College Sports Forum

College Sports Forum

College sports fan talk.

Sign Stealing: Dirty Deed or Competitive Advantage?

+4 HS
tajikey's picture
November 6, 2020 at 1:30pm
60 Comments

Over the past few days, I've read a couple different articles speaking to Clemson's proclivity for sign stealing. Most recently (today), SI published an article speaking to this very behavior.

https://www.si.com/college/2020/11/06/clemson-signal-stealing-dabo-swinn...

The article quotes another article, in which Coach Swinney says this:

“You’re in a competition. You’re competing and you want to get every edge that you can. If you have an opponent who’s basically screaming out, ‘Hey, we’re running the ball,’ well, that’s an advantage.”

And how it relates closer to home:

In Ohio State’s first five possessions, it produced four scoring drives and 290 offensive yards on 35 snaps, 8.29 yards per play. The next eight possessions led to one scoring drive, 243 total yards and 4.86 yards per play. Did Venables’s support staff crack the Buckeyes’ play-calling code during the game? A couple of staffers at other schools suggested it.

Brian Kelly acknowledged it's likely Clemson steals signs; Miami OC Rhett Lashlee concurs. My question to you is, does it matter? Is what Clemson is allegedly doing considered dirty, or are they simply taking advantage of an opponent's unintentional transparency?

 

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

View 60 Comments