University of Wisconsin Badgers football players celebrate a 4th down stop against Michigan during their game Saturday, October 2, 2021 in Madison, Wis. Michigan won the game 38-17. Doug Raflik / USA TODAY NETWORK

Conor Stalions admits Michigan knew all of Wisconsin Badgers' signals in 2021

Originally posted on Wisconsin Badgers on SI
By Lorin Cox | Last updated Jul 13, 2025 4:57 PM ET

The last time the Wisconsin Badgers played Michigan, the Wolverines had an extra advantage thanks to Conor Stalions.

The school's former defensive analyst was infamously involved in the school's sign-stealing scandal, and he admitted on Sunday that he knew what the Badgers were signaling during their game in 2021.

To save everybody’s time so we can move on from the same recycled story from Coach Dykes, I’ll provide some more details and we can wrap this up:

We lost because we turned the ball over & had a poor game tackling. And TCU played well. Congratulations. The same way we won the…
— Connor Stalions (@cpstalions) July 12, 2025

Stalions made the revelation in response to TCU head coach Sonny Dykes telling On3 that they knew Michigan was stealing their signs ahead of their 2022 College Football Playoff semifinal matchup.

Stalions downplayed the concerns raised by Dykes, insisting that their sign-stealing didn't always correlate with more wins. He insists that the bigger factors were still football fundamentals of blocking and tackling.

In that 2021 game against Wisconsin, the Wolverines held running back Braelon Allen to just 19 rushing yards, his lowest total of the season.

As a team, the Badgers amassed only 43 rushing yards on 32 carries, an average of just 1.3 yards per attempt. That was also their worst rushing performance of the season in the 38-17 loss.

October 2, 2021
#14 Michigan @ Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/SYBfzQfaXG
— Random Michigan Play Every Day (@Michplay_a_day) June 21, 2024

It didn't help that quarterback Graham Mertz left that game with an injury, but it was an exceptional defensive performance by Michigan.

It's hard not to think the signal stealing was a major factor.

Perhaps when the two teams play again this season, it will be a little more level of a playing field for Luke Fickell and Sherrone Moore, who will be freshly removed from his self-imposed suspension for the sign-stealing scandal.