Bob Stoops didn’t hold back when giving his opinion on the Michigan sign-stealing allegations.

The former Oklahoma head coach called it how he sees it, blasting Michigan for its attempt to steal signs and calling it a first among college football programs.

“If it’s true, oh, absolutely (it is a big deal). That’s ridiculous,” Stoops said. “Everyone (saying), ‘Oh, it happens all the time!’ No, it doesn’t. I’ve never heard of that. In all my years of football and every team I’ve ever been on, sure, do we look across the field and if you can see it, that’s your job to do. You know what I’m saying, if I’m able to just in my plain eye look over there and know what they’re doing, I should be doing that. But to video people and to send people to scout and marry up a signal with the play … No, no, no. That’s terrible. It goes against everything we’re about. That’s wrong, if it happened.”

Stoops, a Hall of Fame coach, has been around college football for more than 40 years, including with several Power 5 schools. He believes the allegations are unlike anything he’s ever seen. While he admits that coaches will look across the field and try to pick up signals in game, he’s never heard of teams going to the length that Michigan allegedly went.

“Now, look, I looked across and I knew Mike Leach’s signals and he was bold enough not to change them,” Stoops said. “We would call out what they were running. You know, he was like, ‘Well, they still can’t stop it.’ We did plenty, but that’s different. You can see anything without filming and going to scout, but that’s a different deal. You do that, that’s as wrong as it gets.”