything,” Sawyer said during a recent podcast appearance on “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward.” “And you see them on the sideline, they’re doing [the signals], and we change it, we audible to it or whatever, and when we run it, all the D-linemen as soon as the ball is snapped, the linebackers, everybody, they sniffed it out.”
Sawyer, now a rookie for the Pittsburgh Steelers, helped Ohio State clinch a spot in last season’s College Football Playoff National Championship with his scoop-n-score in the final moments of the Buckeyes’ win over Texas in the semifinals.
Stalions refuted Sawyer’s claims on social media and said Ohio State’s signals were easy to decipher.
“1. Jack is saying Ohio St never ran a Slot YY formation all year (pull up any of their games on YouTube and you’ll see them run that look),” Stalions wrote this week on ‘X’. “2. Their signal for this play was: The letter “Y” (TE in 99% of offenses), The Delay of Game sign. So “Y Delay. … Wonder what this will be. 3. Jack is admitting they never ran it before. 4. Your head coach already admitted that you changed your signs for us. I’ll stop here. I’m at 4 bullet points. Maybe add a 5th in November.”
Ohio State suffered two turnovers in the 2022 matchup and were outscored 21-3 in a decisive fourth quarter that featured touchdown runs of 85 and 75 yards from Wolverines running back Donovan Edwards. Michigan lost to TCU in the CFP semifinals that season before winning the national championship the following campaign.
Stalions previously admitted to knowing “almost every single call” of four games in 2022, including Michigan’s win over Ohio State.
“There were 7 games in my time at Michigan where I knew almost every signal the whole game: 2021 MSU, 2022 MSU, 2022 PSU, 2022 OSU, 2022 TCU, 2021 Georgia and 2021 Wisconsin,” Stalions wrote earlier this month on ‘X’. “We lost 3 of those games because we didn’t tackle well, and Georgia was historically good. We won the four other games because we dominated the line of scrimmage & tackled well.”
Stalions, who resigned from his position as a team analyst in Ann Arbor the following season in 2023 amid the NCAA’s investigation, worked at Detroit area high school Mumford last season as a volunteer assistant coach.
CMU hit with NCAA notice in Stalions case
Michigan isn’t the only school facing potential penalties from the NCAA thanks to a situation involving Stalions and alleged improper advanced scouting. Central Michigan received a notice of allegations from the NCAA stemming from a nearly two-year-old incident in which a man believed to be Stalions appeared on the Chippewas’ sideline.
The moment in question occurred during Central Michigan’s 2023 season opener at Michigan State, when a man resembling Stalions, wearing Chippewas coaching gear and sunglasses with what appeared to be a recording device, was seen among Central Michigan staffers. The NCAA began investigating the matter in late October 2023, shortly after the photos surfaced online and drew national attention.
Former Central Michigan coach Jim McElwain, claimed at the time that he had no knowledge of the identity of the man on the Chippewas’ sideline. McElwain retired following the 2024 season.
“We … were totally unaware of it,” McElwain said. “I certainly don’t condone it in any way, shape, or form, and I do know that his name was on none of the [sideline] passes that were let out.”
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