Brian Kelly Publicly Defends Michigan Sign Stealing

Submitted by GLORY on October 29th, 2023 at 6:44 PM

Not many coaches have spoken about the SignGate (probably since it's so prevalent), but here's Coach Kelly defending Michigan (full link attached below):

It’s silly,” he told ESPN on Wednesday. “Silly meaning my genuine feeling is that we have too many smart people that have looked at this and said we should be doing it and we haven’t taken the time to actually move it forward.”

Kelly said that teams attempting to steal signals of opponents has been “going on forever.”

Asked whether those efforts ever rose to the level of what Michigan is accused of, sending people to scout opponents in person and using recording devices, Kelly said, “Who knows.”

“But this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of sign stealing,” he said, “whether there is proposed sign stealing or people were buying tickets to other games. This is all part of why this should not even be part of the equation.”

Kelly said the tangible effect of stealing signals is debatable. In 32 years of coaching, he said, he has never believed they lost a game because of it.

“I’ve never come back to the office and go, they got us,” he added.

https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/2023/10/29/lsus-brian-kelly-comes-to-michigan-footballs-defense/

Football

fergusg

October 30th, 2023 at 3:20 AM ^

The NCAAF Board of Directors Infractions Process Committee agrees.  

They tried to get rid of the prohibition of in person scouting in 2021 - proposal didn’t pass (so we still serve a violation and appropriate sanction, which should be small imho).
 

See rational for proposal below and note “minimal competitive advantage”.

https://web3.ncaa.org/lsdbi/search/proposalView?id=106069

“The Board of Directors Infractions Process Committee requested that the Legislative Committee Modernization of the Rules Subcommittee focus its rules modernization efforts on identifying rules that no longer serve the needs of the membership and the 21st century student-athlete, and recommending modifications to or the elimination of such rules. Specifically, livestreams of intercollegiate competition and prerecorded game film are readily available in the digital age. The minimal competitive advantage gained by scouting future opponents in-person is outweighed by the monitoring and enforcement burdens of ensuring compliance with the legislation.”

Also - Baylor only team busted under this rule in 2016.  Minor penalties - albeit much smaller “major” violation.


https://web3.ncaa.org/lsdbi/search/miCaseView?id=100038

“Major Infractions Case

Institution:  Baylor University

Date:  December 21, 2016

Violation Summary:  Two Baylor University assistant football coaches exceeded the number of allowable recruiting evaluations for two prospects and had impermissible contact with one of the prospects. A third assistant football coach attended a game of a future opponent, which was prohibited off-campus scouting.

Penalty Summary:  The panel adopted the university's self-imposed penalties, including recruiting restrictions, a one-game suspension for two of the assistant coaches and a half-game suspension for the third assistant coach”

 

Joined: 09/25/2011

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rice4114

October 29th, 2023 at 6:58 PM ^

Here is the thing. We are so used to coaches and writers not be genuine in what they say publicly an honest opinion feels like a friend having your back. That is how much OSU,MSU, and the click bait posse have twisted this. Just state an honest and reasonable opinion and you are an advocate for the Michigan football team. That is our new standard, being honest.

Joined: 08/26/2010

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willirwin1778

October 29th, 2023 at 7:00 PM ^

What if the collective eyeballs of Mgoblog readership is enough attention to satisfy media advertisers to keep the "UM Sign Stealing" articles published for eternity like some sort of media click bait "fly wheel." 

Joined: 03/09/2013

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GoBlueBorderBattle

October 29th, 2023 at 7:12 PM ^

Exactly.

The ongoing investigation into Michigan football is a goldmine for journalists and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. At this stage, where neither Michigan nor the NCAA has issued any official statements, reporters can make claims without needing to cite concrete sources. With a large following of both fans and critics, simply using "Michigan" and "investigation" in a headline virtually guarantees reader engagement.

Joined: 01/11/2013

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goblu330

October 29th, 2023 at 7:02 PM ^

Controversial opinion.  I know he had a bad incident with a player at ND that I don’t know that much about, there could have been real culpability there, and for that he should be judged, if appropriate.  

But from a perspective of coaches that really make me mad, Kelly isn’t high on the list.  I sometimes see him really taking time during games to actually teach, and he gives good information in-game interviews, which is classy.  He also can call some legendary offensive football, not all the time, but enough to earn my respect.

I don’t hate him.  Tried to hate him.  But don’t hate him.

Joined: 01/07/2022

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G. Gulo of the Dale

October 30th, 2023 at 11:59 AM ^

This is mostly correct.  I (stupidly) watched the clip.  Most of what he said amounted to him expressing his uncertainty about how and if the scandal would hurt UM and Harbaugh (even if Harbaugh moved on the the NFL).  Annoyingly, he claimed that with each new leak or bit of info, the whole affair was becoming "sleazier"--which is both rich coming from Paul and silly, since all of the "new info" has done almost nothing to elevate the severity of the accusations.  So, reading between the lines, PF's tune is shifting a bit, but the video had almost nothing to do with "unleashing on" Harbaugh and UM--whatever "unleashes on" means in the first place?? 

Joined: 04/01/2013

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Avery Queen

October 29th, 2023 at 7:08 PM ^

So a basic question....but what exactly does sign stealing tell the defense? Does it tell the defense every facet of the specific play the offense is going to run(motion, line protection, route combination) or is it something more basic, like "the offense is going to pass"?

