Greg Schiano 'ticked off' about Rutgers, Purdue report of sharing Michigan signs
Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano had just about enough of sign stealing allegations and Michigan. Going into a pivotal game against Iowa, Schiano was asked about the report of Rutgers, Purdue and Ohio State sharing Michigan signals in 2022.
Safe to say Schiano, who’s usually level headed with reporters and particularly the local media, was ready to blow a fuse. The Scarlet Knights coach already had to clarify what his cryptic comments were about earlier this year at halftime of Rutgers’ loss to Michigan.
Now, he wants to throw sign stealing in the trash.
“Look, I’m getting ready to go play the 22nd ranked team in the country at their place,” Schiano said, via NJ Advance Media. “They are 12-3 in their last 15 games, they’re 15-1 in the month of November (in the past four seasons). I’m very confident in the way we handle our business. I’m not going to get into specifics about something that is not my issue. This is not my issue. Let the people handle it whose issue it is.”
Then, Schiano dropped the hammer on the whole subject.
“I’m sticking to one thing: Iowa,” Schiano said. “I gave you my feelings on the whole subject. Quite frankly, I’m a little bit ticked off that we have to talk about this. This isn’t our problem.”
According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg and Tom Van Haren, three Big Ten schools worked together and compiled all of Michigan’s signs. Purdue was reportedly on the receiving end from Ohio State and Rutgers for last season’s Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis.
“Sources to @TomVH and me: B1G received documents from Michigan that U-M says show Ohio State, Rutgers and Purdue communicated about U-M’s signals in 2022,” Rittenberg said via X. “Docs show Purdue, which faced U-M in B1G champ game, got offense signals from Ohio St + D signals from Rutgers, per sources.”
Michigan played at Rutgers on Nov. 5, 2022, nearly a month before the Big Ten Championship game against Purdue. Of course, Ohio State was the game before in a historic win for the Wolverines at the Shoe. Both Big Ten East opponents decided to pass along information on Michigan to Purdue, likely hoping they would come out on top.
In what was a one-point game heading into the second half, Michigan wound up pulling away against Purdue in the 2022 Big Ten Championship. The win gave them a spot in the College Football Playoff, where they faced off against TCU. A report stated the Horned Frogs were well aware of Michigan’s sign-stealing and prepared against it.
Greg Schiano had it up to here about sign stealing
At halftime of the Michigan game this season, which Rutgers lost 31-7 after scoring the first touchdown, Schiano gave a vague answer about what was going on the field just prior to halftime.
“That comment at half was strictly about my frustration with things that had gone on at half with officiating,” Schiano said when asked if it had anything to do with potential Michigan cheating allegations. “It had nothing to do with (anything else). I kept saying ‘how did I get dragged into this?’ But let’s focus on today and today’s win.”
During that interview, Schiano was asked about the penalties his team took in the first 30 minutes.
“Well, there’s some stuff going on out there,” Schiano said on the broadcast September 23. “So we just got to slow it down a little bit. There’s some things going on that aren’t right as well. So we’ll talk about how to handle it.”
Rutgers (6-3) takes on No. 22 Iowa (7-2) at Kinnick Stadium Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET.