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The Athletic: 10 Lessons from a college football sign-stealer: How NOT to get got

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Hoyacane1620 said:
Highlights:

A college football sign stealer agreed to speak with The Athletic about the Michigan situation and the process of sign stealing, in general, under the cloak of anonymity. This guy is a coach who works at a Power 5 program that does not play Michigan. While contributing commentary about the situation, he did not give up all his "secrets".

- It's not illegal to steal signs. In fact, the practice is legal and has been well documented in the past. Stalions’ breaking NCAA rules by purchasing tickets to games and allegedly sending people to film future opponents has brought intense new attention.

- He stated that his biggest surprise is how people don't seem to notice what is going on their own sidelines every Saturday.

- He also says "your favorite team is doing it too". During a game, it’s relatively easy to spot the staffer who has that particular set of skills if you’re looking for them. Some might be sitting up in the coaches’ box taking notes, but most are standing close to the action. It’s no secret what they’re trying to do.

- All you need is tape. If you spend enough time studying your opponents with a combination of TV broadcast tape and game tape, you’ll find patterns. The process of carefully watching signalers and logging everything he sees is time- and labor-intensive. It’s not easy to watch tape without sound and crack these codes. But it does tend to pay off.
He does not believe Michigan’s alleged scheme is commonplace, calling it “next-level s—” that crosses the line.

He also pushes back on the title of "savant" bestowed on Stalions by the media. He insists it's not that difficult for the average person to pick up the skill.

“I promise you, within a day, I could take the average fan and watch three TV copies with them and they’ll know signals by the end of it,” he said. “We’re trying to signal in a play that a college kid has to comprehend. This isn’t rocket science. The signals are not ridiculously tough to figure out.”

- Results of sign stealing are NOT guaranteed. He points out that after all the weekly work of studying the tape and decoding your opponent's signals, you could be on the sideline of the game and realize they've changed all the signs. All that work is for nothing. The key is to find tendencies. When he watches tape, he’s always hoping to see repeated patterns of signals and plays over multiple games. But some games might require 10 signals, and others might only require five. He has to track week-to-week differences.

If you know your opponent just signaled for a pass, that’s great. You still need to execute a simple signal that effectively conveys the intel to the defense as fast as possible. And you still won't necessarily know where the ball is going.

- Don't get "GOT" - How do you know if you're "getting got?" When players come off the field and tell coaches that the opponent is calling out where the runs are going or identifying passes. An especially easy tell is when defenses know the signal for screen passes and easily stop them.

- If you "get got" you'd better change it up - He notes that if a coaching staff is invested in stealing opponents signs, they need to have a plan to prevent sign stealing. Using wristbands is a good way.

“Teams that use wristbands don’t have anything to worry about,"

He goes on to say that there are more subtle ways to obfuscate and avoid asking players to learn new signals, like changing the order, pattern and delivery of the sideline signalers or introducing different dummy signals. Sharp signal stealers can still figure out how to crack the new codes, but it takes time and repetition to do that live.

“As a signal stealing person myself, if you don’t want me to get all your stuff off TV copy, change your signals,” “If you’re not gonna change your signals, we’re gonna have your signals. Because I’ll put in the work to make sure we get your signals.”

- If you don't change, that's on you - This guy didn't name anyone, but he said there were certain coaches who didn't change their signals even after rival teams got them. He pointed out that this is only hurting your team.

He also pointed out that some coaches are brazen enough to think they don't need to change their signs. He used Deion Sanders' comments about the Michigan situation as an example. When asked about Michigan on Tuesday, Colorado coach Deion Sanders told reporters he didn’t fully buy into the idea that sign stealing impacts the outcome of physical football games. “You can have someone’s whole game plan. They could mail it to you. You’ve still got to stop it,” were his words.

“I hope we play Colorado,” the sign stealer said. “Don’t ever change your signals or your signaler and let’s see if it’s just players beat players.”

This coach also pointed out that coaching circles are very gossipy. He claims that his team's coaching staff had heard rumors of Michigan filming signals well before the story broke publicly. He pointed out that any Big 10 staff who had an awareness of Michigan stealing signs and didn't adjust accordingly just did their team a serious injustice. “It’s on you to change your signals.”

-Opponents know if you are good at sign stealing - Signal stealers study enough tape to know who the other signal stealers are. They see things and they definitely hear things about other programs’ sign-stealing operations. You don’t want a reputation for being great at signal stealing. If your foes know that, they’ll make the task tougher. The good ones need to be careful.

- If done right, it DOES change games - If you have good enough players and good enough information, you can do damage to the teams that don’t change signals
“I guess the best way to say it is: sign stealing, if you have the material, can be very, very effective and win you a lot of games,” “If you go to these (opponents’) games and do it, yeah, that’s obviously gonna have much more of an impact, because you’ll have more tape to go off. "

He is quick to also point out that game day could come and the opponent whose signals you "stole" could have changed them up for that game.

