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.”
EAST TEXAS ESPIONAGE ???
Ahead of their Week Zero showdown with Stephen F. Austin this upcoming Saturday, Jacksonville State Head Coach Rich Rodriguez claims SFA allegedly sent a spy with a camera to watch them practice.
"That's really not supposed to happen" -R.R.@abc3340 pic.twitter.com/BEUF9dH3f6
— Johnny Congdon (@congdonsation) August 23, 2022
“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.
I mean, sure https://t.co/XFUIF8ZPkR
— Jane Coaston 🏔️ (@janecoaston) August 24, 2022
THIS GAME. https://t.co/g4l8hPbX2L
— John Nabors (@JohnNaborsShow) August 23, 2022
Please include this in the game @EASPORTS. https://t.co/FL8tJaF83o
— Dean Straka (@DWStraka49) August 24, 2022
Blindly agree it happened because it’s college football https://t.co/zMwd65bujQ
— Bobby Reagan (@BarstoolReags) August 23, 2022
we are so back, y’all https://t.co/QPmSnVcPEJ
— Kegan Reneau (@KeganReneau) August 23, 2022
We need more stories like this in college football fr https://t.co/Ub7iokW6Vu
— JP Acosta (@acosta32_jp) August 23, 2022
Saturday’s game just got a whole lot more interesting.
