Michigan Sign Stealing Rumors
The premium boards for OSU posted about a story breaking soon regarding Michigan football last night and that has spread over to the Michigan and MSU boards this morning. The rumor is that the story is Michigan has been caught stealing signs with some saying that a low level staffer was at a game Michigan was not playing taping signs. Still to be seen if this is true but there is a lot of smoke this morning and with the NCAA already emptying the clip at Jim it seems worth monitoring. I personally do not care if this is happening as it is likely many programs sign steal to a certain degree.
October 19th, 2023 at 11:54 AM ^
didn't the mods in those threads already debunk this? i love a good feeling of dread in the morning
October 19th, 2023 at 12:03 PM ^
Do you mean he left the house without cleaning his bowels? Oh, the horror!
October 19th, 2023 at 11:56 AM ^
It’s all over twitter with the OSU and MSU dorks running with it, it’s probably fake.
October 19th, 2023 at 3:13 PM ^
Reinterpreted headline: OSU and MSU slappies believe their adored coaching staffs are not smart enough to avoid sign stealing.
October 19th, 2023 at 11:56 AM ^
So there’s a rumor that is completely unsubstantiated that you felt needed to be concern trolled about here. Send us a note from Bolivia when you get settled.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:11 PM ^
How? He’ll be in Boli-ohhhhhhh….
October 19th, 2023 at 12:23 PM ^
God, I love Bolivia. Such beautiful country down there.
October 19th, 2023 at 2:05 PM ^
No doubt. Bring me back one of those bowler hats and a llama placenta to bury in my yard.
October 19th, 2023 at 11:56 AM ^
I'm confused on how this would be different than any other scouting you'd do on a team.
October 19th, 2023 at 1:15 PM ^
First, it's one thing to post a wild-ass rumor happening within the program but when the OP leads off with "premium boards for OSU" and spread to the "MSU boards", you lose all credibility not because of the allegiance to the school but the lack of source.
Next, whether or not this is true, the OP's details are about as vague as they come. Who's the staffer? What game were they attending? Who were the teams? How was the staffer caught? What evidence do they have? See... these are the things that would help verify your post.
Lastly, as others have said, "stealing" signs is a misnomer phrase. Stealing presumes a team is taking someone else's signs and using them as their own. Are you talking about someone studying a teams play calls and predicting what a team is going to run? That's called preparation or scouting. If they are indeed stealing these signs and opposing teams know about it, coaches and players have the opportunity to change them. Dummy signs, audibles, and silent snap counts can all be used to even the playing field.
Simply put, if you can't beat 'em, accuse 'em of cheating I guess?
October 19th, 2023 at 11:57 AM ^
Isn't the whole point of multiple people signaling from the sideline at once to make this harder to do?
Then again I have no idea why sign stealing was such a big deal even in baseball a few yeas back. If you aren't doing everything you can to keep signs from being stolen, that's on you.
October 19th, 2023 at 11:58 AM ^
It's illegal to use a camera/iPhone to record those signs. That is the rumor.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:02 PM ^
If I remember correctly, the baseball issue was that a team was using video technology available only to them in their own stadium to do it.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:38 PM ^
That's right. The Astros did it and were stealing the opposing catcher's signs via a camera in centerfield and then had a player watching the feed, who made a racket by hitting a garbage can with a baseball bat in the dugout tunnel whenever an offspeed pitch was called for.
In college football, there's no audio communication from the OC to the QB's helmet (like in the NFL) so all plays have to be called or signaled in to the team from the sideline. Sometimes the entire playcall is sent in using handsigns, sometimes it's sent in using a combination of pictures on big posterboards, and sometimes they us handsigns or pictures to let the QB know which play to look for on his armband or fannypack and call for the offense. I think most teams that operate this way using the fannypack or armband has the coded signal come in from the sideline that denotes something like "A-15" and then the QB looks on his armband/fannypack and calls the play in cell A15.
If the entire playcall is signalled in (no fannypack or armband) then there are usually multiple "signallers" in order to confuse any people attempting to steal signs. In my opinion, it's fair game to try to steal signs this way and figure out which signaller is not the decoy and what the signs mean.
If play call signaling is done via the fannypack/armband manner, you can just switch up the play grid on the QB's fannypack/armband every week if you wanted, and/or put the same plays in multiple cells. Even if you were stealing signals from the previous week's game, taking these steps would make the prior week's intelligence irrelevant. Football playcalls are so long and complicated that it makes more sense to call the plays using this system instead of signalling in the entire playcall
October 19th, 2023 at 12:42 PM ^
I have no problem with what the Astros did - otherwise they should ban having any signs or signals. If teams are going to go to the effort to encrypt their communications, other teams have every right to try to decrypt what is publicly available.
October 19th, 2023 at 2:31 PM ^
With cameras? We have different ideas about what represents fair play.
October 19th, 2023 at 3:34 PM ^
Why should it matter if they use a digital camera, a cheap Polaroid, a scribble on a Palm Pilot, an Etch-A-Sketch, or having a relay network of people using American Sign Language? The *method* of performing the action is not as relevant as the *action itself*. If teams want to use signs/signals to communicate plays over distance, then they need to expect those signals to be seen and eventually deciphered.
