Michigan had TCU’s signs picked leading up to last season’s College Football Playoff. But they still got 51-45 in the Fiesta Bowl by the Horned Frogs.
So how did that happen? TCU outsmarted them.
According to a report published by Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger on Thursday, TCU was alerted about Michigan’s sign-stealing operation. Consequently, the Horned Frogs made some adjustments that ended up apparently leaving the Wolverines completely fooled.
TCU introduced new signals before the game that they used to communicate plays to their offensive players. Meanwhile, they also had someone relay in their old signals — the ones Michigan would have scouted and recognized. But those old signals were “dummy signals.”
Michigan likely recognized the old signals and organized their defense based on that, getting fooled by the dummy signals. That likely led to TCU completely fooling them by running plays Michigan wasn’t expecting based on the signals they were seeing.
TCU also used other measures, such as signaling in plays at the last second, not giving Michigan any time to adjust.
According to Dellenger’s report, after the CFP matchups were announced, TCU was warned almost immediately by several Big Ten schools, including Ohio State, to prepare for Michigan knowing their signs.
“They’d say, ‘Just so you know, they steal your signals and they’re going to have everything so you better change them,'” a TCU coach told Dellenger.
Though the initial reports about Michigan’s sign-stealing operation said the program had likely stolen signs from Big Ten opponents, newer information indicated the team began also scouting potential College Football Playoff teams as well.
Big Ten coaches all apparently knew just how effective Michigan was at stealing signs and have gone away from using signals against the Wolverines this season, often using wristbands instead. Despite them all apparently knowing about it, no team has scored more than 10 points against Michigan this season. But TCU managed to outsmart Michigan and drop 51 on them in the CFP.
