Earlier this week, news broke that the Michigan Wolverines were facing an NCAA investigation due to allegations related to sign stealing. The news has become the talk of college football and led to many coaches giving their thoughts on sign-stealing.
During his press conference, James Franklin declined to get into the specifics of the Michigan situation, but he acknowledged that there are times when sign-stealing in general becomes obvious when a team has several perfect reactions to what should be a relative unpredictable call.
“I mean, what happens is, you get to after games and you feel like you called a very unpredictable call in a certain situation, and they’re in the perfect defense for it. And you sit there and say, ‘Well how’s that? What would ever make you play cover two on fourth and one, and we’re in the heavy personnel group, but they’re in it, [and] you got a shot called there.’ Those things kind of make you kind of second guess and you kind of go back and look at those things and what you need to do to disguise it,” Franklin said.
“And, if it happens once, that’s one thing, but, if it happens over and over, then you’re aware of it. So, for us, that’s something that we always are looking at. But, obviously, with some of the things that are going on right now, it magnifies it.”
It’s worth noting that sign-stealing in itself is not illegal. The NCAA investigation that Michigan is facing is seeking to determine whether or not Michigan obtained teams’ signals in illegal ways.
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