Over the past few weeks, the ASU football team has been the target of allegations involving questionable means of acquiring information on opponents. Tuesday after practice coach Todd Graham addressed them for the first time.
After the last two Sun Devil losses, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham and Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost both brought up the issue of possible cheating, inferring that ASU was using illegal means to acquire signals.
Because of this, during Thursday's game at Sun Devil Stadium, the Ducks used large white sheets to protect their offensive signals from being taken, to the delight of UCLA coach Jim Mora.
While Mora stopped short of calling ASU cheaters, saying the team "plays the game and (does) it really well," he did applaud the Ducks for doing everything in their power to prevent their calls from being deciphered.
“I thought what Oregon did was awesome," Mora said. "It may have been extreme to some, but I thought it was great.”
After the conjecture from the rest of the league, Graham was finally able to respond and did so matter-of-factly.
"Do we steal signals? Yeah, we do," Graham said. "Do people steal our signals? Yeah, (they) do"
Stealing signals has long been a part of sports, mainly baseball, but teams try to bend the rules in their favor every day and attempting to decipher clues is one way of doing that.
"From the time I've been coaching, we've had guys with binoculars on, getting their groupings, getting an idea of what their formation is," Graham said. "We've had times this year where a quarterback, a tackle, somebody would give things away. It's part of the game."
Monday, Washington State coach Mike Leach, who is no stranger to controversy himself, called for some hefty action from the conference.
"They probably ought to do an investigation on them," Leach said Monday. "You’ve got two-straight schools with a concern for it back-to-back. The conference probably ought to investigate it.”
To that calling, Graham simply scoffed.
"I can tell you that we do things by the book and by the rules," Graham said. "So investigate all you want."
Additional Notes:
-Sophomore safety Armand Perry is still in a green non-contact jersey, but was in pads Tuesday, showing signs he is trending in the right direction and has some chance of being back Saturday. He has not seen the field since ASU's win over Cal Poly when he suffered an ankle sprain.
-Junior linebacker Salamo Fiso was in a green jersey after sustaining an injury Thursday, but did compete in the team tempo drill during the portion of practice open to the media.
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.
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