Connor Stalions Tells Dan Dakich That He Did Netflix Doc To Get ‘Un-Blacklisted’ From Football

On the latest edition of Don't @ Me with Dan Dakich, Dan was joined by Connor Stalions.

…Yes, that Connor Stalions. The one who played a key role in the Michigan Wolverines' sign-stealing scandal.

The former Michigan staffer opened up to Dakich about the scandal and also provided some interesting insights into why he agreed to do the 2024 Netflix documentary, Sign Stealer, about the scandal.

First, let's jump back to 2023 when this scandal first broke. You may recall that the story was all over the news, and it turns out that is where Stalions was getting a lot of his information on what was happening because Michigan and the NCAA didn't talk to him through the early days of the scandal.

"The last day that I was in Schembechler Hall, some of the athletic department members came down and took my work phone and everything; work computer," Stalions explained. "And I remember saying, like, 'Hey, (what) do you need? What questions do you have? Like, I can explain everything."

Stalions revealed that, like the rest of us, he was hearing about things in the press.

"I was getting more of my information from the media, too, right?" he said. "So it was like, I go on, you know, I go online and see, ‘Oh, the NCAA knows and can prove X, Y, and Z.’ 

"I'm thinking, 'Well, no one's talked to me.'"

Of course, we all know that the scandal led to Stalions getting the axe at Michigan, and he has since coached high school football. He told Dakich that originally, he didn't want to take part in the documentary. However, he was convinced by others that it could help "un-blacklist" him.

"And then a few people, a few different people — agents, coaches —told me, ‘Well, I think you might be blacklisted right now, and you have to do (the documentary) to un-blacklist yourself,’" he recalled. "That's kind of the perspective that changed my approach. So okay, fine, I guess, I guess it does make sense to do this, so that's why I did the documentary."

And finally, Stalions talked about the 2023 National Championship Game (which capped off the 2022 season) between the Wolverines and TCU. Horned Frogs coach Sonny Dykes had talked about going into that game assuming Michigan knew everything.

Stalions talked about how he noticed TCU changing its signs, but only part of the system.

"I'm watching what they change. They change a lot of their signals from the coach to the quarterback," he said. "So the way that those air raid offenses do it in communications, whether it's USC, TCU, [or] Clemson, is the coach signals to the quarterback, and then the quarterback signals to everyone else. So they changed a lot of the signals from the coach to the quarterback, which I figured that's pretty doable, because you just got to get one guy on board with that. But they didn't change anything from the quarterback to the receivers.

"So, I mean, it just delayed it two seconds."

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Be sure to check out Dan Dakich's interview with Connor Stalions in its entirety on the Don't @ Me with Dan Dakich YouTube channel.