Sonny Dykes says TCU was aware of Michigan stealing signs ahead of Fiesta Bowl win
TCU football coach Sonny Dykes confirmed Tuesday that he knew Michigan was stealing signs leading up to their meeting in the Fiesta Bowl.
Dykes said he became aware of what the Wolverines were doing by relying on relationships in the coaching business. The information helped TCU stun Michigan 51-45 on Dec. 31, 2022.
“Coaches talk, we gossip more than anybody in the world,” Dykes said during his weekly press conference. “There’s no secrets and there’s no honor among thieves and coaches. You start calling around, ‘Tell us about Michigan,’ and things come up.”
The sign stealing scandal involving Jim Harbaugh and Michigan is the biggest story in college football.
It’s unclear how far back the alleged sign stealing goes, but we do know that numerous teams allege that Michigan was stealing signs in a way that broke NCAA guidelines in the 2022 season and possibly beyond. Harbaugh was suspended last week for the final three games of the Wolverines’ regular season by the Big 10. The university’s appeal will be heard in court on Friday.
Unlike the Big 10 opponents that fell victim to the scheme, the Horned Frogs had three weeks to prepare and adjust their signals for the Fiesta Bowl.
“We had some time to sit and decide how we’re going to handle this,” Dykes said. “If you’re playing them in the regular season that’s much more difficult to do in five days compared to 21 days.”
The Horned Frogs used the time wisely to readjust their signs and even create dummy signs to the throw off the Michigan defense.
For context on how important signs are, we’ve all seen countless college football games where they seems to be three or four staff members of a team holding up a sign with random pictures and logos on them.
It may look like gibberish to us, but that sign is its own language that communicates every facet of the play to the offense. If you know the signs and can translate them fast enough in game-time to tell the defense it can be very advantageous.
Being able to translate and communicate the big play is a big part of this strategy working and the most difficult, but there are ways to get around it especially if you know what the defense is doing. Dykes mentioned how USC coach Lincoln Riley calls in the signs and how quickly the offense snaps the ball, which limits the time the defense has to figure out what the play is.
He also mentioned former TCU coach Gary Patterson who had a tendency to call his signs as late as possible, which made very difficult to try to steal those signs.
“It doesn’t matter if the coach knows the play, it only matters if the players know the play,” Dykes said. “The coach has to be able to relay it to the players and at that point you have to decide is the juice worth the squeeze. Are they getting it late? Are they communicating? There are all these things you can do to create havoc.”
Dykes went on to say TCU felt confident it had answers for what Michigan was doing and it played out with the Horned Frogs scoring the most points against a Michigan defense since Ohio State scored 56 in 2019.
“I can assure there were plenty of plays in the Michigan game where they knew exactly what we were running,” Dykes said. “That’s just the nature of this business sometimes.”
Michigan is 10-0 heading into its meeting with Maryland this week. Michigan has appealed Harbaugh’s suspension, which carries through the rest of the regular season. The Wolverines meet Ohio State the final week of the regular season. The projected battle of unbeatens will have a big bearing on the Big Ten championship and the College Football Playoffs.
The Horned Frogs host Baylor on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in their final home game of the season.
