Did Ohio State Steal Oregon's Signals in Rose Bowl?

Oregon has spent part of spring drills instituting a new system of signals after suspicions were raised that the Ducks suffered a breach of security during the 26-17 loss to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

Offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich told the Oregonian that the Ducks' code for signaling plays could have been cracked.

"There were a couple times last year when we kind of felt like our signals were, maybe, compromised," he said.

There is nothing illegal about stealing signals. In the 1990s, Northwestern cracked Michigan's code and twice defeated the Wolverines.

But in a 1997 game, two Wolverine ballboys working the Wildcat sideline figured out what Northwestern was up to and informed Michigan coaches. The proof came in the second half, with the Wolverines facing a third-and-25 play. Michigan made the unusual call of a sweep and Northwestern swarmed the play, throwing Clarence Williams for a loss. At that point, Wolverine coaches knew they had been had.

Michigan made adjustments and went on to win, 23-6. The Wolverines finished undefeated and had two ballboys to thank after claiming a share of the national title.

Oregon's new play-calling signals will resemble the system used by Oklahoma State (image below), which uses poster-board-sized placards containing images. The Ducks got the idea after playing the Cowboys in the 2008 Holiday Bowl.

"I remember looking across the field from our sideline, looking at their sign and thinking, 'Is that Jon Gruden? Who's on there?" offensive lineman Mark Asper said. "It was crazy, trying to dissect what they were doing."

Thanks to Image of Sport.

Comments

[DK]

Or maybe all the lazy criminals at Oregon didn't change their tendencies and a really good Ohio State defense was able to pick them up after watching a month of film.

[Bissett]

DK- Very Unlikely

[pdxsiskiyou]

No coach or anyone else at Oregon has said that Ohio State stole their signs. The comment was made by, John Hunt, an Oregonian writer. The coach said it appeared some plays had been compromised during the year and the writer streched that quote by implying that since Ohio State was so good they could have been reading signals.

[Norm]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

[Rob]

Two ballboys to claim the National Title? Stupid post.

[DC Duck]

Nobody at Oregon is making excuses (perhaps a couple what if scenarios), but no excuses. The Buckeyes were the better team that day. It was a good game and was not a blow out as other articles have alluded to. From where I sat in the Oregon endzone the better team won.

That being said 2010 will be a diff't story. We won't be one dimentional and we should be back in the hunt for the Pac10 title and a BCS bowl game.

[Rob]

Will Oregon have enough players out of jail to field a team in 2010?