While Ohio State’s current players have mostly stayed silent on Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal, a member of last year’s team made an interesting revelation about it on Thursday.
In an interview with Houston media personality Landry Locker on Thursday, former Ohio State and current Houston Texans tight end Cade Stover recalled an instance of Michigan identifying that Ohio State was going to run a tight end screen on a play the Buckeyes had never used previously in a game.
“We tried to throw a tight end screen in a formation we’ve never used before – like ever – and as soon as I lined up out wide, we had one play from it, I was going to motion back in, they were going to throw a screen to me. And when they start yelling ‘Screen!’ when you’re throwing a tight end screen, that’s when you know, like, ‘What the fuck is this? We haven’t ran this before,’” Stover said.
Cade Stover on his rookie debut. What he brings to the table and his style. And why he didnt need to watch the Michigan sign stealing Doc, he lived it. Young man is ready to play. #HTownMade pic.twitter.com/TQ60aIXJc3
— Landry Locker (@LandryLocker) September 5, 2024
Stover did not specify which year that play occurred. However, Stover motioned in for a designed screen on two plays out of two different formations in the first quarter of Ohio State’s 2022 loss to Michigan, after which the Buckeyes did not run any more screens to Stover for the rest of the game.
This was the other instance where Cade Stover lined up out wide and motioned back in for a screen, which happened earlier in the first quarter. pic.twitter.com/vy2YnBRVAM
— Josh Poloha (@JorshP) September 6, 2024
Stover played tight end in each of the Buckeyes’ three losses to Michigan in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and was Ohio State’s starter at the position for the latter two years. Connor Stalions, the leader of Michigan’s sign-stealing operation, was on Michigan’s sideline for the 2021 and 2022 games but was not on the sideline for the 2023 game as he resigned from Michigan’s staff after he was publicly identified as the architect of Michigan’s sign-stealing scheme last October.
The conversation about Michigan started with Locker asking Stover if he had watched “Untold: Sign Stealer,” the Netflix documentary featuring Stalions, to which Stover gave a blunt response.
“No, I knew enough about that bullshit as it was,” Stover said.
Asked if he could hate Michigan any more than he already does, Stover said that’s “not possible” and said he will be rooting for Texas to beat Michigan this weekend “for sure.” Stover acknowledged, however, that he didn’t have any bragging rights over Michigan due to the Wolverines’ three straight wins against the Buckeyes.
“I don’t have a lot of room to talk. I didn’t do much. They beat us,” Stover said.
The NCAA issued a formal Notice of Allegations to Michigan on Aug. 25, giving Michigan 90 days to respond to the NCAA’s findings. While the full Notice of Allegations has not been released publicly, ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Dan Murphy reported in early August that the NOA accused Stalions, current Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and former Michigan staffers Chris Partridge and Denard Robinson of Level I violations resulted to the sign-stealing operation. Moore reportedly faces a potential suspension and show-cause penalty after deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions on the same day in October 2023 that Stalions was publicly identified for his role in the sign-stealing operation.
While sign stealing in itself is not a violation of NCAA rules, Michigan allegedly violated NCAA rules by sending scouts to opponents’ games to film opponents’ signals, both actions that are prohibited by the NCAA. The NCAA told the Big Ten in November it “knew and could prove” that Stalions “coordinated a vast off-campus, in-person advance scouting scheme involving a network of individuals” and that “he and others acting at his direction video recorded signs used by future university opponents while attending the opponents’ games in person.”
