Steve Sarkisian makes passionate case for helmet communication with players

In the wake of the Michigan sign-stealing scandal, there has been a large discussion in college football about the ethics of stealing signs. Amid that, many have wondered why college doesn’t use radio communication, like the NFL. Now, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has shared that he’s in favor of helmet communication.

Sarkisian went so far as to call on the Texas media around him in a press conference to go write articles about the issue amid a passionate call for helmet communication.

“Yes, please,” Steve Sarkisian said. “Everybody write an article about why doesn’t college football have coach-to-player communication, so I don’t have to deal with sign stealing and I spend half my week changing signals and signs rather than coaching the game of football. So, yes, please. Write an article.”

The logic behind the rule is that there would be a competitive disadvantage between schools that can afford those things and those that can’t. However, Steve Sarkisian isn’t buying that argument.

“It all makes sense to me. There’s no shortage of money in college football, clearly. That whole idea that it’s a competitive disadvantage for those that can’t do it, or that stadiums aren’t equipped to have that type of technology, I don’t buy it. I don’t understand it.”

The Michigan sign-stealing scandal has dominated the discussion around college football in recent weeks. Hypothetically, helmet communication would limit or even eliminate the effectiveness of stealing signs.

“The fact that every time I turn on anything late at night and we’re talking about college football, if [it’s] not the first topic, the second topic is we’re talking about sign stealing,” Sarkisian said. “Our game is too good, there’s too many good stories going on right now in college football that that’s at the forefront of what we’re doing.”

Steve Sarkisian does understand why the scandal has dominated the topic of conversation. He has major issues with what happened at Michigan too. However, he feels that there are more great stories to highlight that are being overlooked by something correctable with technology.

“It should be at the forefront because I think what was going on was wrong, but at the end of the day, that shouldn’t be at the forefront. There’s too many great stories. There’s too many great players around the country that are playing good football, too many teams that are playing good football right now for us not to be talking about those things. We’re talking about sign stealing,” Sarkisian said.

“Let’s just fix the problem. It’s not that hard. Let’s get player-to-coach communication and move forward.”

Steve Sarkisian on Quinn Ewers’ play

Quinn Ewers returned to play against TCU after injuring his shoulder. After the game, Steve Sarkisian broke down how he played.

“I thought Quinn played pretty well,” Sarkisian said. “Coming off that injury — made some big-time plays in some big-time moments for us. Hopefully, we can continue to get him more and more healthy as we move forward.”