Michigan football: Former coach pleads not guilty to computer crimes
Former Michigan football coach Matt Weiss, 42, has pleaded not guilty to accusations of hacking into the personal information of thousands of athletes and stealing “intimate” photos and videos. Weiss, who was fired from his coaching position under former head coach Jim Harbaugh following an investigation into the alleged crimes, was hit with a 24-count federal indictment on Thursday.
The indictment revealed that from 2015 to 2023, Weiss gained unauthorized access to student athlete databases of more than 100 colleges and universities that were maintained by a third-party vendor. He allegedly downloaded personal information and data of more than 150,000 athletes, allowing him to access the information of over 2,000 athletes, including their social media, email, and cloud storage.
Prosecutors claim that Weiss used this information to download “personal, intimate digital photographs and videos that were never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.” The former coach is facing 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. Each unauthorized access charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, while each count of identity theft could result in up to two years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
Weiss, who served as the co-offensive coordinator for the Wolverines team that won the Big Ten and reached the College Football Playoff in 2022, also has coaching experience under Harbaugh at Stanford and with John Harbaugh’s staff at the Baltimore Ravens.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on Twitter and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter for the latest updates on this developing story.
