Emails Expose Decision to Cancel Hiring of Connor Stalions, Former Michigan Staff Member Accused of Sign-Stealing

William McMichael, the coach at Detroit’s Mumford High School, insisted he wasn’t looking for publicity when he offered a position to Connor Stalions, the staffer at the center of Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal and the central character in an upcoming Netflix documentary.

Publicity found him anyway. Mumford, a program that has gone 2-16 the past two seasons, made national headlines last week after news broke that Stalions would be on the coaching staff. McMichael’s phone rang all morning, and reporters showed up at practice to catch a glimpse of the coach he described as “the most hated man in college football.”

“I’ve been getting bombarded,” McMichael said with a chuckle.

But McMichael wasn’t the first coach to take an interest in Stalions. Before Stalions accepted a volunteer position with Mumford, he was under consideration for the defensive coordinator job at Berkley High School, a program outside of Detroit that finished 0-9 last season and was outscored 382-46. The ensuing controversy, detailed in email correspondence obtained by The Athletic via a public records request, offered a window into the half-life of the Michigan sign-stealing scandal, which continues to have far-reaching consequences.

Since October, the NCAA has been investigating allegations that Stalions coordinated a scheme to collect video footage of opposing teams’ signals shot from the stands and appeared incognito on the sideline for a game between Central Michigan and Michigan State. The NCAA shared a draft of potential infractions with Michigan earlier this month and could deliver a formal notice of allegations any day.

Michigan fired linebackers coach Chris Partridge in November for allegedly interfering with the investigation, and head coach Sherrone Moore faces allegations that he deleted a string of text messages with Stalions. Meanwhile, Netflix on Tuesday is set to release a documentary called “Sign Stealer,” described in promotional materials as a film “told directly by viral villain Connor Stalions, who forever changed college football.”

Stalions hasn’t spoken publicly about the scandal aside from a brief statement issued through his lawyer when he resigned in November. He did, however, address the situation in emails to Berkley School District administrators as he pleaded his case to become Berkley’s defensive coordinator. In the emails, Stalions appeared to reference the documentary as part of an effort to clear his name.

“Legally, I cannot get into the details, but I have great news!” Stalions wrote to Berkley administrators on March 8. “While I understand what has come with my name over the last five months, very soon the media, the NCAA and all the misinformation about the entire NCAA ‘investigation’ is going to be exposed. I’m excited that Berkley Schools will have the opportunity to be nationally portrayed in a positive light in this story.”

The appeal didn’t work. Stalions didn’t get the job. His attempt to join the staff at Berkley High School, like seemingly every other aspect of this story, left a trail of controversy in its wake.

On Feb. 15, Casey Humes, the first-year football coach at Berkley, emailed an executive assistant with the Berkley School District human resources department to request that a new football coach be added to Edustaff, a third-party staffing agency that Berkley uses for substitute teachers, coaches, and other contract employees.

The administrative assistant forwarded Humes’ email to Taylor Horn, Berkley’s athletic director, for approval. “Yes, he is good to go,” Horn replied roughly 15 minutes later. The same day, Horn emailed Humes to inquire about the new hire.

“Have I met (Connor)?” Horn asked. “What position is he taking?”

Humes assured Horn that he wasn’t trying to keep Stalions’ hiring a secret.

“I was in the middle of drafting the email for you now,” Humes replied. “I was going to have (Stalions) meet me at the high school to meet with you tonight.”

This exchange touched off a conflagration involving the district superintendent, human resources, the school principal, and Horn, who resigned as Berkley’s athletic director at the end of the school year. Horn, reached by email, declined to say if his resignation was related to the Stalions situation.

Carla Osborne, who has a son on the Berkley team, said Humes told team parents in February that he was planning to bring Stalions on board as a defensive coordinator.

“Coach had reached out and said, ‘Do you know who Connor Stalions is?’” Osborne said. “I’m like, ‘No, I don’t.’ He’s like, ‘Don’t Google him. Just let me tell you.’ Of course, I had to Google him.”

Despite the headlines about Stalions and the Michigan sign-stealing scandal, Osborne said most of the team parents supported hiring him. Parents were excited by the prospect of hiring a military veteran who’d worked on the coaching staff at Michigan, Osborne said.

“We hadn’t won a game all last season,” Osborne said. “We have a whole new coaching staff. Why don’t we give our kids this great opportunity to have somebody who has been on the sidelines at a Big Ten school?”

District higher-ups ultimately overruled the coach’s attempt to hire Stalions, concerned about the negative attention that could be generated by the NCAA investigation. In a series of increasingly strident emails, Stalions refused to relinquish his position while district officials claimed he’d never been hired in the first place.

The emails do not show who ultimately nixed Stalions’ hiring. But by March 5, the decision had been made. Horn informed Stalions and Humes and recounted their reactions in an email to superintendent Scott Francis the following day.

“I told them that we had concerns with his background, and that we as a district do not feel like it is the right time for him to be on the staff,” Horn wrote.

There was one problem: Stalions believed he’d already been hired. And he wasn’t going to give up the job without a fight.

Horn cautioned the superintendent that Stalions and Humes were upset. Stalions already was working with the team, and players were under the impression that he would be part of the staff. After learning that Stalions’ hiring hadn’t been approved, Horn wrote, Humes spoke with players’ parents to share the news.

Christopher Sandoval, the district’s deputy superintendent of schools and human resources, expressed concern about Humes’ message to parents.

“I sense that the Coach may have oversha…
DeFi Daily News