Kirby Smart offers opinion on ethics behind sign-stealing

Michigan‘s sign-stealing scandal and investigation has taken over the college football discourse as the Wolverines could be facing major penalties in the future for staffer Connor Stalions’ involvement in high-level, prohibited scouting.

Head coaches across the country have been asked about their take on the situation, and the back-to-back defending national champion Kirby Smart is no different. Smart faced the Wolverines in the 2021 College Football Playoff and was asked if he had any suspicion of Georgia‘s signals being stolen during that Peach Bowl matchup.

“No, I didn’t notice anything or know anything,” Smart said. “Nobody we talked to warned us or anything like that, I mean I think everybody we play they say, ‘They steal your signals’. I mean when we play somebody they’re always like they’re great at stealing your signals, but what they’re referencing is different than stealing them. I mean they’re talking about people coming to film on, that’s completely different. But we’ve tried to hide the signals, hold the calls, put signs up, do all that. But there’s nothing I remember about the Michigan game that makes me thing that.”

Smart was also asked about his attitudes towards signals being stolen both in games and outside of games with Michigan’s situation looming, starting with his views specifically in regards to going to opponent’s games and potentially using technology to document another teams signals.

“I’ve never heard of anybody going to the games to watch, and film, and do all that, all the stuff that’s going on, everybody’s talking about. I don’t know anybody that’s ever done that or I’ve never been asked to do that as a young coach or known anybody to do that. I’ve never heard of that,” Smart said. “In high school football, I grew up with my Dad, we would go watch other teams play. That was a part of what you did, you went and watched the other team play, you sat out there with four other coaches and you drew up their plays while they were doing it. That’s pre cell phone and probably pre signals.”

The NCAA prohibits the off-campus, in-person scouting of future opponents by coaches and personnel, which has resulted in Stalions being suspended with pay until the conclusion of the investigation with reports of him attending opponents’ games surfacing.

If the investigation reveals that Stalions not only attended opponent’s games, but used electronic equipment to document other team’s signals, the Wolverines would face harsher punishment in the future. But stealing signals within a game is something Smart and most of the college football landscape have become accustomed to.

“As far as in-game, I think people try to do that. As a signal caller, I had to call defenses, it confused me if I had to sit there and try to wait on somebody to tell me what they thought they got and I’m trying to think about the best call for the situation is,” Smart admitted. “And you’re relying on misinformation or something that’s not very reliable so I don’t know.”

“There’s times that people have said they’ve had our signals in game and they knew this or that, and you talk to the team that you played last and sometimes when you’re not gonna play that team they share what they might’ve had on you and things like that. So I’ve heard of it in game, but a lot of times you can know the signal and still not do it right. It’s kind of the joke we have is you know what play’s coming and you mess it up and I’ve laughed with coaches about that before.”

Smart’s sentiments mirror those of Colorado head coach Deion Sanders who opens up another conversation about how important stealing signals truly is in the game of football. But it’s clear that Smart is unfamiliar with the nature and extent of sign-stealing that’s currently causing a lot of strife in Ann Arbor at the moment.