Stalions did what he was accused of. That was fairly obvious from early on, but I also was somewhat informed on this.
Michigan fans tried to convince themselves that having someone else go into the stadiums meant it really wasn't against the rules, but that dog wouldn't hunt.
Thing is... it's not that big a deal, for reasons that have been correctly pointed out: it only streamlines the process of sign stealing, and it was deemed so little of a competitive advantage that the NCAA nearly scrapped the rule.
This should have been central to our defense, not feeding fans red meat by attacking Petitti.
And don't get me wrong, Petitti was Ryan Day's useful idiot. He was COO of Major League Baseball during the Astros scandal, so this was something he was highly attuned to. Once Day and the other coaches started feeding him their righteous indignation, that got Petitti all pumped up and he didn't know college football enough to know he was being snowed.
Rather than going to war with HIM, which fired up the message board crowd, what we needed to be doing was making sure, through our friends in the media (and we do have them) that sign-stealing is legal and commonplace and we only broke essentially a procedural rule - and fired the guy who did it. (And we needed to fire Stalions, not let him resign.) Don't let the contrived anger of all these other coaches mislead you; it's opportunistic bullshit.
Not only did we misfire on that, but this continued procession of Harbaugh staffers embarrassing the program and having to be let go has left us with no credibility with which to fight back.
Warde, Santa, and the regents mounted up and rode into battle for Harbaugh... and his own staff has turned out to be such a damn clown show that now we only have a knife in the public opinion gunfight.
Harbaugh probably deserves these three games not for some egregious flaunting of NCAA rules or mores of sportsmanship, but just for serially hiring staffers who embarrass the program and university and who make it harder for his superiors to fight for him.
Just speculation here, but I'd be surprised if Santa and Warde putting themselves out there and now being left with egg on their faces doesn't become a complication in getting Harbaugh's extension done. I'm not convinced he could sign it today if he wanted to.
Michigan fans tried to convince themselves that having someone else go into the stadiums meant it really wasn't against the rules, but that dog wouldn't hunt.
Thing is... it's not that big a deal, for reasons that have been correctly pointed out: it only streamlines the process of sign stealing, and it was deemed so little of a competitive advantage that the NCAA nearly scrapped the rule.
This should have been central to our defense, not feeding fans red meat by attacking Petitti.
And don't get me wrong, Petitti was Ryan Day's useful idiot. He was COO of Major League Baseball during the Astros scandal, so this was something he was highly attuned to. Once Day and the other coaches started feeding him their righteous indignation, that got Petitti all pumped up and he didn't know college football enough to know he was being snowed.
Rather than going to war with HIM, which fired up the message board crowd, what we needed to be doing was making sure, through our friends in the media (and we do have them) that sign-stealing is legal and commonplace and we only broke essentially a procedural rule - and fired the guy who did it. (And we needed to fire Stalions, not let him resign.) Don't let the contrived anger of all these other coaches mislead you; it's opportunistic bullshit.
Not only did we misfire on that, but this continued procession of Harbaugh staffers embarrassing the program and having to be let go has left us with no credibility with which to fight back.
Warde, Santa, and the regents mounted up and rode into battle for Harbaugh... and his own staff has turned out to be such a damn clown show that now we only have a knife in the public opinion gunfight.
Harbaugh probably deserves these three games not for some egregious flaunting of NCAA rules or mores of sportsmanship, but just for serially hiring staffers who embarrass the program and university and who make it harder for his superiors to fight for him.
Just speculation here, but I'd be surprised if Santa and Warde putting themselves out there and now being left with egg on their faces doesn't become a complication in getting Harbaugh's extension done. I'm not convinced he could sign it today if he wanted to.
Last edited:
