Connor Stalions stepped into Michigan’s mess on Monday, and plenty of people are going to say he should have stayed quiet.
The former Wolverines analyst, who was a central figure in the sign-stealing scandal, used X to weigh in on why Michigan is sitting at 3-2 and looking for answers during its bye week. His point was blunt: the trouble starts with the coaches.
“There’s coaching malpractice on a weekly basis, and it’s in every area. Clock management, lack of situational awareness, and making things extremely easy for the opposing play callers,” Stalions said in his post.
He followed that up by noting that Michigan fans are frustrated for a reason, pointing to the offense, the quarterback play and the run game before arguing that the bigger issue is buried underneath all of that.
“Michigan’s 3-2. Fans are rightfully emotional.
The offense isn’t moving the ball. QB play needs to be better.
The run game needs to be better. All of these things can be true.
But at some point, you have to stop blaming the symptoms and identify the root cause.
This is college…”
That’s the part that will get the most attention, because Stalions isn’t just any outsider tossing opinions around. He was tied to one of the ugliest episodes in Michigan football’s recent history, which makes his criticism land differently no matter how accurate some of it might be.
And to be fair, not everything he said is off base. Michigan does have issues that look tied to coaching and play-calling.
The offense has been sloppy. The quarterback play hasn’t taken a step forward.
The run game has been stuck. The passing attack seems to run through just two players.
There’s clearly a disconnect somewhere between what the staff wants and what the team is producing.
The current staff also has big shoes to fill. The 2021 to 2023 run in Ann Arbor was the standard, capped by a national championship in 2023.
But that group didn’t stay intact for long. Jim Harbaugh took a lot of it with him to Los Angeles after landing the Chargers job, and coordinators like Jesse Minter and Mike MacDonald moved on quickly as well.
Still, Stalions is the wrong messenger for this conversation. Even if he was following orders, he was part of the scandal that put Michigan under a microscope in the first place.
He could have said no. He didn’t.
So while his criticism may hit on some real football problems, he’s not exactly in a position to lecture anyone in Ann Arbor about how things should be handled.
There’s work to do, and the coaching staff knows it. Stalions doesn’t need to be the one explaining it.
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