From hamburgers to stealing signs, the Michigan football program seems to have fallen out of the frying pan and into the fire. While stealing signs is not technically illegal, it is grossly frowned upon. However, should someone get caught doing it outside of the game of play itself, that can have ghastly consequences. Not only does Jim Harbaugh's team eat burgers for free, but they get free signs, too.
Of course, the NCAA is investigating the matter, so we cannot trust anything that this feckless organization comes up with to stick. In the meantime, Michigan is undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the country. They went from a struggling program on the downtick during the 2020 COVID season to becoming a Big Ten powerhouse seemingly overnight in 2021. Maybe they were cheating on the test?
When asked about the ongoing sign-stealing investigation, Harbaugh's attorney Tom Mars released the following statement on the matter. Take what you will from this long sentence and go from there.
"I've spoken to Coach Harbaugh about what we've read in the sports news and if NCAA rules allowed him to make a public statement I am sure he would deny having any knowledge of what was reported."
Ladies and gentlemen, we have found an NCAA rule that Harbaugh will actually comply with: Silence!
With at least three opponents of theirs expressing concerns that they might be stealing signs, the NCAA and the Big Ten will conduct their investigations to make sure their product's integrity is not being compromised. While it remains to be seen how the College Football Playoff Selection Committee feels about this, Michigan is on a shortlist of programs who could realistically win it all.
This has been a great college football season thus far, and it would be a shame if a scandal ruined it...
Jim Harbaugh's lawyer kinda, sorta defends his client over sign stealing
To be totally honest, maybe it is the best thing for Harbaugh and his program to not speak on the matter here. You and I and everyone knows that he can be a little testy and combative in front of a microphone. This is pretty much why he got suspended for the first three games of the season in the first place. His unwillingness to cooperate with the NCAA over hamburgers led to a self-imposed one.
Factor in Harbaugh playing flirt with NFL jobs the last few years, and you have to wonder if his second marriage with his alma mater is heading towards a divorce. Harbaugh is on the cusp of receiving a massive extension from Michigan. He did return Michigan to relevance in the late 2010s after the disaster that was the Brady Hoke era in Ann Arbor. Now, Harbaugh has Michigan as a national power.
There are two things I keep going back to in this. One, I think coaches in the Big Ten are sick of him. Harbaugh goes to the beat of his own drum, is incredibly stubborn and does not always want to make nice with his coaching peers. This could be leading to at least three other coaching staffs turning on him in this manner. And two, you have to wonder how deep this sign-stealing rabbit hole even goes.
Again, Michigan has great players that are well-coached. All things equal, this should be one of the better programs in the Big Ten. But you just don't go from dogwater to top dog overnight. Sure, arch rival Ohio State has pulled back a bit and Penn State has gotten better as well, but there could be something nefarious going on in Ann Arbor for all we know. Regardless, Michigan is feeling the heat.
It may not go the way of the Houston Astros, but we have seen how that ultimately turned out in MLB.
