Michigan’s sign stealing ‘hardly a concern,’ could have been avoided
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz’s biggest takeaway from Michigan’s sign-stealing saga is that it could have been avoided.
Iowa will face Michigan on Saturday in the Big Ten championship, and Ferentz was asked about the controversy that’s enveloped the Wolverines the second half of the season.
As the longest-tenured head coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision — he’s held the job since 1999 — Ferentz’s words carry extra weight.
“Full disclosure, I really haven’t paid that much attention to it,” he said in a video conference call on Sunday. “We’ve been in the middle of a season. We’ve been playing for our lives every week. That’s where our focus has been and that’s where it will be this week.
“I think that stuff — it’s kind of a separate category. It really doesn’t affect our team, our players. We’ll try to be as smart as we can moving forward here with those things in mind, but it’s not going to really impact us.”
Ferentz was more interested in talking about Michigan’s dominance on the field this season. The Wolverines are 12-0 after beating Ohio State on Saturday, 30-24, to clinch the Big Ten East division. They did it without head coach Jim Harbaugh, who was suspended by the Big Ten over the NCAA’s sign-stealing investigation. Harbaugh will return for the Big Ten championship in Indianapolis.
“What I’ve been impressed with is how their players play on the field,” Ferentz said. “Those guys are very aggressive, they’re very well coached, good technique, and they’re very talented. That’s not a new phenomenon for Michigan.”
Iowa is 10-2 with losses to Penn State (31-0) and Minnesota (12-0). Half of the Hawkeyes’ wins have been by seven points or fewer, including the last two by a combined five points. That weekly grind has held Ferentz’s focus, and so he hadn’t given much thought to Michigan’s off-field situation.
“If you want a bigger picture view, this is something that probably could be corrected really easily,” he said. How? By voting to implement helmet technology that allows for direct, private communication between a coach and his players.
Ferentz said it’s been discussed for about 10 years and would be a “simple way to fix” any issues related to sign stealing.
“It’s like a lot of things that happen with the NCAA and college football — we’re a really slow-moving train when it comes to being progressive, trying to improve things, improve the quality of the game,” he said.
Perhaps it will be addressed this offseason, Ferentz hoped. This week at least, Ferentz will have his hands full with Michigan preparation. He won’t be devoting any time to Michigan’s scandal.
“Between now and Saturday that’s hardly a concern of mine,” he said. “One of these days maybe we’ll take the steps needed to take this off the board.”
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