J.J. McCarthy puts Ohio State, college football on blast for sign-stealing hypocrisy

Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy has led the Wolverines to the program's first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship Game appearance where they'll face the equally undefeated Washington Huskies.

Hanging over the head of McCarthy, head coach Jim Harbaugh, and the Michigan program, however, are the allegations of rampant sign-stealing in an illegal manner over the past few years that came to light this season.

The Wolverines quarterback was asked about the sign-stealing allegations ahead of Michigan's title bout against Washington, and McCarthy gave a lengthy response that seemed to point at perceived hypocrisy in criticizing Michigan for the scandal.

"I also feel like it’s so unfortunate because, you know, there’s probably, I don’t want to say a crazy number, but I’d say a good number, 80% of teams in college football steal signs,” McCarthy said, via On3. “It’s just a thing about football.

"You know, it’s been around for years. We actually had to adapt because in 2020 or 2019 when Ohio State was stealing our signs, which is legal. We had get up to the level that they were at, and we had to make it an even playing field."

McCarthy continued to voice that the Wolverines earned their spot at 14-0 in the National Championship Game by doing things the right way, even in the midst of the allegations, as he told ESPN's Heather Dinich, who has been critical of Michigan throughout the revelations of the scandal.

"We did things the right way as players," McCarthy said. "It would be very unfortunate [to] not get recognized for all the hard work that we put in and everything we accomplished over this last year.

"But at the end of the day, you know it's not going to change the amount of accomplishment and the amount of pride for being on this football team and just everything that we accomplished because we know what we put in. We know the work that we put in, and we know that we did things the right way as players. Whatever happened, with all the outside controversies, it's out of our control, and whatever the NCAA wants to do is out of our control, but we're going to appreciate the things we did control and accomplish."

J.J. McCarthy calls out Ohio State, CFB over sign-stealing amid scandal

It's worth noting that McCarthy was not on the Michigan roster in 2019 and 2020, nor did the Wolverines play Ohio State in the 2020 season as The Game was cancelled due to COVID. So his knowledge of that situation raises some questions.

Perhaps former defensive coordinator Don Brown not adjusting his scheme or signs made Michigan's signs easier to steal -- without attending opponent's games -- which negatively affected Michigan. New DC Jesse Minter has implemented positive change in that capacity, but the full truth and NCAA penalties for the Connor Stallions-led scandal in Ann Arbor remains unknown for now.

Some fans, notably from Ohio State after that program was called out by name, took McCarthy's words as somewhat of an admission of guilt. Whether that was the case or not, there was some hypocrisy on the part of the Michigan quarterback in the wake of the current scandal.

At the same time, though, The Athletic college football insider Bruce Feldman conducted interviews with more than 20 coaches and polled an estimate that 80-90% of college football teams steal signs. So in that capacity, McCarthy was correct in his assertion.

But the means by which Michigan is accused of stealing signs is what's in question. Virtually every team, especially contending programs, does it by all accounts. However, none have produced a network of in-person scouts to film opposing sidelines, which is what the Wolverines are accused of.

The truth of the matter will eventually come out, as will the NCAA sanctions. Michigan is surely hoping that, whatever the consequences are, they have a national championship to ease any potential pain. As for McCarthy, though, this likely wasn't an admission of guilt but rather pointing to the prevalence of sign-stealing in the sport, nothing more.