Nick Saban talks alleged Michigan sign stealing, offers a solution for CFB

Head coach Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines find themselves at the center of the college football universe this week not for their undefeated record and No. 2 ranking, but rather, for alleged sign-stealing that involved a now-suspended team analyst who apparently had a network of people in opposing stadiums filming signs.

The Michigan staffer, Connor Stalions is being investigated by the NCAA. He reportedly bought tickets for more than 30 games at 12 Big Ten stadiums to illegally (per NCAA rules) record signs. He also bought tickets to games that featured potential College Football Playoff contenders. That would be the SEC championship games featuring Alabama versus Georgia in 2021, and LSU and Georgia in 2022.

This, of course, draws in Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who of course, remains singularly focused.

“Well, first of all I didn’t know anything about anybody coming to the SEC Championship Game or whatever. And I don’t have a lot of information or background on all the sign-stealing stuff. I’m kind of focused on our team,” Saban recently said, according to On3.

While it's typical of Saban to focus only on the game ahead of him (much like Bill Belichick in the NFL), it's not as if the seven-time national champion head coach doesn't have his ideas.

Speaking of the NFL, Saban believes that adopting technology from that league would be beneficial for college football.

“I do think the helmet communicator is probably a real powerful thing for the game. Everybody should — you can’t steal signs or do any of this stuff if you have a helmet communicator and I think it’s, I think it would be a good thing. It’s worked out well in the NFL and I also think it’s good to have one guy on defense that you could tell that guy what the call is without having to go through all this signaling process,” Saban said.

Since 2008 in the NFL, one player on offense and one on defense has a special one-way communications radio in their helmet that allows them to hear from the coaching staff. This player has a designated "green dot" on their helmet and is usually a linebacker on defense and is guaranteed to be the quarterback on offense so that he can relay the plays.

The coach can even communicate to a quarterback (or defensive player) once he's lined up and can scan the opposing team, but communication is cut off when the play clock hits 15 seconds left.