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    • CMU is still silent on the Connor Stalions saga at MSU, but details are emerging
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    CMU is still silent on the Connor Stalions saga at MSU, but details are emerging

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

    It’s been more than 13 months since Connor Stalions stood on Central Michigan’s sideline during its game against Michigan State. CMU’s administration and head coach still haven’t said what happened.

    You know what happened.

    We have all known since late October of last year that a man who looked a lot like the disgraced former University of Michigan football staffer stood on the sidelines in CMU gear at Spartan Stadium on September 1, 2023.

    And CMU’s refusal to come clean — hiding behind the ongoing NCAA investigation and a no-comment policy on personnel matters — has resulted in a greater ordeal than the violation itself.

    For many people, the Stalions sign-stealing saga is a Michigan football story. For the NCAA it certainly is. Finally, confirmation that Stalions was on the CMU sideline against MSU was revealed in a draft NCAA memo about allegations against Michigan that was leaked to ESPN in early August.

    But what happened in East Lansing on September 1, 2023 is largely a CMU story.

    CMU quarterbacks coach and offensive lineman Jake Kostner orchestrated the plan to station Stalions there, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

    Kostner remained with the team through the end of the 2023 Chippewas season and was listed as quarterbacks coach until recently on the team’s website.

    CMU athletics spokesman Greg Hotchkiss confirmed last week that “Jake Kostner has separated from the institution” and then reiterated, “CMU does not comment publicly on personnel matters.”

    But Hotchkiss offered that John Leister, director of football operations, has served as quarterbacks coach for the past two months and has helped with play calling, along with receivers coach BT Sherman and offensive line coach and run game coordinator Tavita Thompson.

    By the way: Leister was MSU’s starting quarterback from 1980 to 1982. More relevant: Thompson stood next to Stalions on the sidelines at Spartan Stadium 13 months ago.

    FootballScoop.com reported on July 30, citing multiple anonymous sources, that CMU head coach Jim McElwain was making personnel changes in late summer, including letting Kostner go.

    In early August, an attempt to clarify Kostner’s status and interview McElwain was met with the same statement CMU athletic director Amy Folan had made days earlier: The university did not comment on personnel matters and an NCAA investigation was underway.

    “We will continue to work together and look forward to a solution,” the statement concluded.

    Hotchkiss said last week that the NCAA’s investigation is ongoing. Records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request in June show that CMU did not hire an outside firm to conduct a separate investigation.

    It’s unclear why Kostner risked his career to bring in Stalions – whether it was perhaps a young coach looking for an advantage in his first game at the Division I level – and whether Stalions’ presence had more to do with it To help CMU that evening it was conducting its own reconnaissance for Michigan.

    Kostner’s connection to the Stallions is clearer. Kostner was a student assistant at Michigan when Stalions volunteered with the Wolverines in 2018. This season, McElwain was also Michigan’s receivers coach – before getting the head coaching job at CMU and bringing Kostner with him as a graduate assistant. Kostner transferred to Texas as a GA but returned to CMU in 2023 as quarterbacks coach and became the program’s play-caller despite not holding the title of offensive coordinator.

    According to the source, Kostner and others, including McElwain and Thompson, were interviewed by the NCAA last winter. According to documents requested by the LSJ, there were no changes in Kostner’s personnel file between November and June.

    If CMU isn’t aware of this story, it looks like it has something to hide that goes beyond Kostner’s misdeed and that of other employees involved.

    Perhaps even more problematic, Folan has had no contact with her MSU counterpart, Alan Haller, who told the Lansing State Journal in May, “I am interested in the outcome of the investigation. And it could impact our relationship with Central Michigan.”

    Haller confirmed Tuesday that he still had not heard from anyone at CMU about the matter.

    It is foolish and disrespectful to avoid the top executives of a key in-state partner – a partner that generously paid CMU to play this football game.

    MSU is not scheduled to play CMU in football again until 2027. I would be surprised if McElwain – an assistant coach at MSU from 2003 to 2005 – was still there by then. I can’t imagine this being good for Folan’s career either, although I’d like to hear an explanation from her. CMU also just named a new president, Neil MacKinnon, who will take office on November 1st.

    This should have been an easy – if embarrassing – solution for CMU. Had they disciplined Kostner and cleared the air in a timely manner, the blame would have rested on a rogue young coach and not an entire football program and athletic department.

    And Stallions would just be a Michigan story.

    LSJ reporter Matt Mencarini contributed to this column.

    Contact Graham Couch at [email protected]. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch.

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    Caradoc Wyn
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