ASU was stealing our offensive signals

[Tony (admin)]

We have negative yards rushing for over 3 quarters… Tackles for loss all over the place.

Suddenly the team decides to start HUDDLING for the first time this year? WTF? And Wilson was walking to the bench to get the plays? Why?

Think about it.

As soon as we started huddling we dropped 20 straight points on those ASU bastards. They didn’t know what our plays were going to be.

[Anonymous]

Not again didn’t TCU crack the code awhile back? What game was it last year where Utah had to cover up the signal caller?

[rbmw263]

Wilson definitely started getting the play calls by mouth later in the game. I was wondering how EVERY single run play they brought 8 guys to the LOS so fast……

[Anonymous]

ASU blitzes about 87% of time.

[rbmw263]

61%. But for the first 3 quarters or so it felt like they blitzed on 100% of our run plays (and brought them to the gap we tried to hit)

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by rbmw263.

[Tony (admin)]

Yes they do.

[Torg]

Ah… Now that makes sense. I’m over in the muss, and there were a few of us wondering why Wilson had to keep going over.. Dirty devils. The worst part about them last night was their fake injury stalls.

[Tony (admin)]

Yes. They bagged the sign and they were telling Wilson the plays from a couple of feet. He was telling the O the plays in the huddle. Suddenly we drop 20 unanswered points on the board after that. Coincidence? Maybe.

[YodaUte]

At first blush this seems downright despicable. Another reason to hate those guys.

But, isn’t code-breaking a crucial aspect of any war effort? There’s a reason coaches use elaborate poster and hand signal schemes to communicate the play call. If ASU was stealing our play calls, the failure is on our coaching staff for letting it happen.

What I wonder about all this is, why do we even need to go no-huddle. Utah’s offense gains nothing by this copy-Oregon-and-go-fast offense. Go back to using the huddle. Take a little longer and give your defense a chance to rest.

[Anonymous]

Well Wilson has had success both ways. But I agree huddle up.

[Jeromy in SLC]

Going no huddle, even if you milk the entire play clock, means you preventative defense from making substitutions based on your personnel package. Teams are countering this with pre-planned substitutions based on down and distance, or just to give guys a rest. But if you are at the line ready to go, it removes their ability to substitute with purpose.

[Tony (admin)]

I think they should send up fake calls. Make the D who is stealing them think we’re running a sweep left and then throw right or something!

[Homer Crimson]

I may be wrong, but I think it had to do more with preventing miscommuncation and to slow down the clock. I think it had more to do with tempo than fear of the signals being read.

[YodaUte]

I don’t think it was to slow down the clock. Utah started huddling while still trailing 18-14. On that first play from huddle, the camera caught a close-up of an ASU defensive player. The kid looked anxious and confused.

[Evolved Ute]

I agree with Yoda. When I re-watched the game, I noticed their player (#58 I believe) would look over at the ASU sideline right before the snap and then bark out assignments. It was uncanny how many ASU players were in the hole for each Booker handoff.

Once we started having TW get the calls from the sidelines, the same #58 did look confused. I would bet money that they had our plays deciphered early on.

[Astute Ute]

Coach Whit in the press conference basically said, we stopped using signals, purposefully. Thought ASU was getting an advantage.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

My question now is what is preventing other teams from doing the same thing?