Alabama head coach Nick Saban isn't the least bit worried about the Michigan sign-stealing saga ahead of their Rose Bowl matchup on New Year's Day. Saban was asked about the sign-stealing situation during his joint press conference with Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh by AL.com's Joe Goodman.
“We’re really not concerned about that. Integrity in the game, I think, is really, really important. Our team has had every opportunity to prepare for this game just like we have every other game. And I think especially when you’re a no-huddle team, you’ve got to adapt and adjust how you communicate with the quarterback. Hopefully one day we’ll get to the NFL system where you just talk to the guy in his helmet. I think that’d be a lot better,” Saban said. “But now we just have to adjust to how we communicate with the quarterback and to change it up and try to not put our players at a disadvantage in any way.”
Goodman in his question also asked what Alabama has been doing to prevent possible sign-stealing and Saban didn't directly answer the question, speaking about his disregard for the saga itself. But, it appears that Alabama has made moves behind the scenes to be cautious, per Alabama wide receiver Isaiah Bond. Bond, in comments at Rose Bowl media availability on Friday, said that Alabama players haven't used their iPad to watch film via the video and data analysis app Catapult out of an abundance of caution to cybersecurity risks.
“It's basically like the app where we record, like film on for practice and stuff like that. And it was like, I guess, like looking at other people's play calls, like during the first eight games or something like that. So we were able to, like, watch film with the team. But personally, we can't watch film because, like, I don't know, some reason with the Michigan stealing signs.”
However, Michigan appears to have taken similar precautions as well and the NCAA launched an investigation into the Catapult app. Also, per USA Today's Dan Wolken, Alabama never confirmed that they took the precautions in response to Michigan's sign-stealing controversy.
Wolken said in his report, “Alabama offensive coordinator Tommy Rees declined several opportunities to elaborate on why the Tide felt the need to protect its practice film,'” Wolken. “But teams typically distribute that type of footage directly to players' iPads via an online cloud storage service. Though nobody said it explicitly, the implication would be that Alabama wanted to take extra precaution against hacking into the film system.”
Nevertheless, Alabama seems to only be focused on the task at hand: winning the Rose Bowl and advancing to another College Football National Championship. And that isn't a bad mindset to have at all. Alabama faces off against Michigan on New Year's Day at 5 PM EST on ESPN.
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