“Adjust” to them if you are unable to defeat them.
Following his statement to reporters that Michigan needed to “make it an even playing field” with Ohio State following the Buckeyes’ alleged theft of their signage, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy is certain to exacerbate the already intense rivalry between the Wolverines and Ohio State.
McCarthy stated during a College Football Playoff teleconference on Wednesday, “I also feel like it’s so unfortunate because there’s probably — I don’t want to say a crazy number, but I’d say a good number, 80 percent of the teams in college football steal signs.” The Associated Press reports that McCarthy made these remarks. It’s merely a peculiarity of football. It has existed for a long time.
When Ohio State began stealing our signs in 2020 or 2019, it was lawful for them to do so, so we had to adjust to level with them and create a level playing field.
The AP was later informed by McCarthy of his meaning on the team’s “evening out.”
“I meant to say that we need to level the playing field when I mentioned that we need to change our own signs, develop our own signs, and distribute those changes when we know that signs have probably been stolen,” McCarthy stated.
Naturally, Michigan has been involved in one of the greatest controversies in NCAA football this season due to allegations that staff member Connor Stalions planned a complex plot involving in-person scouting and sign theft.
Advanced in-person scouting is prohibited by NCAA policy, even though sign theft is not.
Jim Harbaugh, the head coach of Michigan, was punished for three games by the Big Ten as a result of the incident, and the Stalions also resigned.
There is still a chance for additional sanctions, such as the cancellation of victories, while the NCAA continues to look into Michigan’s involvement in the issue.
It would be “extremely unfortunate just to not get recognized for all the hard work we’ve put in,” according to McCarthy.
“Ultimately, though, it won’t alter the degree of pride and accomplishment we feel from being a part of this football team and all that we’ve accomplished because we know how much work and effort we’ve put in and that we played the position correctly,” he continued.
However, it seemed that some people were frustrated by the perceived amount of effort Michigan had put in to make it to the national championship game—the school’s first appearance since 1997.
It simply seems so bad,” McCarthy remarked. We really put in a ton of work. We do study a lot of movies and search for such subtle patterns. We can spend ten or fifteen minutes on a single clip examining the minute features of linebackers’ or D-ends’ posture, or the safeties’ off-level movements. You might say that it’s all sign stealing, but there are a lot more factors at work. For example, the corner to the field is press, but the corner to the boundary is off.
“And a lot of stuff that gets covered up, a lot of labor that is covered up simply because of how sign stealing is perceived from the outside.”
