Lane Kiffin finds 'better term' for sign-stealing after comments on Brent Venables

The term sign-stealing has a very negative connotation in college football these days. After the Michigan scandal, fans are hyper-aware of the term. So, it caught plenty of people’s attention when Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin recently shared that Oklahoma and Brent Venables do a “great job” studying opponents’ signals.

By the time of the SEC Teleconference on Wednesday, Kiffin rethought that word choice. Instead of stealing signs, he decided to reword to being “information gatherers.” That, he would also note, is a compliment and not a criticism of Venables and the Sooners.

“Like I said, they do a great job of overall, everything,” Lane Kiffin said. “Playing plays. I said the signal thing, that’s a compliment. That’s part of your job is to ready your players all week for the plays that come and then try to figure out on game day what they are. They do a great job and, obviously, coach has done it for years. He’s done this for a long time. Always been one of the elite information gatherers in the game. That’s a better term.”

Sign-stealing itself is, of course, legal within college football. The issue in the Michigan scandal was how they were doing it, through in-person advanced scouting. That’s not what Kiffin is saying Oklahoma does. Instead, he’s talking about the legal method. That, of course, makes it much harder to compete against their defense.

“They do a great job of that,” Kiffin said in his initial comments. “If you study people really well, you have enough confidence as a coach to go after those. That seems what he does and they’ve got a really good beat on the plays that are coming when they’re called and they do a great job of going and taking those away… Like, it looks like they have the plays. The middle safety’s running down to steal slants, which is very abnormal.”

Statistically, it does hold up that Oklahoma is one of the best defenses in the country. Oklahoma is tied for first nationally in sacks, getting to the quarterback 4.0 times per game. The Sooners also have the top-ranked total defense, allowing just 213 yards per game, and they’re second in scoring defense, allowing just 9.4 points per game.

Brent Venables responds to Lane Kiffin’s signal comments

The initial comments that Lane Kiffin made regarding Oklahoma stealing signs got back to Brent Venables. However, for his part, he felt it was a compliment.

“I guess coming from Lane I take it as a compliment? Like, he must have watched our guys be really prepared. Cause that’s who they are, man. They’re relentless. Their detail, the time they spend above and beyond what’s required, that’s the proof of how we’re playing right now. That D-line, how they’re able to dominate physically,” Venables said.

“Honestly I don’t know of a team that hasn’t huddled. I think every single team we’ve played the last two years has huddled. And so between that and the helmet communication, I don’t know how that works, but we got enough to worry about just getting our guys lined up with the right call and things of that nature. But I guess I’ll take that as kind of a weird kind of compliment. Our guys must’ve looked pretty good on film.”

Kickoff for the Ole Miss at Oklahoma game is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. EST on Saturday. With the second half of the season well underway, there are massive College Football Playoff implications coming with this game.