Purdue coach Ryan Walters stands by Michigan sign-stealing comments: 'I’m not shy about speaking the truth'

Purdue coach Ryan Walters has no regrets about his radio show revelation that now-former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions had purchased tickets to multiple Purdue games over the last two years.

Thursday night, Walters said that Purdue knew “for a fact that they were at a number of our games” and that Purdue had been completely changing its signals ahead of Saturday night’s game at Michigan.

Friday morning, Yahoo Sports reported Purdue had discovered that Stalions had purchased tickets to six Purdue home games over the last two seasons. Later in the day, Yahoo Sports reported that Stalions was no longer part of Michigan’s staff. He had been suspended with pay since mid-October.

Saturday’s game went much like we all expected even though it was a Big Ten title game rematch from a season ago. No. 3 Michigan entered as a 32.5-point favorite and easily beat the Boilermakers 41-13. After the game, Walters said he was “just calling a spade a spade” and was slightly surprised his comments became such a big deal. But he said he would make the same comments he did Thursday night if given a second chance.

Walters’ comments during his radio show happened on the same day that officials from Big Ten schools had been meeting with the conference regarding the in-person sign-stealing accusations against Michigan. The conference could consider discipline against Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh as part of the scheme.

It was clear after the game that Walters didn’t have anything to say against Harbaugh. The two coaches’ postgame handshake was a blink-and-you-’ll-miss-it moment as Walters didn’t stop moving.

The loss moved Michigan to 9-0 ahead of a big game against Penn State in Week 11. Purdue is now 2-7 and officially won’t go to a bowl game.