They started it. That is, essentially, the claim from the star of Michigan football, quarterback JJ McCarthy, who said in his press conference ahead of the January 8 College Football Playoff championship that the reason there was a Wolverines sign-stealing scandal at all was because other teams did it, too. And by other teams, he mostly means Michigan’s blood rival, Ohio State.
On Wednesday, McCarthy said that the Michigan football program found out that Ohio State had been stealing signs three or four years ago, and the reason that Michigan began its own system of looking at other teams’ signals was to keep up with the Buckeyes.
“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. It’s just a thing about football. It’s been around for years,” McCarthy said, per the transcript of his media conference.
“We actually had to adapt because in 2020 or 2019 when Ohio State was stealing our signs, which is legal and they were doing it, we had to get up to the level that they were at, and we had to make it an even playing field.”
Michigan Football Sign-Stealing Scandal Only Part of the Story
Of course, JJ McCarthy has only been with Michigan football since 2021, so the alleged stealing of signs by OSU occurred before his arrival. Indeed, while Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh accepted a three-game suspension and staffer Connor Stalions, who was at the center of the scandal, resigned his post in November.
But one of the grievances that was presented by Michigan football throughout the unfolding of the sign-stealing scandal insisted that the Wolverines were hardly the only program that engaged in such chicanery. There was evidence linking several other programs to sign stealing, but it was only Michigan that paid a price.
Defensive tackle Mason Graham admitted that defensive players were the prime beneficiaries of the sign-stealing scandal but to him, it amounted to little more than intense film study.
“More the allegations are coming on the defensive side of the ball,” Graham said. “I feel like we just kind of watch film and we get tendencies from other teams, just like Trevor was saying, and we kind of just pick up on it. I feel like we just have a high football IQ here at Michigan. We go over specific situations multiple times a week, just kind of learning more about the game every day, every meeting, just kind of just building that IQ and being starter football players all around so we pick up on things faster, even if it’s in-game adjustments.”
This was the play that set up victory tbh. Mason Graham is a certified beast.
JJ McCarthy: ‘I Just Feel Like it Sucks’
And JJ McCarthy agreed. One of the aspects that gets overlooked about the Michigan sign-stealing scandal is that knowing the signs only gives a team a limited advantage. That team still needs to translate that knowledge onto the field, and to adjust for when when opponents change their signs.
To attribute Michigan football’s success this year to the sign-stealing scandal, McCarthy says, takes away from the work the players put in.
“I just feel like it sucks, just because like Mason said, we do work our butts off,” JJ McCarthy said. “We do watch so much film and look for those little tendencies and spend like 10, 15 minutes on one clip alone just looking at all the little details of the posture, of the linebackers or the D-ends, the safeties off levels, the corner to the field is press but the corner to the boundary is off, little stuff like that.
“It’s like, you could say it’s all sign stealing, but there’s a lot more that goes into play, and a lot of stuff that gets masked, a lot of work that gets masked just because of the outside perception of what sign stealing is all about.”
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JJ McCarthy Fires Shot at Michigan Football Rival Over Sign-Stealing Scandal