Good story on sign-stealing ... from a sign-stealer

Silverstreak02 · Oct 26, 2023

Sorry, it's behind a paywall -- but if you have an Athletic subscription, this is a great read.

I'll link it and give a couple of highlights to not give away the entire story. Max Olson interviewed a Power 5 sign stealer who gave is thoughts on Michigan's operation, why every team steals signals (not to the level Michigan does, obviously) and how teams avoid getting got.

In his experience, there’s no need to cross that line. 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.

Stalions has been described as a “savant” and wrote on his since-deleted LinkedIn page that he employed “Marine Corps philosophies and tactics” in his role. The signal stealer insists it’s not that difficult for others to pick up this 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.”

LINK: https://theathletic.com/4999536/2023/10/26/college-football-sign-stealing-rules-strategies/

RELATED: If anyone's interested in a free 30-day trial of The Athletic, I have a few I can gift.

88MechEng · Oct 26, 2023