Even if Michigan was allegedly stealing other teams' signals dating back to 2021, that did not help the Wolverines beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2021 Orange Bowl. The Dawgs may have been an absolute buzzsaw defensively that season, but Michigan stood no chance vs. Georgia in their national semifinals meeting two College Football Playoffs ago. Georgia has since won back-to-back titles.
When asked about the Michigan sign-stealing scandal and how that could have impacted the 2021 Orange Bowl, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was but concise, but informative. The former Georgia defensive back got into coaching pretty much as soon as his playing career was over. Whether he was in Athens, at Alabama, Florida State, Valdosta State or wherever, he never heard of advanced scouting.
That may have been a thing that occurred when he was a member of Nick Saban's Miami Dolphins staff, but these tactics allegedly used by Michigan were never part of the equation in any of his collegiate stops. Furthermore, he did not suspect anything nefarious coming out of the Michigan program during their national semifinal meeting two years ago, as Georgia annihilated them badly.
Georgia defeated Michigan 34-11 in said Orange Bowl before defeating Alabama for the national title.
Given that the Dawgs and Wolverines are the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation, all signs point to them potentially playing each other again in the upcoming College Football Playoff, or so we think...
Kirby Smart knocks Michigan down a peg over his sign-stealing thoughts
I think what this series of quotes by Smart illustrates is the following. One, Michigan may be well-coached, but the Wolverines do not have the SEC speed of a program like Georgia. Even if the Wolverines had all the answers to the test, Georgia was too fast and too talented defensively for them to do much of anything against them. And two, the entire college football world is likely done with Jim Harbaugh.
I do not think Smart harbors anywhere close to the amount of animus some of Harbaugh's Big Ten contemporaries do of him, or at least certainly not Jim Stapleton... Either way, this feels like the last season Harbaugh will be leading his alma mater's program. He will either resign or take an NFL job, should one of quality open up. Keep an eye on places like the Chicago Bears and Las Vegas Raiders.
Chicago was the team that drafted him out of Michigan. He spent the first part of his playing career there. The Bears are horrifically run. Remember how utterly atrocious the San Francisco 49ers were before Harbaugh arrived by way of Stanford? If The McCaskeys are done with their latest helping of Matt and Ryan nonsense, look for Harbaugh to potentially be connected with an up-and-coming GM.
As far as the Raiders are concerned, this was his first job as a coach. He served as the Silver and Black's quarterbacks coach in 2002 and 2003 before taking over the San Diego Toreros in 2004. He has great respect for The Davis Family, as well as the Raiders' brand and history. Guess who else has close ties to the Davises? Fellow Michigan man Tom Brady, who has dabbled in minority ownership.
Ultimately, you are seeing two sides of the coin when it comes to coaching at one's alma mater. Smart has won prolifically at his and will be able to retire whenever he wants after delivering two national titles so far to Georgia. Harbaugh is almost certainly going to have to leave Ann Arbor in disgrace, either caught red-handed for cheating or in a bitter divorce after he takes another coaching job.
If the Wolverines were cheating vs. Georgia in Miami Gardens, that is news to Smart and Georgia.
