Sign stealing has been part of the college football game forever, but it has never been a bigger point of discussion than it is right now. With Jim Harbaugh's Michigan football program under fire for sending advanced scouts to steal signals from upcoming opponents, some other college programs have revealed their stories about sign stealing. Here is one from four college football seasons ago.
In Alex Scarborough and Adam Rittenberg's feature for ESPN, they recount a story emanating from the 2020 College Football Playoff. Ahead of the 2019 national championship game, sources inside the LSU Tigers program suspected that Clemson was stealing signs. LSU believes Clemson sent advanced scouts to the SEC Championship Game and the Peach Bowl to try to steal their signals.
Nobody on the LSU staff addressed it publicly, but they speculated Clemson's former defensive coordinator and current Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables to be behind the operation. He is supposedly proficient at it but has been caught by opponents on multiple occasions. LSU obliterated Georgia and Oklahoma in back-to-back postseason games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
What led LSU to think Clemson had effectively stolen their signals was the high-powered Tigers offense punted on all of its first three possessions, resulting in only one first down. That is when then-LSU head coach Ed Orgeron told then-LSU offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger to "change it up."
That 2019 LSU offense was historic, as nobody had any hope of beating Joe Burrow at his apex.
LSU believes Clemson stole signs before their 2019 national title bout
While Michigan is at the epicenter of this, let's just hope this does not become a witch hunt like the steroid era was in baseball. There may be bigger culprits than others, but the NCAA needs to do something about it. Unfortunately, the NCAA is about as useless as I am under the hood of a car. I actually believe MLB commissioner Rob Manfred would do something worthwhile to solve this mess.
Hypothetically, let's say Clemson did in fact steal LSU's signs ahead of the national title bout four years ago. It may have made a big difference in the Tigers' first few offensive series, but slowing that juggernaut offense down was next to an impossibility. To date, it remains the greatest offense I have ever witnessed in a college football season. Clemson was a good program then, but it had no hope.
Ultimately, news of Clemson possibly stealing signs has our attention on not just the Tigers themselves, but on Venables' Sooners program, too. OU has not lost a game this season either. Where things stand, two of the six best teams in the country heading into the Week 9 slate now have ties to stealing signals by way of advanced in-person scouting. What a time to be alive, folks. Oh, boy!
If going to these extremes to steal signals taught us anything, it is that it does not win the playoff.