footballs CHARLOTTE, NC – SEPTEMBER 03: A general view of footballs on the ground prior to kickoff between the East Carolina Pirates and South Carolina Gamecocks during their game at Bank of America Stadium on September 3, 2011 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
By Kevin Harrish on

Just days before the start of the 2022 college football season, it looks like we have a wild scandal on our hands as Jacksonville State head coach Rich Rodriguez – the former coach of the Michigan Wolverines – is apparently accusing upcoming opponent Stephen F. Austin of spying on his team ahead of their season-opening matchup on Saturday.

In a video shared by Johnny Congdon, Rodriguez told reporters this week that someone from the Stephen F. Austin football program allegedly tried to film their practice this week and were at their spring game earlier in the year, which the first-year coach said is “really not supposed to happen.”

“Pretty good sources true that they had a couple staff members at our spring game, which is kind of like — that’s not really supposed to happen,” Rodriguez said. “We’re making plans accordingly, so if they’re over there thinking they have our plays or what have you, signals or something like that, we’ve changed things since the spring.”

Rodriguez said his daughter saw somebody filming the team’s practice earlier this week and that they sent “the biggest guy in our program” to deal with it.

“Then we caught somebody trying to film something the other day and first my daughter Raquel saw him. Then we caught him again, saw him, peering through there with his camera,” Rodriguez said. “I sent the biggest guy in our program, Crew, one of our assistant strength coaches. He’s about like [6-foot-7], 350 [pounds], probably benches like 1,000 pounds. [I] sent him up the bleachers to run him out and that guy disappeared pretty quick.”

It’s an absolutely wild story, and the college football world had plenty to say about it.

 Saturday’s game just got a whole lot more interesting.

[Kenny Congdon]

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