Sports

Connor Stalions Quiets Salty Tennessee QB On Baseless Claims By Using Common Sense

#Connor Stalions
by
Connor Stalions denies Joe Milton's cheating allegations

© Adam Cairns / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images / © Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images


Former Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton is still not over a 63-38 loss to South Carolina in the 2022 season. Like a number of fans around the nation, he believes the Gamecocks had extra help in the form of an infamous college football cheater.

Connor Stalions recently broke his silence on the topic during an interview with David Ubben of The Athletic. He quieted Milton’s saltiness by using common sense.

Let’s rewind to the ’22 season. Tennessee won its first eight games of the year. Starting quarterback Hendon Hooker was a dark horse Heisman trophy contender.

While the Vols dropped an early November matchup to Georgia, the College Football Playoff was still within reach. That is, until the team was manhandled by a 6-4 South Carolina squad before the regular season finale.

The Gamecocks scored touchdowns on nine of their 10 true possessions. Spencer Rattler threw six tuddies. The team ran out of celebratory fireworks by game’s end. It was pure and utter domination.

The game didn’t make sense in many ways. South Carolina entered having just been slammed by Florida, 38-6. They’d been held to 10 points or less in two of their previous three contests. Tennessee was fresh off a 42-point drubbing of Missouri.

Did they have help?

Connor Stalions says, “No.”

Conspiracy theories quickly developed after the game. Tennessee fans accused the Gamecocks of putting sand on the field to slow their high-tempo offense. The alleged sanding did little to halt the South Carolina attack.

The narrative to gain the most traction, however, was that Shane Beamer had gotten Tennessee’s signs from Connor Stalions as part of the Michigan scandal that erupted in their national championship winning season.

A report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel says the Wolverines’ espionage extended beyond the Big Ten and into the SEC and ACC. The program was supposedly scouting potential playoff opponents in addition to conference foes.

Records indicated that Stalions purchased tickets to two SEC Championship Games, both of which involved Georgia.  Tennessee was linked to the report, too.

Did Connor Stalions scout Tennessee and relay intel to South Carolina? The theory grew legs after the Gamecocks upset Clemson the following week, another team mentioned in Thamel’s update.

Joe Milton believes it to be true. He said as much in a social media post nearly three years after that embarrassing result.

Stalions denies ever contacting the Gamecocks.

South Carolina did not cheat against Tennessee.

“I’d ask Joe Milton and Hendon Hooker,” Stalions said. “They know the truth… Let’s say I have everything on a team. Why would I not want to play them in the playoffs?

“If I had everything on Tennessee, which I’ve never watched any Tennessee film to decipher signals… And I felt so confident in this competitive advantage that’s going to cause whatever the margin was in that South Carolina game, why would I want another team to do it rather than us?”

Connor Stalions makes a good point. Why help another team when you can help yourself? He might’ve been more invested in a Volunteer win over the Gamecocks as opposed to the other way around.

The admission won’t likely kill the narrative amongst Tennessee fans. They still feel robbed of a national championship opportunity.