LOS ANGELES — Even with both Michigan football and Alabama having ceased usage of Catapult video systems due to an alleged breach from another program, it’s still Michigan on peoples’ minds when it comes to ‘cheating.’
The narrative has long been set, and it seeped into the joint press conference on Sunday morning with Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban when the Alabama head coach was asked about his level of concern that the Wolverines would do something dastardly to take out the Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl.
Saban brushed it aside, saying he doesn’t have a particularly heightened sense of added need for security when it comes to facing the maize and blue because his team is prepared.
“No, we’re really not concerned about that. Integrity in the game I think is really, really important, and our team has had every opportunity to prepare for this game just like they have every other game,” Saban said. “I think that especially when you’re a no-huddle team you’ve got to adapt and adjust how you communicate with the quarterback, and hopefully one day we’ll get to the NFL system where you can just talk to the guy in his helmet. I think that would be a lot better.
“But for now, we just have to adapt to how we communicate with the quarterback, and we’ll change it up and try to not put our players at a disadvantage in any way.”
It is interesting how the Wolverines continue to be a lightning rod for any kind of impropriety, even though Connor Stalions, the alleged sign stealer for the Wolverines, hasn’t been with the program since late October. As Fox Sports premier analyst Joel Klatt said, ‘The less you know about football, the more you think sign stealing impacts a game.’ Of course, Saban knows that and answered accordingly. But it’s a narrative that will refuse to die with no seeming end in sight.