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Bret Bielema addresses sign stealing on game days, advocates for in-helmet communication
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Bret Bielema was asked about the topic of sign stealing at his Wednesday press conference. The topic is the current talk of college football following a major NCAA investigation into Jim Harbaugh’s program on allegations of illicit sign stealing and in-person scouting.
As for sign stealing itself, Bielema admitted trying to decipher the signals of the opposition is something he always does on game days. According to Bielema, that’s just a part of the game.
“I know when I first became a head coach is when I really began to think about (sign stealing). We were running a huddle offense, so it really didn’t become paramount. I’m telling you, I steal signals on game day. That’s part of it,” said Bielema. “On game day, you watch — usually, when we’re on offense I’ll watch the defensive signal caller to try and get a cue on that. When we’re on defense, I’ll watch the offense and sometimes you can tell when they’re gonna go fast or when they give you a certain look that you’re going to get again. It’s a big part of the game.”
Bielema pointed out that in-helmet communication is something he’s regularly advocated for, even saying some of his first communications with the new Big Ten commissioner center around the topic.
“One thing I’ve strongly advocated for every year is in-helmet (communication). Literally, one of the first conversations I had with (B1G Commissioner) Tony Petitti was in-helmet communication,” Bielema explained. “This was last spring/summer when he was named.”
Overall, Bielema does believe it’s important that teams and coaches believe others within the league are abiding by the same rules as everyone else.
“One of the things I always learned is you have to have a reputation or a feeling within our league is that everybody else is going to abide by what you believe is the rules,” said Bielema. “I get where it’s at, I’ll tell you as a head coach I’ve picked up and called another head coach when I feel something has been wrong. If not, I report it to the Big Ten officials and let them handle it. Because I think we have to all assume it’s happening.”
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.