Inside the sideline vs. sideline battle to hide, decode and steal signals - ESPN

When Brent Pry was coaching the defense at Louisiana-Lafayette nearly 20 years ago, he had a habit of printing out an early draft of his game plan, scribbling notes and changes by hand, then making the needed changes to the documents. After he printed out the finished product, he'd tear up his first draft and toss it in his office garbage can.

As it happened, however, in one showdown against a rival — Pry isn't telling which one — he found himself utterly perplexed by the opponent's uncanny ability to predict exactly what play he'd just signaled to his players. Down after down, the rival was running plays that were at stark odds with the overwhelming tendencies Pry had studied all week. Pry's staff was baffled.

«It was like they were in our headsets,» said Pry, now the head coach at Virginia Tech.

The day after the game, cleaning crews made their way through the visiting locker room, and lo and behold, there was Pry's original game script, taped back together.

The other team's staff wasn't listening in on Pry's headset, but it absolutely knew every play that was coming.

«They'd gone through our trash on Friday night,» Pry said. «They found it and put it back together.»

The recent allegations that Michigan had its own covert operative spying on other teams to crack the code for play signals has the college football world abuzz, but the truth is, sign stealing — and some outright Rube Goldberg-like plots to do it — is as deeply rooted in the fabric of college football as the tempo offenses that made the process chic.

Michigan's alleged schemes might have broken specific NCAA rules against in-person scouting and using technology to tape opponents, but the quest to get a leg up by having a little inside information is