Matt Rhule addresses sign-stealing following Michigan investigation

Matt Rhule had a thoughtful answer on sign stealing amid the Michigan investigation going into last weekend.

The Nebraska head coach chalked up sign stealing to being part of the game. Now, filming practices and breaking the rules, as Michigan allegedly did in some way, Rhule is a, well, rule follower.

But stealing signs in a general sense? It’s commonplace.

“Sign stealing happens every game,” Rhule said. “There’s nothing wrong with teams over there looking over trying to steal our signs. There’s nothing wrong with us trying to look at their signs, that’s why you should have mics in the helmets, right? Like all these coaches have voted against it every year, it’s because they don’t want to teach their quarterback. In the NFL, the quarterback goes out there with three play calls … 

“But you get the college and you’re watching the game on a Tuesday night and you know they got the signal … It’s also why the kids are less prepared (for the pros) … Get rid of all the stupid signs on the sidelines … We could just play football, the way it was meant to be … I will not carry that over to going and filming someone else’s practices or something like that … That’s completely something different. I’m not saying that that happened.”

Matt Rhule honest about sign stealing

But, if you step over the line, even with sign stealing, there should be consequences. Hence, there are rules.

“Sports need rules, right? Sports need rules to keep competitive balance. And when someone does something against the rules we say, well should that really even be a rule? And it is the rule … We don’t get five downs … When I play against somebody and I know that person has friends on the next staff, I know if they have our signs, they’re having it the next week, that’s all part of the game and you have to do what you do. 

“We should absolutely have technology, but if there’s a rule, the rule should be followed. And I’m not speaking about what’s happening right now because I don’t know what happened. But if that is happening somewhere, it’s completely, completely wrong.”

Rhule didn’t say Michigan did anything wrong. In fact, he brushed off commenting on the situation specifically since he isn’t 100% certain nor aware.

“No one from the Big Ten or NCAA has asked me anything yet, so I’m not gonna probably comment on anything like that,” Rhule said. “I wouldn’t ever want to cache to somebody else going through a hard time. I don’t know anything