Connor Stalions: One region stands out for high school football recruiting

Former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions made a guest appearance on Barstool Sports’ Bussin’ With The Boys show on Tuesday. Stalions — who recently starred in a Netflix ‘Untold’ special about his alleged role in the Michigan sign-stealing scandal — broke down his career with the Wolverines, the art of sign stealing, high school recruiting and his ‘Michigan Manifesto.’

On the topic of recruiting, he detailed the process behind his own high school football scouting philosophy and his talent map that appeared in the Netflix documentary. According to Stalions, there was one part of the country that stood out above the rest.

“(Best) region? Miami.”

Stalions reached that conclusion after plotting hundreds of NFL draft picks from all around the country.

“People always talk about states — like, what’s the best state for recruiting? Is it Georgia? Is it Florida? Is it Texas? Is it California? And I just kind of realized, why are we talking about states?” Stalions said. “It’s literally something that Lewis and Clark drew back in the, what, 1800s? Why would you recruit based on some state boundaries that were drawn a couple hundred years ago?

“So what I did was, I plotted every single draft pick. I took the Google map layer off, where you couldn’t even tell where you were. And I just plotted everyone, and then I just drew my own little regions around where the mass of people were and kind of went from there,” Stalions continued. “Because like, people say Florida is great. Well, it’s mostly Fort Lauderdale, Miami. When people say California, it’s mostly (Los Angeles) and the Bay Area. Texas — mainly Dallas, Houston. Yes, there are certain states like Georgia and Texas where it is more spread out. And it’s by position, too — now, I’m not going to give away which positions and which sub-regions are worth recruiting more than others. There’s definitely certain regions that are hotbeds for certain positions.”

Although Stalions emphasized that recruiting could be better broken down by region than by state, he did choose one state where talent could be consistently found across the map.

“I think Georgia is probably the best state. Where if you just close your eyes and put your finger anywhere on the state of Georgia, you are close to a player that’s been drafted.”

Stalions has been an occasional Barstool Sports guest throughout the 2024 season while also currently serving as a volunteer coach at Detroit Mumford High School in Michigan. Last week, Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz revealed that Stalions is expected to become an employee at Barstool Sports after the high school football season.