Joined: 12/10/2014

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Colt Burgess

October 29th, 2023 at 7:18 PM ^

Maurice Clarett too?

"I can go back and forth with the Michigan and OSU banter. It’s fun and comical on lots of levels. I can take the jokes about my past and all of the above…. In all honesty I think the investigation into Michigan for the hamburger, sign viewing or whatever it is is another reason for everyone to be mad at the NCAA. I’ve spoken up for Michigan in both cases. It’s actually stupid. Good scouting gets you all of the signs and signals you want. Michigan is a good football team and it’s actually healthy to have wins/loses go both ways. In all of this… realize who we all should be mad at and it’s the NCAA and it’s silly rules."

Joined: 02/20/2021

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jhayes1189

October 29th, 2023 at 7:22 PM ^

Form gleaning on podcasts and articles this last week, it seems the main thing coaches are concerned about their players being aware of are whether it run or pass pre-snap. (And this tracks well with my 7 years of playing experience in middle and high school, albeit at a much lower level)
 

For 11 players to completely break down an offensive of defensive call based on a sign in the matter of seconds that all these things occur in is completely unreasonable and stupid to believe it gives anything more than a minimal advantage. Honestly it would probably confuse them and get them more in their head if they had to know exactly what was coming. 
 

For the defense, it’s know run/pass, read and react accordingly.

For offense, be aware of the blitz or non blitz pre snap, know your keys post snap, QB’s ability to read a defense post snap, or RB’s ability to find cutback lanes, etc post snap. 
 

All in all, I have a feeling the “stealing signs” game is more about knowing run/pass on defense, and knowing where blitz is coming from for offense. Not “they knew exactly every play the other team was running! The only reason Michigan suddenly was great after being so bad in 2020!” Like twidiots galore are saying. 

Joined: 10/04/2021

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Hensons Mobile…

October 29th, 2023 at 7:24 PM ^

First of all, it tells the players nothing. The only thing the players know are what defense the coaches called. Of this, I'm nearly positive. That's just using my own intuition, so I guess I can't swear to it, but just play that out in your mind. The defense is taught all week to read the other team's signs and learn their playbooks? They wouldn't be able to pay attention to both sidelines at once so if they're busy reading the opponent's signs they're not looking at their own coaches.

Although we did learn from the OSU 2022 video that they can yell run or pass ahead of time.

As for what the coaches could know, I don't know how in depth it could get. Probably depends on the team and how much they've change up from week to week. Have to assume people change shit up on Michigan a lot to catch us off guard but most teams can't just line up and run their basic stuff to beat us. And even more so after we got a reputation for being good at stealing signs.

Joined: 09/12/2019

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UPMichigan

October 29th, 2023 at 7:20 PM ^

Just more proof that Ryan Day is the sorest loser of them all. I hope we blow the brakes off him again and the entire fan base turns on him for the 3rd year in a row. There isn’t a coach in America that has said this gives anyone a large enough advantage to swing the outcome of a game, except maybe Ryan Day.

Joined: 01/09/2010

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Hensons Mobile…

October 29th, 2023 at 7:46 PM ^

I appreciate the kind words from BK. We're obviously never going to get a coach to go on the record and say "Yeah, everybody does this, including us." So this is about as good as it will get for us.

Wilbon on PTI last week said that a coach in the past told him they went to Spring Games to look at signs.

So it's nice to have these build up so there's something on Michigan's side. But for every BK and Deion there will be someone else saying this is the greatest crime known to college football, including people with equal weight to BK.

Whoever cohosts with Wasserman on one of the Athletic podcasts (yeah, I know) who was actually being fairly kind to Michigan ultimately said, after they discussed Deion's statements, that he spoke to a bunch of coaches who shall remain anonymous and all of them said the opposite of Deion, which I took to mean that knowing the signs is a game-changer.  And this person, for some reason, concluded that anonymous people were more trustworthy, which makes no sense. It's real easy to shit on Michigan when you don't have to put your name on it. And any school that is competing with Michigan for recruits benefits from having Michigan be in the crosshairs, so why not shit on them anonymously given the opportunity?

Then you also have people who say things that are in our favor but then everyone walks around saying the opposite. I kept hearing that Dan Lanning came out against Michigan. Maybe he said something I missed, but when I looked it up, all I could find was that he said two things of consequence:

  1. That his Georgia defense kicked the shit out of us in 2021 (meaning our spying was ineffective), and
  2. "I think everybody's always aware of when they're traveling on the road where they go," said Lanning. "What they do, I think that's, it's your job to make sure that you protect your team."

Not really sure what the question was that prompted that answer, and obviously going on the road isn't really relevant to how Stalions was doing his spying. But there's still no way to hear that as anything other than, to some extent, you have to make sure you're not being spied on because other teams spy on you.

One last thing I want to complain about: Yesterday during one of the halftimes, I think on CBS, one of the talking heads said how sign stealing is as old as dirt but what Michigan did was over the line. The example he gave of spying that is totally just a thing people do (so, not crossing the line) is that staff go through the trash of other teams at the hotels, looking for information. Like that's normal behavior.

So my point is, everyone's mind is already made up. We're all just looking for confirmation for our viewpoint. And of course, our viewpoint is the correct one.

Joined: 09/12/2019

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