Credit: CBS Sports, Connor Stalions Qwame Skinner Mon, November 2, 2026 at 11:40 PM UTC · 3 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After an uninspiring 3-5 start to the football season, Florida State announced Sunday that it had fired head coach Mike Norvell.
Speculation about who might replace Norvell began as early as September, but now that the move is official, more names are being linked to what is expected to be one of the most resource-heavy openings in this year's coaching cycle.
CBS Sports national college football reporter Brandon Marcello floated Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz, Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham, Southern Methodist's Rhett Lashlee, and FSU legend Jimbo Fisher as potential candidates, with CBS sharing an official graphic of the list on X.
Things took a turn when former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions, who was at the center of the football's infamous sign-stealing scandal during its national title season and has emerged as one of the largest internet trolls in college football since, jumped at the opportunity to alter the graphic and share his own list of potential candidates, which included Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, Michigan's struggling head coach-offensive coordinator duo of Kyle Whittingham and Jason Beck, and Miami's Mario Cristobal.
As absurd as Stalions' list is, Marcello didn't appreciate him using his "name and credibility to tell a joke" and made that abundantly clear in his replies to Stalions post.
"You really doctoring images from news outlets now? These names were never reported by me or my colleagues," Marcello initially replied.
A Michigan fan called Marcello out for taking the Stalions' ludicrous list of candidates seriously, but the reporter wasn't having it.
"He doesn't need to use my name and credibility to tell a joke. Also, not everyone who sees it knows he is joking. Last I checked, he's not labeled as a parody account," he responded.
Stalions eventually addressed the perturbed reporter in a post of his own, writing, "God forbid we exercise a little humor on this app!" Marcello also responded directly to that.
"You don't need to use my name and credibility to give credence to your joke and potentially steer those unfamiliar with your style toward misinformation, which is credited only to my name and not yours. I hope you can understand that."
Ironically, Marcello probably made Stalions' post bigger than it ever would've been by not just letting sleeping dogs lie and allowing Stalions to joke with Michigan fans. Still, it's hard to fault a reporter for taking their job seriously . There were likely at least some people out there who thought it was real, and that could have impacted Marcello's credibility with them.
The post CBS Sports reporter clashed with Connor Stalions over doctored FSU HC candidate image appeared first on Awful Announcing .
Source: Sports
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