Connor Stalions counters Jack Sawyer's accusations, proves Michigan's 2022 win was legit
Former Ohio State edge rusher Jack Sawyer is talking about Michigan football again, and he cannot fathom how or why the Buckeyes lost in 2022.
As the national (although becoming more Ohio-based) narrative that the only reason why the Wolverines have beaten OSU the past four years is because of 'cheating' with the Connor Stalions advanced scouting allegations, Sawyer and self-proclaimed Buckeye Nation keep putting out their side of the story, thinking it proves the point. However, as you'll soon see, it does nothing of the sort.
"I'll tell you this: I think they beat us straight up last year, obviously, and the year before," Sawyer said on a podcast. "But my sophomore year, we left the field like, 'This feels weird.' We lost by double digits and I felt like we beat the (expletive deleted) all game. We ran a screen pass that we had never put in. Not the formation, not the look. Anything. And then like, you see him (Stalions) on the sideline, they're doing it. And we changed it, we audible to it, whatever. We run it. All the D-linemen, as soon as the ball is snapped, the linebackers, everybody, they sniffed it out.
"We ran a tight end screen from the 25-yard line going in, and they snuff it out."
This came to light on Monday, but last fall, Stalions appeared on the Bussin' with the Boys podcast and explained how he knew the exact play that OSU was running without even knowing the play itself. Because football is still football, and if your sign is easy to decipher -- as this was -- then it will be deciphered.
"Here's the bottom line of how can you be so good in-game," Stalions said. "Slot YY. So I think they motion into slot YY. Their signal for the slot YY formation, and then the guy who was live the entire season signaled (visibly) Y-delay. Am I supposed to see that and be like, 'Oh, I don't know what this is!' I think this has got to be a Y-delay screen."
Stalions had more to say about this exact clip, refuting Sawyer's version of events on X (formerly Twitter).
Priceless.
Of course, note that Sawyer plays on defense, so he doesn't exactly have a solid grasp of the offensive playbook for his team week in, week out. While we cannot confirm or deny Stalions' account, that OSU ran this play before, as a former analyst for Michigan football, he would know.
What's more, if Ohio State had never run the play before, then how would Stalions have illegally stolen the signal as Sawyer insinuates? If his scheme was so pervasive, and his mom being in the crowd at a Purdue-Ohio State game with her phone was somehow responsible for a play and formation that Sawyer insists was never run before, how did Stalions actually decipher it, if not in-game?
Make it make sense. Logic is not strong with this one.
But it's another season, and though Sawyer is no longer in Columbus, he will live the rest of his life having never beaten Michigan. Thus, this certainly comes across as some kind of coping mechanism, if not outright denial.
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Canton memories: The Harbaugh family's connection to Ohio's 'Cradle of Coaches'
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The standoff lasted a few moments until the kid backed into a curb and fell over, allowing Harbaugh a chance to pounce on him and — while showing mercy to the kid — confiscate the chain. Jack kept that chain in a jar for decades to come. "I remember seeing that chain, and I've heard the story probably a hundred times,' Jim Harbaugh said. "I'm just really proud of my dad for the way he handled that." Then there was the player — let's call him 'Frank' — who couldn't stop swearing on the field. Jack Harbaugh warned him on multiple occasions, telling him he wouldn't play unless he toned down his language. That didn't work. 'He lets out a high-velocity word, and I say, 'That's it, you're not playing,'" said Harbaugh, who even 60 years later asked that the kid's actual name be kept in confidence. When Harbaugh turned his back, foul-mouthed Frank swung his helmet and clocked the coach over the top of the head. 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Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
She left college to conquer tennis. At 81, Billie Jean King is back, chasing a degree
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The omission came up last year in a conversation she was having with the staff of her New York-based consulting, investing and marketing company. (Yes, she still runs a business and a foundation promoting education, leadership and activism.) 'I hate not finishing,' she recalls telling her colleagues. They asked what she meant. 'I haven't finished college,' she told them. 'And, you know, I should finish.' Yeah, what a slacker. In the spring this year, at the age of 81, Billie Jean King went back to school, chasing not a trophy, or a cup, or a medal, but a degree. And there was no doubt in her mind about where she would enroll — at the very school where she began her college education in the '60s before going pro. The school that has a statue of her near the courts where she used to smack tennis balls around. Cal State L.A. (Would anyone be surprised if she went out for the tennis team?) Lots of people start college and then take a pause. King's lasted 60 years. The woman who keeps making history is now majoring in it. She's taken several courses this year and will soon begin the fall semester as a senior, on track to graduate in the spring with a bachelor's degree in history. 'I'm having a great time,' she told me Wednesday by video link from her home in New York. King isn't strolling campus with a backpack and hanging with fellow students at the library and food court. Her business ventures keep her on the road and mostly on the East Coast, so she takes her classes remotely, usually one- on-one with professors who helped her craft a flexible schedule. She's also earned course credit for her interaction with other CSULA students who have taken a somewhat circuitous route to a bachelor's degree — they're enrolled in Cal State L.A.'s Prison Graduation Initiative while serving time. After I interviewed King, she spoke remotely with 32 inmate/students at the maximum-security state prison in Lancaster and sent me an email when she was done. 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King said she hasn't gotten a report card yet, but says she's taking no shortcuts on assignments, and the homework load is not exactly light. 'I just read like crazy all the time,' said King, who has turned her paper chase into something of a cause. In social media posts extolling the value of continuing to engage, learn and grow — at any age — she sits next to a stack of assigned texts, including 'Contested Histories in Public Space' and 'Fighting Over the Founders.' She's also reading books on Title IX, the civil rights law that banned sexual discrimination in federally funded education programs. On that subject, King is more teacher than student. She was an early and persistent advocate for Title IX, and testified before Congress. 