During Saturday's Oregon-Arizona State game, viewers may have noticed the Oregon staff holding up large sheets in front of the sideline.
The reason? They believed that the Arizona State personnel were stealing the signals to their own players. While that may seem a little paranoid, ASU head coach Todd Graham admitted Tuesday that they do steal signs from the opposing teams.
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In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Graham said, "Do we steal signals? Yeah, we do. Do people steal our signals? Yeah, (they) do. Do you see our signs and all the things we do -- it's our responsibility to make sure our signals are safe. By rule, you can't video somebody else's signals. You can't record their audio, right? That's it. There's nothing illegal about that."
So far the Pac-12 has not received any formal complaint about the Sun Devils stealing signs, but three conference coaches have called them out publicly so far this year, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost and Washington State head coach Mike Leach. The Republic said the topic also was discussed during Tuesday's Pac-12 teleconference.
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Graham has maintained that nothing about the tactic is against the rules, however Leach said that the Pac-12 should investigate to see if they are doing anything illegal. The Cougars host the Sun Devils this Saturday
When asked about the possible investigation, Graham said, "Let them investigate. We do things by the rules."
This issue has been raised against Graham back when he was the head coach of Pittsburgh, also. Back in 2011, his only season coaching the Panthers, then West Virginia offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen mentioned Graham when asked about whether he was concerned about opponents attempting to steal sideline signals to the quarterback.
Washington head coach Chris Petersen has proposed perhaps it was time the NCAA make like the NFL and allow teams to put mics and radios in the quarterback's helmets. He also said in the Seattle Times that he didn't have a problem with teams trying to "decipher signals, as long as we are all on the same page as to what the rules are."
Graham said he'd go along with adopting the NFL headset tactic, also.
"I'd be 100 percent in favor of it," Graham said. "Then you wouldn't worry about all that stuff. There's people that we've been in games this year (against) that we thought had our signals. It's your responsibility to make sure your signals aren't deciphered by someone."
The Sun Devils play Washington State on Saturday.
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