COACHES TEND TO clam up when asked about paranoia among their ranks. Without fail, they’ll start by saying they’re too focused on the task at hand to worry about anyone pulling a fast one on them. Maybe they’ll laugh and say they’re naive. But eventually they’ll admit to hearing cautionary tales through the years — lip readers in the coaches box, parabolic microphones pointed where they shouldn’t be, wild stuff that one Power 5 assistant says “would make [Bill] Belichick seem like a saint.”
Everyone’s a gossip, especially in the small world of college football. Share enough stories, and don’t be surprised when those previously buttoned-up coaches start divulging experiences of their own — accounts of malfunctioning headsets and former players who went turncoat.
Former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said he never paid much attention to things like sign-stealing until a few years ago, when television producers moved their cameras to the opposite side of the field. The reason was innocent enough; Niumatalolo said they wanted to get a shot of the Navy sideline with the brigade in the background. But then an assistant warned, “That’s bad.” Niumatalolo asked why and the assistant, whom he recently hired, explained how the school he came from had spent three hours watching TV copy of Navy’s games to match their signals to their plays. “We’re the most paranoid people,” Niumatalolo said. “And a lot of it there’s good reason for.”
North Carolina coach Mack Brown sees a healthy level of mistrust as being an essential requirement for the job. “It’s why my hair is really gray, I look old and I haven’t slept well for 30 years,” he said.
The threat of subterfuge is so prevalent there’s a shorthand for when it’s believed to have happened: getting skunked. While stealing signals is as old as the sport itself, a source said it has become a “cottage industry” of late. Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles estimates 75% of teams steal signals. “It’s bigger than most people know,” he said. Technological advancements and expanding support staffs are fueling concerns. But analog methods aren’t to be discounted, either. Just last week, Georgia coach Kirby Smart had to respond to an unsubstantiated rumor that his team had filmed Ohio State’s practice. Smart brushed it off, calling it “ludicrous.” Former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops once said that he regretted practicing in the Superdome prior to the 2003 Sugar Bowl because there were too many prying eyes.
No place is safe, and no one is above suspicion. It turns out not even ball boys can be trusted to move freely on the opposing team’s sideline over fears that they might hear (or record) sensitive information. The same goes for the seemingly innocuous members of the chain gang — the crew that marks the line of scrimmage and line to gain, and holds the marker displaying what down it is.
A longtime head coach and coordinator warned, “Think about all the money, dude,” before ruling out any theory as being too far-fetched.
“Think about it, and that’s where it’s at,” he said. “When you got assistant coaches making $2 million a year — assistant coaches! — and you got position coaches making $600,000-800,000 a year, I mean, everybody gets used to a standard of living they want to maintain.”
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A simple fix might be to follow the NFL’s lead and allow coaches to communicate via headsets built into the helmets of an offensive and defensive player. But there’s been no push of late to upgrade in-game technology. Besides, some coaches believe it would be a one-sided solution.
Narduzzi, a longtime defensive assistant before he became a head coach, said offenses already dictate tempo and would go even faster with headsets. So he has a radical idea: use headsets but bar offenses from snapping the ball before 25 seconds on the clock until the 2-minute mark of each half.
“Then we can actually huddle on offense, huddle as a defense, and now we can talk to the Mike linebacker and give a defense,” Narduzzi said. “And now all of a sudden we have a real game and now offenses can’t steal our s— because they do.”
But there’s not much hope. The NCAA rules committee has shown no willingness to slow down offenses. Still, Narduzzi said he’d suggest the change to the committee this offseason.
For the time being, sign-stealing remains a fact of life in college football.
Not only is Knowles convinced that opponents have filmed his signals, he believes some teams will then turn around and share what they’ve learned with others. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?” Knowles said.
Knowles said he doesn’t like to talk about it because what can he really do to stop it? But since he was asked, he wasn’t going to pretend it wasn’t real. “It is a huge part of what goes on,” he said, “and kind of a story behind the game.”
“You know,” he said, “if you can imagine it, it can be done when you have resources and people and time.”
And the inclination.
STEVE SHAW, NCAA national coordinator of officials, walks a fine line, acknowledging the concerns of coaches while dealing in the reality of what they’re suggesting. Do bad actors exist in college football? Sure, Shaw will certainly allow for that. But he asks: What’s the impact?
Shaw said to first imagine that a ball boy or member of the chain gang is smart enough to comprehend what’s being said by the coaches in his vicinity. Then imagine that individual is clever enough to signal what he has heard surreptitiously to the coaches across the field. Next imagine that coach on the receiving end both understands the message and has the time to relay it to the players before the ball is snapped. And, finally, imagine that information is correct, useful and leads to an impactful play.
Shaw said the sophistication of such a system is hard to fathom. But, he added, “The paranoia still exists.”
Part of Shaw’s job is to track down these rumors. Coaches might not speak up publicly, but they’re not above sending an email to their conference office and attaching supporting video evidence.
Shaw recalled an instance in which a video sent in by a coach appeared to show a ball boy signaling run or pass based on how he wore his hat. But it wasn’t — in officiating parlance — indisputable evidence. What looks rock-solid in one clip can fall apart in the next. “Any time we’ve done these,” Shaw said, “it’s hard to run it all the way to ground.”
But there’s something Shaw offers up on his own as an issue the sport might have to deal with in the near future. It’s something multiple coaches have brought to his attention recently, and he believes it has merit: the misuse of smartwatches.
As a blanket rule, technology of that nature isn’t allowed on sidelines. But officials focus those rules on coaches, Shaw said, and not “ancillary personnel.” So if a ball boy were to wear a smartwatch, what’s to stop him from sidling up to the opposing team’s coordinator, calling up the coaches box and letting those coaches listen in?
If that sounds absurd, think again, because Shaw said there was a coach who sent in a video which appeared to suggest that very thing happened this season. Shaw said the video showed a ball boy with a smartwatch “loitering in the area.” Shaw then asked, “So what does that tell you?”
“We saw what he was saying,” Shaw said, “but there’s no way to confirm any of that. … He didn’t put his left arm up and say, ‘Speak into the mic, Coach.’ It was just where it could have been on.”
Shaw said his group didn’t go as far as subpoenaing phone records, “but maybe that’s the next step.” Another possibility is addressing the use of smartwatches with the rules committee during the offseason. Shaw doesn’t want to institute a TSA-style pre-check, but he said the officials have to remain vigilant.
“Coaches, I mean, I love ’em, but they’re paranoid,” he said. “That’s their world, right? They’re all looking for — if you get me a little advantage, that’s what I need. I need just a little advantage.”
So who’s to say how far they’ll go and who they’ll enlist in their efforts to find an edge? Shaw is as open as he can be with what he knows, but he got cagey when asked whether a ball boy or member of the chain gang has been disciplined for something illegal or unethical.
Shaw laughed knowingly. “When I answer that,” he said, “I know the follow-up question is, ‘Tell me who.'”
“These things are out there,” he said. “They’re more paranoia than anything. But, yes, have people been moved out of their assignment? Yes, they have.”
So, like any good urban legend, it’s grounded in some amount of truth. But when everyone is operating in the dark, it’s hard to see how big the problem really is.
