ASU Football: Sun Devils once again at the center of sign stealing controversy

(Photo: Brett Deckert/WCSN)

On October 29, 2015, the Oregon Ducks built a rather unconventional cabana on their sideline at Sun Devil Stadium.

Five large, white sheets lined the away boundary as offensive coordinator Scott Frost called plays for the Ducks, a method rivaled in diligence, according to Frost, only by Arizona State’s persistence when it came to stealing his signs in an effort to get a jump on what play was coming next.

The Ducks won that game 61-55 in double overtime, whether the sheets played an intricate role in that might never be known.

Regardless, the sign stealing accusations against Arizona State haven’t gone anywhere.

On Monday, Washington State head coach Mike Leach reignited the debate by again claiming that Arizona State head coach Todd Graham and the Sun Devils still steal signs. In fact, he sounded pretty certain of that fact.

“I think they still steal signs,” Leach said according to the Seattle Times. “They have that reputation, and they have a certain amount of technology and expertise on the subject. You’ve gotta keep an eye on it. They’re gonna steal signs and they’re pretty clever about it. It’s like breaking the Enigma code, with them.”

Leach even took the accusation a step further, claiming the Sun Devils are in a league of their own when it comes to stealing the signs of other teams. He mentioned his suspicions of a specific department Graham has dedicated for that very purpose.

“Not like them, where they have a whole command center that’s designed around that stuff,” Leach said according to the Seattle Times. “I think either everybody ought to (steal signals) or nobody ought to.”

There have been other cases of sign stealing around college football in recent history – most notably Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher’s claim that Auburn knew some of his signals in the 2014 national championship.

In that case, however, Fisher took the blame for the ordeal and admitted that he doesn’t view the process as immoral.

“They had a couple of our signals a couple times and were getting to them,” Fisher said via AL.com. “That happens, people do it, and that’s our fault.

“That’s part of the game, I don’t have a problem with that.”

The debate of whether or not stealing signs should be made illegal has been contested, however, at this point in time, there is no set rule against such practices.

Opinions on the matter have been left up to the moral compasses of those involved. However, Graham insists that his program has done nothing wrong.

“How we do things here, we take a great deal of pride in and we do everything, make this perfectly clear, we do everything exactly by the rules, period,” Graham said. “Obviously, we take a great deal of pride in the integrity that our program has. When you speak about our integrity and my integrity and our integrity as a program we take great pride in that and we do everything here, we take great pride in how we do things here. [We’re] very open and very honest about how we do things.”

Given that there are currently no rules against sign stealing, Graham’s statement and lifting signs may not be mutually exclusive.

Leach’s stance on the issue, however, may lead to the return of the polarizing white sheets when the Cougars travel to Tempe on Saturday.