During the week of Arizona State football’s matchup with Washington State, Cougars head coach Mike Leach commented on the possibility of ASU stealing signs at his weekly Monday press conference.
“Well, I think they steal signs and we’ll have to keep an eye on that,” he said at the press conference. “That’s certainly the reputation. I think they have a certain amount of technology and expertise on the subject. If they ever go to a different conference or something, I’d certainly like them to share it with us.”
Later in the week, the Pac-12 fined Leach was fined $10,000 for his comments.
“Information or accusations to rule violations must be handled by institutions filing those concerns with the conference office through a formal process,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement after issuing the fine.
Added ASU AD Ray Anderson in a statement after the fine: “Our professional integrity was questioned for two straight years by Mike Leach’s irresponsible comments and we will not allow that to happen.”
Scott was available for interviews during halftime of ASU’s road game against Oregon at Autzen Stadium and discussed the situation.
“If we see something or hear something that crossed the line of one of the rules, we’ll investigate and look into it,” Scott said. “We always talk to the school involved to make sure we understand every aspect and give them the benefit of giving them a chance to give their perspective, and then make a decision.
“We discussed it with (Washington State’s) athletics director and their coach,” Scott said. “We reviewed the transcripts of what we saw, we listened to the interviews to make sure we saw everything ourselves, and then decided.”
As Graham and Leach met at midfield after ASU’s 37-32 loss to WSU, the television broadcast cameras picked up Graham saying something. When videos with boosted audio instantly released on social media, it appeared Graham told Leach, “Good game Mike, but what you did in the newspapers was chicken----. I’ve always respected you, but that was bull----.”
Leach declined to comment on the matter after the game and Graham added nothing except, “That’s between me and him.”
“I was aware of that too,” Scott said. “I was aware of it and saw it. We looked into that too, but felt that was a private conversation.”
It is not the first Scott and the conference have had to deal with a situation like that, he said.
“Every season, there’s one or two things that we haven’t experienced before that we have to deal with,” he said. “It’s part of these roles. These things come up that you have to react to.”
