Michigan football's J.J. McCarthy on sign-stealing: '(The players) did things the right way'

J.J. McCarthy addressed his team's sign-stealing scandal on a teleconference ahead of Monday's national championship game between No. 1 Michigan football (14-0) and No. 2 Washington (14-0).

Michigan's junior quarterback — named Rose Bowl Game offensive MVP after he completed 17 of 27 passes for 216 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions — was asked how he would feel, hypothetically, if the Wolverines were to win a national title only for it to get vacated down the line, like USC's 2005 championship.

"From an outside perspective it would be very unfortunate just to not get recognized for all the hard work we put in and everything we accomplished over the last year," McCarthy said. "But at the end of the day it won’t change the amount of accomplishment and amount of pride for being on this football team. ... We know what we’ve put in.

"We know we did things the right way as players. Whatever happens without the outside controversy is outside of our control, whatever the NCAA wants to do is out of our control. We're going to appreciate the things we can control and the things we did accomplish."

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Head coach Jim Harbaugh spoke during the first half of the 40-minute phone call with reporters Wednesday morning and though he did his best to keep the focus on Washington, the final task remaining before his team, seemed more irked by the same question than his players were.

"Getting ready for this game, one-track mind," he said. "I guess you want to live in the world of Rumorville or speculation, we just don’t really have any room to be doing that at this point. Our job’s done elsewhere."

Some, like noted U-M critic Paul Finebaum, have said the title "won't come with an asterisk," if Michigan (14-0, 10-0 Big Ten) does win. Still, supporters of other programs around the country may disagree after the Wolverines were marred in multiple scandals this season.

The first stemmed from impermissible recruiting activities during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season. In January, the NCAA served Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel a draft of a notice of allegations, which stated it had evidence that showed a number of infractions: analysts serving in on-field capacities as coaches, staffers having contact with recruits during a non-contact period and coaches overseeing workouts via zoom during unsanctioned hours — all Level II violations.

When Harbaugh was asked about them, he denied any knowledge. NCAA officials determined that was misleading, so they tagged him with a Level I violation, the most serious of offenses.

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Harbaugh and the NCAA had seemingly worked out a four-game suspension as a negotiated resolution this offseason, but it fell through in the late stages of summer, so U-M suspended him internally for three games as a peace offering, but the sport's governing body has yet to have its say.

However, the scandal that truly rocked the college football landscape didn't come to light until mid-October, when reports surfaced that the NCAA was investigating the Wolverines for sign stealing.

In the days and weeks that followed, details emerged about former recruiting staffer Connor Stalions and his plot to illegally obtain other team's signs by sending accomplices to games of future U-M opponents, having them record the signals given on the sideline in game, then matching them up with the game film to de-code their communication.

Later, video came out that also appeared to show someone who looked like Stalions dressed in Central Michigan coaching gear on the CMU sideline during its season-opening game at Michigan State.

Though Harbaugh was never directly implicated or shown to have any knowledge of the situation, as head coach he was deemed by league commissioner Tony Petitti to be indirectly responsible, and as such was suspended the final three regular season games for violating the Big Ten's Sportsmanship policy.

Since that time, players and coaches alike have dodged questions around the situation for much of the season, only implying they've done nothing wrong.

"We're right where we wanted to be," said defensive tackle Mason Graham on Wednesday. "That’s all we’re worried about."

At the same time, they've openly admitted while they don't directly care about outsider's opinions, they've use the noise as hate fuel to drive their "one-track mind." McCarthy detailed that even more, when he was as candid as anybody within the program has been the past two-plus months.

"I feel like it's so unfortunate because there's probably, I don't want to say a crazy number, but probably a good number, 80% of teams in college football steal signs," McCarthy said. "It's a thing about football, it's been about for years. We actually had to adapt because in 2020, or 2019 when Ohio State was stealing our signs — which is legal and they were doing it a legit way — we had to get up to the level they were at and make it an even playing field.

"I just feel like it sucks because ... we do work our butts off, we do watch film and look for those little tendencies. Spend 10 or 15 minutes on one clip alone and look at the little details: the posture of a linebacker or d-end, is the safety off-level, if the corner to the field is press but the corner to the boundary is off ... you can say it's all sign stealing, but there's more that goes into play ... a lot of work gets masked because of what the outside perception of sign-stealing is all about."

Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.

Next up: Huskies

Matchup: No. 1 Michigan (14-0) vs. No. 2 Washington (14-0), CFP title game.

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Monday; NRG Stadium, Houston.

TV/radio: ESPN (and its family of networks); WXYT-FM (97.1) WTKA-AM (1050).

At stake: Michigan is looking for its first national title since winning the AP vote following the 1997 season (Nebraska won the coaches' vote). Washington is looking for its first national title since winning the coaches' vote following the 1991 season (Miami won the AP vote).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy: Vacated title wouldn't change accomplishment