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Connor Stalions denies conspiracies about helping South Carolina beat Tennessee in 2022

IMG_3593by: Grant Ramey09/04/25GrantRamey
Former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions. Adam Cairns / USA TODAY NETWORK
Adam Cairns | USA TODAY NETWORK

Connor Stalions says he didn’t do anything to derail what could have been a College Football Playoff appearance for Tennessee during the 2022 season. Instead, he said on the Bunch Formation podcast, he would’ve preferred to face the Vols in the postseason.

Stalions, during the appearance on The Athletic’s podcast with Chris Vannini and David Ubben, was asked about the conspiracy and speculation that he gave South Carolina information on Tennessee before the Gamecocks beat the Vols 63-38 in November 2022 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. 

“One of the dozens of conspiracies that are out there,” Stalions said with a laugh. 

Up Next: No. 22 Tennessee vs. ETSU, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET

The loss, which included Hendon Hooker being lost for the season after tearing his ACL in the second half, derailed what was a one-loss Tennessee team from any hopes of reaching the College Football Playoff, which then was four teams. 

“I have never had a discussion with any SEC team,” Stalions said, before correcting himself. “I’ve had one discussion in my life with an SEC team regarding signals, and that was back in, I believe, 2019 when we played Alabama in the Citrus Bowl.”

That discussion, he said, was about trading information with another SEC team before one of the multiple Big Ten-SEC bowl games at the time.  

“I forget what SEC team it was,” he said, “but they were playing — most SEC-Big Ten bowl games, there are usually four of them every bowl season — I don’t know who it was. Someone was probably playing a Wisconsin or a Penn State and I said, ‘Well hey, I have their stuff if you have their stuff’ and made a little trade.”

Stalions was at the center of the sign-stealing drama that consumed Michigan’s national championship season in 2023. 

Last month the NCAA hit Michigan with millions of dollars in fines, suspended Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore two games this season and handed Stalions an eight-year show-cause penalty, along with other penalties. 

But Stalions during the interview with the Bunch Formation washed his hands of anything to do with Tennessee’s lopsided loss at South Carolina.

“I have not talked, have never met, anyone at South Carolina,” Stalions said. “I will also say this about Tennessee, too, I’d just ask Joe Milton and Hendon Hooker. They know the truth. I’m tight with both of them. There was no trying to screw over Tennessee.”

Michigan lost to TCU in 2022 College Football Playoff semifinals

South Carolina led 21-7 after an explosive first quarter and was up 35-24 at halftime. The Vols cut the deficit to 35-31 after a touchdown drive to start the second half, but South Carolina answered with three straight touchdowns to go up 56-31 early in the fourth quarter. 

Michigan went a perfect 12-0 in the 2022 regular season and won a Big Ten championship before losing 51-45 to TCU in the Fiesta Bowl in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

That’s where made Stalions made his other point. If he had Tennessee’s signals, he’d want to see the Vols in the playoff and put that intel to use himself.

“Let’s just say I had everything on a team,” Stalions said. “Why would I not want to play them in the playoffs? … If I had everything on Tennessee … if I had a team’s signals and felt so confident of this competitive advantage that is going to cause whatever the margin was in that South Carolina game, why would I want another team to do it rather than us?”

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