Kirby Smart explains why he is not concerned with sign-stealing in college football

Sign-stealing is currently the talk of the college football world, with the Michigan scandal at the forefront of the conversation. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday and was asked for his opinion on stealing signs.

Smart shared that sign-stealing is not a big concern for him. His strategy is to focus on his team and not worry about what is happening on the opposing sideline.

“I’ve never been a big, ‘try to get their signals because you’re across the field from them,’ or, ‘hey they’re getting our signals.’ Because people say all the time, ‘They got our signal.’ That’s like a cop out for a coach to me,” Kirby Smart said. “They might have your signal. They still gotta block the dude; they still gotta do all this stuff to the dude. And every time I ever heard somebody, ‘Well they’re gonna run this,’ or ‘they’re gonna run that,’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m worried about calling the game.’”

Needless to say, focusing on his own program has worked our pretty well for Smart.

Georgia has won the past two national titles and is undefeated thus far in 2023 as the Bulldogs attempt to win a third straight.

Smart added that dating back to his days as a defensive coordinator at Alabama, he’s always been focused on his own team and not trying to get the opponent’s signs.

“When I was a defensive coordinator, I don’t need somebody in my ear trying to tell me what they’re doing before the play, because it messes you up about half the time,” Smart said.

Kirby Smart: College teams should have option of coach-to-player communication

One potential way to eliminate sign-stealing in college football is for coaches to be able to communicate verbally with a player who is on the field.

In the NFL, a coach gives the calls to a quarterback on offense and one player on defense through headset communication.

Kirby Smart was asked on the Pat McAfee Show if the college game should go to that method, too.

“I’ve been on the rules committee, and it’s easier said than done, because you don’t have the capability. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh yeah you can, you can afford it, it’s easy to do.’ In the SEC, yeah, that’s real easy to do. But it’s not easy to do in every conference, and you want to have competitive balance,” Smart said. “So there’s some conferences that might not have the capabilities to do the pieces in the ear and do the things the NFL does. I would be for that, because it would take a lot of headache off defensive coaches, offensive coaches, trying to do all this crazy stuff we do with signs and all these signals. It would make it much easier.”

Smart warned that it wouldn’t solve everything, though. Some players would likely still be receiving signals in some way, because most teams operate a no-huddle offense where multiple players need signs.

“But there would still be offenses that choose not to use the earpiece, because they can’t get word to their receivers. You only get one earpiece. So the receivers over there don’t know what to do, and they’re going to still do the signs and signal to them and go really fast. Everybody should have a right to do what they want to do. You shouldn’t be mandated to do anything. But I do think the teams that are more traditional like NFL offenses and NFL defenses, if that makes the process cleaner and we don’t have to deal with all this, I’d be all for that.”