Stalions falls in debut as interim H.S. head coach

McAfee: Sign stealing can be a ‘weapon’ for coaches (2:33)

Pat McAfee and Darius Butler weigh in on the Connor Stalions drama and how teams use sign stealing to their advantage. (2:33)

Jake Trotter, ESPN Senior WriterSep 6, 2024, 06:06 PM ET

Jake Trotter covers college football for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2011. Before that, he worked at The Oklahoman, Austin American-Statesman and Middletown (Ohio) Journal newspapers. You can follow him @Jake_Trotter.Connor Stalions, the analyst who was allegedly the mastermind behind Michigan’s sign-stealing operation, is now an interim high school head coach.

Stalions has stepped in for Mumford head coach William McMichael, who recently suffered a “mild stroke,” Jay Alexander, executive director of athletics at Detroit Public Schools Community District, confirmed to ESPN.

Stalions coached his first game Friday night, with Mumford losing to Flint Hamady 60-0 to fall to 0-2 on the season.

“I came to Mumford because I wanted to help flip the culture,” Stalions told The Detroit News after the game. “They are not used to winning and I wanted to help show these guys the actual process of what it’s going to take to win, because they eventually will win, and for me that’s more gratifying than going to a program that’s already winning.

“I’d rather have 15 guys who love the process of football than 30 guys where they’re kind of halfway in and halfway out, because they’re driving back the 15 guys who are in.”

McMichael, in his first season at Mumford, had hired Stalions to be his defensive coordinator at the Detroit school.

“He might be the most hated man in college football, but the coaches and kids at Mumford High School love him,” McMichael told ESPN last month.

In 2022, Michigan hired Stalions, a lifelong Wolverines fan and retired captain in the United States Marine Corps, as an analyst. Stalions is the alleged ringleader of a vast sign-stealing operation in which he’s accused of sending people to scout the Wolverines’ future opponents, including recording play signals from teams’ sidelines. The NCAA last month sent Michigan a notice of allegations regarding prohibited off-campus signal stealing.

Stalions told NCAA investigators that he never participated in advanced in-person scouting and didn’t purchase tickets for others to attend games of the Wolverines’ future opponents to record their signals. Stalions made the claims in April during a video interview with NCAA investigators, segments of which were included in the new Netflix documentary “Sign Stealer,” released last month.

Stalions was suspended with pay Oct. 20, pending the outcome of Michigan’s internal investigation, and resigned Nov. 3.

The Big Ten Conference suspended coach Jim Harbaugh from coaching his team’s final three games of the 2023 regular season because it said his program violated the league’s sportsmanship policy. The Wolverines still went on to win the national championship.