'The thing they like,' she said of her professors, 'is that I have lived some of these historical moments.' King said she hasn't been shy about pointing out what she considers errors in the telling of history she was a part of. 'It drives me crazy.' In that regard, and other obvious ways, King is not the prototypical Cal State L.A. student. 'It's been 50 years of changing the world,' communications studies department Chair David Olsen said of King's achievements. But in other ways, she's typical. I used to teach a class at CSULA, and most of my students were jugglers. They had jobs and families, and with so many other responsibilities and pursuits, they weren't in and out in four years. Some, like King, took a break but circled back. 'Oh, I guess I am like them,' King said. 'It's never too late to return, and it's never too late to finish,' Olsen said. 'The coming back, to me, is what's so important and inspiring' — especially because finishing her education was an elective rather than a requirement. 'To be a lifelong learner — that's an important lesson,' said Scott Wells, chair of the CSULA history department. 'She doesn't need to do this for career reasons or economic reasons. It's a reminder that higher education is not merely getting technical skills or a piece of paper for a job opportunity.... When she posted on social media, 'Here are the books I'm reading,' it's a way of saying that books are important and people should care about history.' I asked King, who's been at the forefront of so many social justice movements, what it's like to live through this moment in political and cultural history, in which many of the gains she fought for are under threat, and in which our heritage is depicted on government websites as white, covered wagon pioneers. 'How about slavery?' King said. 'Look at athletes who tried to travel. Look at Jackie Robinson. Look at Althea Gibson. 'I learned white history as a kid, and then I realized ... the people who were here first were our Indigenous people. ' History repeats itself, King said, and 'it's repeating itself again now' in disconcerting ways. 'I mean, we were fighting so hard ... for Roe vs. Wade, and we got it through,' she said of the landmark Supreme Court decision on women's reproductive rights in 1973. 'And now we're going backwards again.' Her job in her 80s, King said, is not to lead the resistance, but to ask the next generation what it wants and to offer guidance and support. 'It's important to know history, because the more you know about history, the more you know about yourself,' King said. 'But more importantly, it helps you shape the future.' I had one last question for King. The graduation ceremony is a really big deal at Cal State L.A., I told her. Many of the grads are first-generation college students, and the achievement is celebrated by cheering extended families. Will you walk the stage in the spring in cap and gown? She smiled. 'If I can,' she said, 'I will.'
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Reds' Nick Krall gets creative to address team's outfield, bullpen needs
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The Reds sent 21-year-old left-hander Adam Serwinowski and 28-year-old right-hander Brian Van Belle to the Rays in exchange for Littell. The Reds had acquired Van Belle from the Boston Red Sox last month. The Rays traded Serwinowski to the Dodgers. Los Angeles had asked for Serwinowski, who was 1-7 with a 4.84 ERA at High-A Dayton this year, in the Gavin Lux deal last offseason but was rebuffed. Krall said he broached the subject of Martinez moving to the bullpen with him before his start against the Dodgers on Wednesday and then again after Martinez allowed just two runs on four hits over six innings in the team's victory over the Dodgers. 'He's one of the best teammates you could ever be around,' Krall said of Martinez. 'He just wants to do whatever is best for the team.' A quality six innings from Nick Martinez! — Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 31, 2025 It might sound like a cliche, but Martinez has shown he's willing to back up those words with actions. Even though he's the team's highest-paid player after accepting a $21.05 million qualifying offer last offseason, Martinez has twice pitched out of the bullpen this season. A year ago, he started the season in the rotation, moved to the bullpen and then returned to the rotation for the last two months of the season. Martinez was 5-2 with a 1.86 ERA over 26 appearances and 53 1/3 innings last season out of the bullpen and 5-5 with a 3.84 ERA as a starter, but he was 5-2 with a 3.24 ERA over 11 starts after being moved back to the rotation. After Wednesday's game against the Dodgers, he's 9-9 with a 4.61 ERA. He has been perfect in his two relief appearances, spanning three innings. Advertisement The Reds recently found out that starter Carson Spiers will require elbow surgery and be lost for the year, so adding starting depth was important for a team that fell out of contention in 2023 in part because it didn't have enough starting depth. 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Burns started Monday against the Dodgers and took the loss but finished with 10 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on six hits. Burns is scheduled to start Saturday's game against the Atlanta Braves at Bristol Motor Speedway in his home state of Tennessee. 'We're going to work through his innings and see where they all stack up,' Krall said. 'The goal is for him to end the season playing, not getting shut down.' Littell, 29, threw six shutout innings for the Rays against the New York Yankees on Wednesday, allowing just two hits with four walks and four strikeouts. Littell is 8-8 with a 3.58 ERA in 22 starts this season. He had his worst start since April on Friday at Great American Ball Park against Martinez and the Reds. Advertisement In the series opener, the Reds tagged him for five earned runs on 10 hits, including two home runs, one by TJ Friedl and the other from Tyler Stephenson, one of his new catchers with the Reds. Littell has allowed 26 home runs, the most in the majors. Though Great American Ball Park has a deserved reputation for allowing home runs, it might be better than the Rays' temporary home, George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla. According to MLB Park Factors statistics, Steinbrenner Field has allowed 20 percent more home runs than the average field, and GABP sits at 11 percent. That said, only eight of the 26 home runs Littell has allowed this season have been at the team's home park. Yankee Stadium, where he pitched Wednesday, allows 19 percent more homers than average. Krall said the team still has some money in the budget to add but noted it wasn't a lot. 'You'd always like to add more if you can,' Krall said. 'But if this is our group, we've got a good group, and we're excited about it.' (Photo of Nick Martinez throwing to first: Albert Cesare / The Enquirer / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