In terms of the Michigan situation and their wins and losses, ow many outcomes were impacted? How many losses became wins thanks to impermissibly obtained intel?

“It’s a really hard question,” the sign stealer said.

- Should there be rule changes? No thanks says the sign stealer. If a college football staff is gifted at stealing signals, they’re certainly not going to advocate for advancements that cost them their hard-earned edge going into games.

For staffers who are good at doing this as part of their job, they aren't going to lose those jobs. They all perform other coaching or recruiting duties under their official job titles and capacities. Stealing signals is just their in-season side hustle. But getting good at it does make them more valuable.

The sign stealer who was interviewed for this article isn't worried. He predicts that even if technology is introduced next season, offenses that want to go fast tempo will still have to use hand signals at some point. He's been doing it long enough to know that the good ones will find a way to crack whatever comes next.
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Translation:

"We" only sign steal with honor.

Michigan sign steals without honor and is out of bounds, therefore punish them.

What a joke.
 
Hoyacane1620 said:
The biggest takeaway from this article is that this is happening everywhere , under the nose of coaches and fans, but Michigan crossed that unwritten line with their process.
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I think it is literally a written line. You can't go scout in person. Maybe I misunderstood it.
 
JG14 said:
I think it is literally a written line. You can't go scout in person. Maybe I misunderstood it.
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Exactly. It’s not an “unwritten rule”and everyone else isn’t doing it. It’s not illegal to steal signs on gameday. It is illegal to send staffers to future opponents’ games and have him record all the hand signals to take back and decipher.
 
the storm said:
She would probably be good at it....long time reporter and watcher.
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In all seriousness, she's probably devising a question about it to ask at a press conference and it's going to be one of those that's super uncomfortable while Mario does his best not to be a prick with his answer.
 
mcnaire2004 said:
So people signal in front of thousands of people and I'm not aloud to read it? Give me a break. Having a staff member paying attention to that is only logical.

Honestly I think it adds a hilarious bit of gamesmanship exchanging signals like that.

Really an arbitrary nothing-burger. Or at least it should be. ****, bring back wrist bands or give them microphones in the helmet.
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That’s why baseball went electronic.

The difference here is that the pitcher can’t throw a 98mph fastball into your ribs or at your head to make you stop.
 
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The lengths people went to cover this **** up, too.

Had coaches and staffers being quoted in articles about how they turned Michigan around after that COVID season...even telling their connects that are not media that certain coaches stunk and other coaches were great and they were the reason Michigan turned it around. They had their OC win a ******* Broyles Award. Lied to the media (Bruce Feldman), who looks like a complete dummy in all this (I do, too), too with the puff pieces he's done for Michigan over the years.

And the whole time these ***** just have a guy traveling around the country, dressing up in cosplay, pretending he's Danny Ocean and memorizing signs. Dude had to steal signs from CENTRAL ******* MICHIGAN lmfaoooooooo

And then, TCU gets tipped off on it, and they completely **** with Michigan and blow them out of the ******* water.

This story is lmfao.
 
BoxingRobes said:
The lengths people went to cover this **** up, too.

Had coaches and staffers being quoted in articles about how they turned Michigan around after that COVID season...even telling their connects that are not media that certain coaches stunk and other coaches were great and they were the reason Michigan turned it around. They had their OC win a ******* Broyles Award. Lied to the media (Bruce Feldman), who looks like a complete dummy in all this (I do, too), too with the puff pieces he's done for Michigan over the years.

And the whole time these ***** just have a guy traveling around the country, dressing up in cosplay, pretending he's Danny Ocean and memorizing signs. Dude had to steal signs from CENTRAL ******* MICHIGAN lmfaoooooooo

And then, TCU gets tipped off on it, and they completely **** with Michigan and blow them out of the ******* water.

This story is lmfao.
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He was stealing Michigan State signs from the CMU sidelines.
 
Xukmft.gif
 
mcnaire2004 said:
So people signal in front of thousands of people and I'm not aloud to read it? Give me a break. Having a staff member paying attention to that is only logical.

Honestly I think it adds a hilarious bit of gamesmanship exchanging signals like that.

Really an arbitrary nothing-burger. Or at least it should be. ****, bring back wrist bands or give them microphones in the helmet.
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Stealing signals in-game is fine. The illegal part is filming opponent’s sidelines weeks in advance.
 
George84 said:
He was stealing Michigan State signs from the CMU sidelines.
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I know...but had to steal signs from a Central Michigan GAME. Its the cheating equivalent of ******* a 2/10 when you've got a 9/10 at home. Like...you've just got a problem.
 
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PIPO said:
That’s why baseball went electronic.

The difference here is that the pitcher can’t throw a 98mph fastball into your ribs or at your head to make you stop.
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This and see what happens to a batter if he tries to sneak a peek at the catcher's signs to pitcher. Lol.
 
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