Say what you will about the Michgain “cheating” situation – it’s an elite college football storyline that’s generating some top shelf drama – but this is so lame as a head coach. It’s passive aggressive and if you’re so displeased with him or his program to the point where you think he’s a cheater, at least have the stones to say it to his face. You know you’re gonna be on camera, so if you blow through the handshake it’s gonna be talked about regardless. Might as well stop him and say what you have to say and move on instead of being a weirdo coward. You basically have one chance to bust the guy’s ass for what you think is cheating and shitting on the integrity of the game, so go ahead and say it.
Ryan Walters with the fly by handshake of Harbaugh. pic.twitter.com/A0CA6DbxWz
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) November 5, 2023
Listen, I get it. I know everyone’s mad about Michigan and Connor Stalions. People LOATHE Michigan so any chance to shit on them, folks will jump at the opportunity. If Michigan runs the table and beats Penn State/Ohio State in this next three week stretch, there will be some that still put an asterisk by their undefeated record.
Ryan Day appears to be one of them, and doesn’t intend to let that happen. He may or may not have tattle tailed on Michigan. He was asked to his face if he or someone close to him turned Michigan in and he didn’t deny it, which all but confirms that he did.
Day said “no comments right now.”
Would have been real easy to say NO. Weird.
🎥: @BuckeyeHuddle pic.twitter.com/HiVhAPzMJ3
— Trevor Woods (@WoodsFootball) November 6, 2023
If Michigan wasn’t extremely good this year it wouldn’t even be a story. There are some (unconfirmed) reports out there saying that Illinois used stolen signs against Michigan last year, but nobody cares because it’s Illinois and they stink. The fact that Michigan is a blue-blood program and a playoff contender leaves the door open for “well, they cheated to get there” and saying that Connor Stalions as the only reason they’re having this level of success. Do I think Michigan is the only one employing this advanced form of scouting their opponents? No. Are they doing it better than everyone else? Probably.
Connor Stalions, a relative nobody staffer prior to this, was an obsessive freak over Michigan football. It’s awesome on both sides if you stop to think about it. If you’re the head coach at a big time school it’s awesome because you’ve got a guy that’s obsessed with your program succeeding and willing to do the dirty work for you. On the flip side, he’s content to fly around the country, record and break down opposing gameplans, go undercover to sneak onto other teams’ sidelines, and even write a 600-page manifesto on Michigan football. The manifesto is a bit much and 600 pages is psychotic, but it’s pretty impressive levels of dedication, football knowledge, and interpretation to be able to decipher all this.
Whatever intel he gathered was passed along to Michigan’s coordinators and they more or less knew what was coming on the field, an insane advantage. This is a step beyond just analyzing game film – especially if info was being fed to other programs (South Carolina suddenly becoming an all-world team against Tennessee last year jumps off the page). If information was being sold out to other teams in some grandiose scheme to sabotage potential playoff contenders, then we have an issue. Should the evidence show that this was contained within Michigan’s program, it feels mildly scummy but more of an internal “learn their tendencies” thing. After all is said and done, isn’t the same information available to all teams to do the same? On the surface level, Michigan just took film study to the next level and their haters are mad.