Clemson Football and the Mystery of the Stolen Signs
By John Chancey
Clemson Football is at midseason and the fortunes of the season are on the line as the Tigers attempt to run the table and keep their 10-win season streak alive.
However, hardly any of the talk on social media Thursday was about the Wolfpack. Instead, it was on a new angle of the Michigan Sign Stealing Scandal.
Wolverine staffer Connor Stalions has been accused of running an elaborate sign-stealing scheme that involved attendance at several games of Michigan’s future opponents and videoing the defensive signals, which is a violation of NCAA rules.
On Tuesday, multiple sources began revealing information about some of the non-conference opponents that Stalions targeted, which included Clemson….
Clemson is declining comment, but a report from Buckeye Huddle says Michigan's alleged signal-stealer bought a ticket to a 2022 Clemson home game.
— Jon Blau (@Jon_Blau) October 25, 2023
That makes Clemson the first known non-Big Ten school wrapped into the Michigan scandal.https://t.co/QjHEvxs25o
….and Tennessee.
Michigan analyst Connor Stalions is believed to have purchased tickets to scout several games involving schools outside of the Big Ten, including Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, sources tell @YahooSports. Story soon.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 24, 2023
By Thursday, the connection had been made that Stalions might have been sharing the signs with other programs, perhaps in an attempt to thwart possible opponents they could face in the College Football Playoff.
Enter the South Carolina Gamecocks, who were 6-4 overall, 3-4 in the SEC through their first ten games of 2022, and coming off a 38-6 loss to Florida when they hosted Tennessee last season.
The Gamecocks’ offense exploded for 68 points that weekend against the Vols and then went to Clemson and won 31-30.
The theory that has popped up is that if Stalions scouted and recorded Tennessee and Clemson, and he shared that information with South Carolina, that might explain why a team that had averaged 21 points a game against Power Five competition could suddenly score 99 total points against two of the better programs on their schedule.
Is there any real evidence of this, or is it all speculation on the part of fans? This sounds like a job for Encyclopedia Brown.