The Michigan Wolverines sign-stealing scandal has reached new heights of infiltration ahead of the Rose Bowl. After reportedly ‘watching hand signals’ of opponents, the Alabama Crimson Tide coaching staff has apparently told their players not to watch film of the Wolverines ahead of the College Football Playoff Semifinal appearance.
Speaking with the media, Alabama WR Isaiah Bond said they were told not to watch Michigan film this past week.
Alabama “Not Allowed To Watch Michigan Film”
The Wolverines and Crimson Tide stack up against one another in all facets. Each team’s strength meets the other’s strength and the Rose Bowl should be a compelling matchup between college football bluebloods.
But Alabama is apparently entering the matchup without viewing too much film on their opponent.
“We were able to watch film with the team,” Alabama WR Isaiah Bond told to reporters on Thursday. “But personally, we can’t watch any film because of some reason due to Michigan stealing signs. I’m not really too keyed in on that.”
Bond’s mention of not being able to watch film personally was attributed to using the Catapult system commonly shared among opponents. He mentioned that they could watch film with the discretion of the staff in team settings, but not individually on the player’s tablets.
“Our coaches told us that probably like a week ago,” Bond said as to when the limitation was put in place on not watching Michigan film. “It was right before we were about to come here (to Pasadena), getting prepared for Michigan.”
Bond didn’t go into too much detail about why or how the limitation was put in place, just said that the team was not allowed to watch Michigan film ahead of the game on their own time.
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Watching film on opponents is common practice and it comes off as perhaps overly cautious from the Alabama coaching staff to not allow their players to watch Michigan film. Maybe the Alabama staff is on to something with the Michigan sidelines. Maybe they’re playing it very close to the vest.
Time will tell what this notion from the Alabama coaching staff has in terms of impact on the game, but as it stands right now, the Crimson Tide are taking no chances around Michigan’s off-field/on-field antics from their own sidelines.
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