TCU was aware of Michigan’s sign stealing, used ‘dummy signals’ in playoff upset

It’s an example of the prey outsmarting the predator.

The TCU Horned Frogs beat the Michigan Wolverines at their own game during last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal, according to a report from Yahoo Sports.

TCU, apparently aware of Michigan’s alleged elaborate sign-stealing scheme, used “dummy signals” to outsmart the Michigan coaching staff.

The Horned Frogs defeated the Wolverines 51-45 to advance to the national title game in one of college football’s most stunning upsets.

“Sometimes we freeze a play before the snap,” one TCU coach told Yahoo. “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 latest revelation comes as the college football world tries to grasp the depths into which Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing scheme has gone while NCAA investigators search for answers.

TCU was unaware of Michigan’s alleged sign stealing and the sophistication of it until coaches began warning the Horned Frogs’ coaching staff after the College Football Playoff matchups were announced, according to Yahoo.

TCU never found any records that Connor Stalions — the Michigan football analyst believed to have spearheaded the operation —
purchased tickets to any of their home games.

Among the allegations is that Stalions purchased tickets to more than 40 college football games and disseminated them to others to scout and record opponents’ signals, both of which violate NCAA rules.

One coach forewarned the TCU staff that Michigan had “the most elaborate signal-stealing in the history of the world.”

“Literally everybody we talked to knew,” one TCU coach said to Yahoo. “They’d say, ‘Just so you know, they steal your signals and they’re going to have everything so you better change them.’”

TCU then came up with a game plan that included the dummy signals to fool Michigan, which one TCU coach said that they noticed when they watched back on TV, “You can see the playsheet [Stalions is] holding with our hand signs on them.”

NCAA investigators were on Michigan’s campus Thursday, speaking with members of Jim Harbaugh’s staff about the alleged sign-stealing scheme, the Associated Press reported.

More information regarding Michigan’s purported actions has surfaced; on Wednesday, the Washington Post disclosed that the NCAA had been notified of Michigan’s actions by a private outside investigative firm.

The report also indicated that the scandal could go beyond just Stalions, who first entered the public lexicon after ESPN reported his name on Friday.

The investigative firm had found, according to the Washington Post, that cellphone videos shot at games were uploaded to a computer drive accessed by Stalions and other Michigan coaches.