Sherrone Moore on deleted texts with Connor Stalions: 'I look forward to them being released'
Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore responded to the reports of him deleting text messages with former staffer Connor Stalions.
Moore was mentioned as to deleting many texts that would link him in the sign stealing scandal that was revealed last season. However, Moore seemed pretty adamant about his stance regarding the investigation.
He spoke up Tuesday regarding the allegations.
“All I can say is I look forward to them being released,” Moore said, via The Wolverine’s Anthony Broome.
Moore added that Michigan is cooperating with the NCAA investigation and that will continue.
Stalions is expected to receive Level 1 violations for his role in arranging off-campus and in-person scouting. Another staffer, meanwhile, is expected to be hit with violations related to dinner and a ride for student-athletes. At least two other former coaches are expected to be accused of Level 2 violations related to paying for dinner for athletes.
Moore allegedly deleted text messages between himself and Stalions and is reportedly facing a Level II NCAA violation. Whatever punishment Moore might face, it’s not apparently likely to be very steep.
That is, at least, how ESPN’s Pete Thamel sees things as he sifts through the tea leaves in the wake of the draft Notice of Allegations being reported on. Facing just a Level II violation, Thamel doesn’t expect the punishment for Moore himself to be much more than a short suspension, if even that.
“As a Level II, I would think ultimately that gets distilled to a short suspension of some kind,” Thamel said on the ESPN College GameDay podcast. “It could be no suspension, it could be a short suspension. I don’t think we’re looking at anything — it’s hard. If you look at what happened in the college basketball scandal, it’s hard to have a significant — you’ve really got to break some rules to do that.”
Specifically, Moore is alleged to have deleted a thread of 52 text messages when news broke that Michigan was under investigation for the impermissible scouting. Those texts were later retrieved and Moore was slapped with the Level II for the non-cooperation.
If there had actually been something of import discovered in the texts, Thamel suspects it would be well known by now. And the absence of a smoking gun with respect to Moore leads him to believe whatever punishment to be handed down won’t be overly stiff.
“He obviously allegedly deleted a thread of 52 text messages,” Thamel said. “It does later say he turned them over. If the text messages had like, ‘Hey Connor, what’s Ohio State’s run sign?’ or whatever, it would probably be noted in here and it’s not. So, I think that he’s in here for the act of failing to cooperate, basically. And then eventually he did and you can read through the lines here and say, seemingly, there was no giant smoking gun or they would’ve noted the smoking gun. And there would’ve been a Level I.”
Andrew Graham contributed to this report