Connor Stalions wants to coach at Michigan football again: 'I get a lot of support'

Connor Stalions wants to coach at Michigan football again: ‘I get a lot of support’

Posted by Admin September 11, 2024 Football

Connor Stalions is still a hardcore Michigan football fan.

That’s after resigning from his off-field analyst job at Michigan in November, two weeks after media reports identified Stalions as the alleged ringleader in Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal.

But Stalions says he wants to coach at Michigan again and feels he has support to one day return.

“I hope,” Stalions said this week, after CBS Sports asked if he would coach in college again. “I get a lot of support from various people about eventually bringing me back (to Michigan).”

That would, of course, have to wait until the NCAA reveals its verdict on the sign-stealing investigation. It delivered Michigan a Notice of Allegations in late August, and a final judgment likely will not come until 2025.

Stalions, former head coach Jim Harbaugh, former recruiting staffer (and ex-quarterback) Denard Robinson, and former linebackers coach Chris Partridge are accused of Level I NCAA violations. A show-cause penalty banning Stalions from NCAA athletics for a few years is a strong possibility.

Stalions is now the acting football head coach at Detroit Mumford High School, filling in for first-year coach William McMichael, who suffered a “mild stroke” after the Mustangs’ 47-6 loss to Redford Thurston in Week 1. McMichael took a leap of faith by having Stalions join his staff as a volunteer defensive coordinator.

Stalions’ leading-man debut Friday didn’t go well, a 60-0 beatdown to Flint Hamady. Mumford is in a rebuild, and went 1-8 the previous two seasons.

The next day, Stalions was asked to pose for pictures around Michigan Stadium during the Wolverines’ ugly 31-12 blowout loss to Texas, and even appeared on the Barstool College Football Show pregame live in Ann Arbor to an ovation from fans, who chanted “Connor, Connor, Connor.” He delivered a pregame hype speech on the show, in which he implored head coach Sherrone Moore to “run the damn ball.”

Funny enough, Moore on Monday said the team has to “run the ball more efficiently” after an anemic offensive output.

“Look at Michigan; you could easily blame this on Sherrone,” Stalions the Michigan fan told CBS Sports after U-M’s loss. “Well, let’s be real. Losing J.J. McCarthy, Blake Corum and 11 other draft picks to the NFL makes a difference.

“My opinion of it from a fan perspective is the way that this team responds in the next couple of weeks will show that the culture remains. They’re just caught in transition right now.”

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Stalions, who was on the sideline for Michigan’s first seven games last season, was not on the field as the Wolverines finished their season 15-0 and romped to the national championship.

Would Stalions’ former boss, Harbaugh, take his phone call now?

“I don’t know,” Stalions told CBS Sports.

Marlowe Alter is a Sports Assistant Editor at the Detroit Free Press. Email him at: malter@freepress.com.