Steve Sarkisian gives impassioned plea for in-helmet communication devices
In the wake of the Michigan sign-stealing scandal, every head coach has seemingly been asked about if the sport could benefit from implementing in-helmet communication devices akin to those used in the NFL.
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Before a question in his Thursday Zoom about the topic call could even be finished, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian made it clear where he stood on the subject.
“Yes, please,” Sarkisian said when asked if he wanted in-helmet radios. “Everybody write an article about why doesn’t college football have coach-to-player communication so I don’t have to deal with sign stealing and I spend half my week changing signals and signs rather than coaching the game of football. So yes, please. Write an article.”
Here you go, Sark.
The whole Connor Stalions ordeal wouldn’t be a topic if college teams could send in play calls directly to all 11 players, or even just one. Stalions attended games around the country and filmed opponent’s signals and plays and by all accounts utilized that data to empower an already-dominant Michigan football team.
Stalions crossed a line by going to games in person, which has been prohibited by the NCAA since 1994. There’s no restriction on decoding signals in real time from the opposing sidelines. The best way to prevent teams from doing that is to get better signals, which costs time as Sarkisian mentioned.
The way to end the whole discussion is to implement in-helmet communications. Sarkisian, who spent two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons in 2017 and 2018 radioing in plays to Matt Ryan, would prefer that type of system become standard across college football.
“It all makes sense to me,” Sarkisian said. “There’s no shortage of money in college football, clearly. That whole idea that it’s a competitive disadvantage for those that can’t do it, or that stadiums aren’t equipped to have that type of technology, I don’t buy it. I don’t understand it.”
There hasn’t been much of a dive into the details of how that would look in college, whether it’s one player a side with a green dot helmet like in the NFL or all 11 like in the XFL. As Sark mentioned, there’s massive amounts of money in college football, just look to College Station.
The sign stealing saga and its presence in college football is an inhibitor toward Sarkisian’s own individual success, as it is for a number of coaches and play-callers. But as he often does, Sarkisian spoke about how not having in-helmet communications has a negative effect on the entirety of college football, one he’s repeated his love for on multiple occasions.
“The fact that every time I turn on anything late at night and we’re talking about college football, if (it’s) not the first topic, the second topic is we’re talking about sign stealing,” Sarkisian said. “Our game is too good, there’s too many good stories going on right now in college football that that’s at the forefront of what we’re doing.
“It should be at the forefront because I think what was going on was wrong, but at the end of the day that shouldn’t be at the forefront. There’s too many great stories. There’s too many great players around the country that are playing good football, too many teams that are playing good football right now for us not to be talking about those things. We’re talking about sign stealing.
“Let’s just fix the problem. It’s not that hard. Let’s get player to coach communication and move forward.”
