Michigan‘s sign-stealing scandal gets worse by the day, and Purdue head coach Ryan Walters is adding fuel to the fire.
“They aren’t allegations; it happened,” Walters said Thursday on his weekly radio show. “There’s video evidence. There’s ticket purchases and sales that you can track back. We know for a fact that they were at a number of our games, and so we’ve had to teach our guys a new language in terms of some signals, and we’ll operate differently offensively, like you might see us in the huddle for the first time this season.
“So it is what it is, but we’re excited to go play, and I think it’ll make for a great story.”
No. 3 Michigan has been under the college football microscope the last few weeks after it was revealed that a member of head coach Jim Harbaugh’s coaching staff, Connor Stalions, attended games at several Big Ten schools, as well as College Football Playoff contenders from other conferences. In doing so, Michigan gained impermissible access and film of team’s on-field signals.
The Big Ten reportedly held a call with conference coaches and another with those schools’ respective athletic directors, where they held an airing of grievances. A consensus has grown among conference coaches that Michigan should face a substantial penalty if the allegations leveled against it are proven true.
Michigan hosts Purdue on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET). The two schools are in the midst of polar opposite 2023 seasons, as Purdue is 2-6 overall (1-4 in Big Ten play) in year one with Walters, a first-time head coach, while Michigan is 8-0 overall (5-0 in Big Ten play) in Year 9 with Harbaugh.
Furthermore, Michigan sports one of the elite offenses in the sport, averaging 421.6 total yards (second in the Big Ten) and 40.6 points (first) per game, while Purdue’s defense has struggled mightily, surrendering 380.6 total yards (13th) and 30.0 points (last) per game.
Purdue and Michigan met in the 2022 Big Ten Championship Game with the Wolverines coming out on top, 43-22.
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