Connor Stalions fires back at Jack Sawyer, claims of sign-stealing against Ohio State

Former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions fired back at Jack Sawyer for the claims of sign stealing against Ohio State back in 2022. The former Ohio State pass rusher, who’s now a rookie with the Pittsburgh Steelers, cited that game as the strangest compared to the last two games where Michigan straight up beat Ohio State.

When joining Not Just Football, Sawyer said they felt something was up with the sign stealing accusations when Michigan snuffed out an Ohio State tight end screen. Here’s his explanation.

“I’ll say this. I think they beat us straight up last year, obviously, and the year before,” Sawyer said. “But my sophomore year, we left the field where this feels weird. We lost, I mean, by double digits, and it felt like we beat the shit out of them the whole game. We ran a screen pass that we had never put in, not the formation, not the look, anything.

“And like you see him on the sideline, they’re doing it. And we changed it, we audible or whatever and when we run it, (the whole) D line, as soon as the ball is snapped, the linebackers and everybody, they sniffed it out. We ran a tight end screen from the 25 yard line going in, and they snuff it out.”

That’s where Stalions jumped in on Twitter/X. He made a few points about how the former Ohio State star’s point didn’t quite make sense in his eyes.

“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 on Twitter/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.”

Funny enough, Sawyer thought Ohio State truly controlled that game, a 45-23 loss. Stalions called out Sawyer’s points as Michigan dominated their way to a second straight victory, at the time.

The Wolverines are in the midst of a four-game winning streak in the rivalry and look for a fifth in November, as Stalions alluded to. Despite a 20-17 halftime lead in that 2022 game, Michigan outscored Ohio State 28-3 the rest of the way.

Ohio State will travel to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan on November 29th to end the 2025 regular season. Other than the rivalry itself, the game could have College Football Playoff implications.