October 19th, 2023 at 11:58 AM ^
Isn't this called scouting the opponent?
October 19th, 2023 at 12:03 PM ^
IIRC, the issue was with the Patriots (though it wasn't actually illegal at the time) is that they were filming coaches/the guys giving the signs on the sideline. So they weren't just watching the defense and tracking the plays they ran and personnel, it's that they were filming the coaches.
I recall seeing a video in the late 2010s where a Pats staffer was in a press box scouting their future opponent and a guy (maybe NFL or the opponent's staff) sitting behind him and making sure the Pat's scout wasn't recording just the sideline. That he was recording the actual field of play.
October 19th, 2023 at 11:59 AM ^
Everyone steals signs. But observing in person or using readily available tape to look at signs is not the same as sending someone to tape signals. It is similar to what McDaniels got caught doing, if true.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:00 PM ^
Well, if the premium boards at ohio are posting the story, it must be true.
Someone needs to call Mel Tucker on the phone to confirm.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
I won't be making that call...
October 19th, 2023 at 12:15 PM ^
Maybe you should… likely has a happy ending 🙄
October 19th, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
The Happy Ending is only for Mel though
October 19th, 2023 at 12:24 PM ^
Currently on the phone with Mel, but he's taken the conversation a different direction...
October 19th, 2023 at 12:38 PM ^
hang up!
October 19th, 2023 at 1:20 PM ^
Did he misinterpret your signal?
October 19th, 2023 at 2:06 PM ^
It’s interesting bc didn’t OSU brag about knowing our signals in 2019?
October 19th, 2023 at 12:00 PM ^
Rutgers must not have figured out how to steal signs until the 4th quarter.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:24 PM ^
Aha! Michigan obviously stole Indiana's signs right after their first touchdown. This explains it all.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:00 PM ^
Oh I see, so this is why MSU is 2-4 and in complete disarray. Damn you Michigan.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:01 PM ^
Every team has assigned analyst for each team on the schedule, and their entire job is to gather as much info as possible on said team.
this isn’t news
it’s just because Michigan is doing it
look at: stretch-gate/burger-gate
October 19th, 2023 at 12:01 PM ^
Now we know how Hutchinson managed to be so good. He must have taken the sign-stealer to the NFL with him.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:03 PM ^
When you're really worried about losing a 3rd year in a row...
October 19th, 2023 at 12:40 PM ^
The first stage of grief is always denial. OSU hasn't made it to full out anger yet because Day hasn't been fired yet.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:04 PM ^
So this is OSU's latest excuse? How original
October 19th, 2023 at 12:10 PM ^
That's the excuse they'll be using when psu runs them over saturday., then Michigan Nov 25th.
October 19th, 2023 at 1:11 PM ^
Sure, why not start lining up the excuses for this year right now? First the weather was too bad (2021), then it was too nice (2022), so the weather ones have been used up.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:04 PM ^
Hey man, I am not the kind of person to put my fingers in my ears and avoid bad news, but you've got to give us something more than "someone on a message board said it."
October 19th, 2023 at 12:04 PM ^
So they're already coming up with excuses for a pending loss... Nice.
I mean, who gives a rats ass? Isn't this the same as 'scouting'? And if Michigan is, indeed, doing this, so is every other team in existence.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:05 PM ^
Hilarious! What's next scouting teams will be illegal??? Amazing
October 19th, 2023 at 12:05 PM ^
According to MSU/PSU/OSU mouth breathers, any time they beat UM it's 100% legit, but any time UM beats them there must be shady stuff going on...
Further, why does every team have 3 guys in crazy colored hats all sending play signals in at the same time? Perhaps because everyone would steal signals if they can? I assure you that OSU and MSU have explored efforts to quietly steal UM's signals.
Thusly, all of this smoke can go blow.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
::holds up posterboard with pictures of Cameron Diaz, TAB soda, a green M&M, and Jimmy Carter's Peanut Farm::
October 19th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
It was just one sign...
October 19th, 2023 at 12:07 PM ^
Whew!!! The rumor.
October 19th, 2023 at 12:10 PM ^
This isn’t news. The osu faithful still can’t grasp that they have lost 2 in a row. They’ll hang on/make up anything to feel better.
Go Blue!
October 19th, 2023 at 12:10 PM ^
Hell I'd steal signs for free every week on the road for Michigan on my Apple Phone! Hell they have people getting paid for this with every follow button on YouTube!!! If the signs are that weak start on,"THIRD BASE!" Weak once a month catching feelings Buckeye Fish!!!
October 19th, 2023 at 12:11 PM ^
Step 1: make stuff up
Step 2: post made-up stuff everywhere you think of
Step 3: wait for people to repeat the made-up stuff on another platform
Step 4: someone writes an article “Sources Report [Made-Up Stuff]”
Step 5: people think that [Made-Up Stuff] is factual
You have now allowed someone to say “Michigan blog reports that Michigan is stealing signs” just FYI
October 19th, 2023 at 12:11 PM ^
Busy day for Sparty. Between this and watching Urbz land in a private jet at airport, they must be exhausted.......