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The Michigan Wolverines have had one of the best defenses in all of college football over the last three seasons.
That just so happens to coincide with the time frame that the Wolverines allegedly began running an elaborate scheme to steal signs from their opponents.
One team that didn’t struggle and the Michigan defense, however, was the TCU Horned Frogs.
The Horned Frogs racked up nearly 500 yards of total offense en route to a 51-45 upset victory in the 2022 College Football Playoff semifinals.
As it turns out, the TCU was aware of the Wolverines’ alleged sign stealing and came prepared.
Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reports that the Horned Frogs used dummy signs in order to mislead Michigan, while creating brand new signs to actually communicate with players.
“TCU coaches, having gained information on Michigan’s elaborate sign-stealing scheme, changed many of their play-call signals before kickoff. However, head coach Sonny Dykes and the Horned Frogs staff had grander ideas than just changing signals,” Dellenger reports. “They mixed in new play-call signals with old ones, using what one TCU staff member described as “dummy signals” in an effort to trick the UM staff. The dummy signals were old play-calls that had since been changed. Players were told to ignore the dummy signals and run the original play as called with the new signals.”
One TCU coach even went into detail about the plan.
“Sometimes we froze a play before the snap,” they told Dellenger. “We’d call a play and then we’d signal in another play with an old signal but we told players to run the original play.”
The result was a stunning upset.
Could it really be that simple? Was Michigan’s elite defense just a product of stolen signs?
Probably not.
But the evidence doesn’t exactly look good for Wolverines.