Long before Michigan scandal, Kentucky football had its own scouting controversies

Before the NCAA rule banning in-person scouting that Michigan football is alleged to have broken as part of a sign-stealing scheme was adopted in 1994, the behavior of Wolverines staffer Connor Stalions might have seemed tame by comparison.

While the only reported link between Michigan’s scheme and Kentucky so far was a ticket purchased by Stalions and transferred to someone else for the Wildcats game at Tennessee last year, according to Yahoo Sports, scouting drama is not unprecedented in the Wildcats program.

At least twice in the years preceding the 1994 ban, Kentucky was found on both sides of an alleged breach of scouting etiquette. Former coach Bill Curry was involved in both incidents.

Any excitement that might have been lacking from Kentucky’s 13-6 win over North Carolina in the second game of the 1989 season was provided after the contest when Timothy Johnson, a graduate assistant on Curry’s Alabama staff, was found in the UK trainer’s room asking questions about player injuries, according to a Sept. 17, 1989, report from the Herald-Leader.

After Johnson was told to leave the trainer’s room, an area off limits to everyone but players and coaches, the Alabama scout, wearing a Ball State jacket with a 35mm camera, found his way to the postgame news conference, where he was confronted and asked to leave by Kentucky coaches.

“I’d like to clarify an embarrassing situation,” Curry said the next day. “Tim Johnson used poor judgment yesterday in where he went and what he did. ... He went in some areas that he wasn’t supposed to go in. I’ve spoken to coach (Jerry) Claiborne about it and apologized to him. It was embarrassing to us, but no competitive advantage was gained, and we certainly did not mean for one to be gained.”

Claiborne accepted the apology and dismissed any concerns about the incident, according to The Courier-Journal. Seven days after Johnson’s attempted espionage, Alabama beat Kentucky, 15-3, in Tuscaloosa.

Two years later, with Curry now the coach at Kentucky, UK drew the ire of Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill when graduate assistant and former Kentucky defensive back Albert Burks was accused of violating a gentleman’s agreement between SEC coaches by conducting his in-person scouting from the sideline of Mississippi State’s game against Florida.

The SEC office was consulted about the alleged breach of etiquette, but no punishments were levied against Kentucky. Sherrill later claimed Curry had apologized for Burks being on the sideline, but Curry denied doing so because he did not believe his staff had violated any rules. Burks also told The Courier-Journal he was standing next to a scout from LSU when Sherrill confronted him on the sideline.

“Consider the source,” Curry said when asked about the incident, according to the Oct. 2, 1991, edition of the Herald-Leader.

Curry and Sherrill had previously clashed over the 1988 postponement of an Alabama-Texas A&M game after Curry’s Alabama team elected not to travel to College Station due to the threat of Hurricane Hugo, which eventually veered into Mexico, leaving sunny skies for what would have been game day. Still, both coaches downplayed any lingering tension after the Burks incident.

“I think you’re stretching it a little too far when you actually go on the playing surface on a pregame warm-up when your team is not involved,” Sherrill said. “That’s not within the intent of the scouting rules.

“... Bill doesn’t have a problem with it, and I don’t have a problem with it. It’s not a big issue. It’s really not a very big deal.”

When the two teams met on the field later that month, Kentucky secured a dominant 31-6 win in Starkville.

Three years later, the NCAA banned in-person scouting in football and basketball in hopes of saving athletic departments money. The change was met with heavy criticism from coaches, including then Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins, who called it “un-American” in an interview with The Cincinnati Post.

The in-person scouting ban did not address sign stealing though.

Even before news of the alleged Michigan scandal broke, college coaches went out of their way to block the view of signals from their sideline by holding some sort of shield to obscure the view of opposing coaches stationed in the press box.

“You’re trying to look at the TV (broadcast) copy,” UK offensive coordinator Liam Coen said this week. “... All right, what signals have we put on tape that they can see that we may need to alter and change?”

Coen joked Kentucky’s staff is not large enough to devote any personnel to specifically attempting to steal signs during a game, which is not prohibited by NCAA rules, but he voiced support for college football to follow the lead of the NFL in allowing quarterbacks to wear a microphone in their helmet that would allow them to directly receive the play call from the coordinator.

For now, quarterback Devin Leary receives Coen’s play call when staffers on the sideline signal in a number that corresponds to the play sheet on his wristband. Leary then finds the play on his wristband and communicates it to the rest of the offense in the huddle.

Many teams have multiple players or coaches signal in plays from the sideline with at least one of the signals being a decoy to confuse any opponent trying to decode the call.

Prior to Kentucky’s September game against Eastern Kentucky, Coen acknowledged the offense would need to change some of its signals since former UK assistant C.J. Conrad was now on the EKU staff after spending all of spring practice working on Coen’s UK offense.

EKU did play UK closer than expected in a 28-17 UK win, but the Wildcats’ talent advantage over the FCS foe proved enough to overcome any insight into Kentucky’s play calling.

“In terms of sending the play in, I don’t worry about (sign stealing) too much,” Coen said. “We’ve had to (change the signs) over the course of the year, but that’s more so because it was on tape.”

Saturday

No. 21 Tennessee at Kentucky

When: 7 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Tennessee 5-2 (2-2 SEC), Kentucky 5-2 (2-2)

Series: Tennessee leads 83-26-9

Last meeting: Tennessee won 44-6 on Oct. 29, 2022, in Knoxville

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