Steve Spurrier shares his thoughts on sign-stealing in college football
More and more details have continued to come to light of the Michigan football sign-stealing investigation in the past week. Many different prominent figures across the college football landscape have also shared their thoughts on the issue in the past few days.
It’s one of the hottest topics across college football right now. On Wednesday evening’s version of The Paul Finebaum Show, former college football coaching legend Steve Spurrier shared his thoughts on the matter.
Steve Spurrier shared a number of stories from his past
“Yeah, I tell you what. When you go to the ballpark, you’ve got some GAs [grad assistants] up in the press box. And they’re watching the guys signal it in and all that, this, that, and the other. And every now and then, I got up there and up top, a GA would say, ‘Coach I got their signal for quarters coverage. That means they don’t have a free safety down there.’ And I remember one time he yelled that they’re playing quarters. We called the play. Our fastest guy on a post route. He caught a touchdown, and it was against Arkansas,” Spurrier began the story.
“And later in the offseason, I told them I said, ‘Bobby [Allen], we got your signal for the quarters coverage they call it. No free safety. He said, ‘Yeah, we need to work on hiding our signals a little better.’ But everybody knows during the game you got to hide your signals. People have four or five [people sending signals in], this, that, and the other. That’s just what you do. You hide your signals. But to send a guy to the other guy’s camp. Posting video of the signal guys and matching it up with their plays. That’s almost too much,” Spurrier said on Wednesday.
Finebaum asked Spurrier if it gives a team like Michigan a significant advantage by sending Connor Stalions to all the different stadiums across the country.
“Well, if you know the plays of the other team, it is helpful. We had a quarterback at Florida that transferred to Vanderbilt [Tim Olmstead] in ’99. And I think they put him in charge of getting all of our signals. And he did a heck of a good job. We beat Vanderbilt 13-6 that night. And later, he said, ‘Coach we knew everything you all were doing.’ So, we tried to hide our signals better after that,” Spurrier laughed.
Florida only managed 269 yards of total offense in that game.
So, where does Spurrier draw the line in sign-stealing?
“Yeah, I think the rule that you cannot electronically or whatever you call it, go make videos of the guy doing all the signals and that. So, that’s what they should not have done. The course of the game, you put a GA or analyst guy, I guess they call them now, up there. And if he can pick off a signal, I think that’s part of the game. But, that should only happen during the ballgame,” the legendary former college football head coach said.
Did Spurrier change his signals week to week or were his basically the same?
“Uh, they’re basically the same, but you hide them, try to hide them better. I used to stand on one side of my guy that did the signals and somebody else stood on the other side. But if the ball is at midfield, and the other team’s press box is up on the other side, they have a chance at it,” Spurrier said.
The college football coaching legend then shared another classic story about his experience with teams trying to steal his signals when he was the head man for the Florida Gators.
“Back in ’97 when we rotated quarterbacks that game against FSU, they had all of our signals. They had us down pretty good from what everything we heard. So, I said, well I’ll just give the quarterback the play every other play the quarterback’s going in.
Maybe they’re not going to get the signal. So, that was the reason we did that. And we ended up winning the game, beating No. 1 in the country. So, that’s sometimes why you rotate quarterbacks,” Spurrier explained.
Florida ended up winning that game, 32-29, in yet another classic battle between the two rivals.