Ryan Day suggests Clemson DC Brent Venables steals signs

The matchup between the Clemson Tigers and Ohio State Buckeyes continues to get more and more interesting just based on the pregame chatter.

On Monday, Ohio State coach Ryan Day played up talk about Clemson’s defensive signal stealing while discussing defensive coordinator Brent Venables’ ability to read opposing offenses.

“He seems to always know exactly what the other team is doing. Why that is I don’t really know,” Day said, via Matt Connolly of The State. “But I can tell you he’s been doing it for a long time.”

For what it’s worth, Clemson’s reputation is no secret within the sport. The practice has been written about extensively. Opponents privately believe the Tigers devote huge amounts of time and effort to decoding signals so the defense has a better idea of what’s coming. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was even asked about it ahead of his team’s first matchup with Clemson in November, and he didn’t shy away from answering the question.

Still, Day bringing it up on his own is certainly unusual, and it’s hard not to see this as an escalation ahead of a hotly contested national semifinal. Add in some of Dabo Swinney’s actions lately, and this is going to be a very heated game.