JJ McCarthy did not refrain from stirring the bot during a Wednesday teleconference.

McCarthy led Michigan to a thrilling finish in the Rose Bowl Monday evening, and now the Wolverines are preparing to face Washington in the CFP National Championship. As a part of Wednesday’s teleconference, McCarthy was once again asked about the sign-stealing allegations against the Wolverines.

The particular question directed at McCarthy and Mason Graham was around the topic of whether or not Michigan players come across knowledge “legitimately” through film study and other means. As a part of his answer, McCarthy predicted the majority of teams in college football — 80% — are stealing signs in some fashion.

“Yeah, and I also feel like it’s so unfortunate because there’s probably — I don’t want to say a crazy number, but I’d say a good number, 80 percent of the teams in college football steal signs,” said McCarthy. “It’s just a thing about football. It’s been around for years.”

McCarthy went on to claim Ohio State was previously stealing Michigan’s signs — legally — and forced the Wolverines to “adapt” and “make it an even playing field.” McCarthy, a member of Michigan’s 2021 recruiting class, referenced sign-stealing by the Buckeyes in “2020 or 2019.” For what it’s worth, the 2020 version of The Game was not played due to COVID.

“We actually had to adapt because in 2020 or 2019 when Ohio State was stealing our signs, which is legal and they were doing it, we had to get up to the level that they were at, and we had to make it an even playing field,” explained McCarthy.

Overall, McCarthy believes the sign-stealing saga “sucks” because of how hard the Wolverines work at their craft. He pointed to a lot of time that goes into film and evaluating every little detail of their opponents.

“I just feel like it sucks, just because like Mason said, we do work our butts off,” claimed McCarthy. “We do watch so much film and look for those little tendencies and spend like 10, 15 minutes on one clip alone just looking at all the little details of the posture, of the linebackers or the D-ends, the safeties off levels, the corner to the field is press but the corner to the boundary is off, little stuff like that where it’s like, you could say it’s all sign stealing, but there’s a lot more that goes into play, and a lot of stuff that gets masked, a lot of work that gets masked just because of the outside perception of what sign stealing is all about.”