Texas Tech audio shows how it is possible to obtain helmet comms. Why did NFL tech have issues in CFB?

An audio clip obtained and verified by The Athletic demonstrates how it is possible to intercept college football’s new coach-to-helmet communication technology. A person identified as Texas Tech defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter can be heard relaying a series of in-game defensive play calls and prompts during Texas Tech’s game against TCU on Oct. 26.

The 31-second clip is somewhat muffled and, at least for non-football staffers or personnel, contains little context for what the play calls and terminology refer to. But the captured clip points to a larger concern among some college football coaches about potential advantages that could be gained from intercepted signals.

The audio was captured by a third-party entity during Texas Tech’s game at TCU and shared with Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire this week to illustrate how an outside entity could hack into a team’s unencrypted coach-to-helmet communications, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The revelation this week that Power 4 conferences have been utilizing new coach-to-helmet communication technology over unencrypted frequencies this season has sparked concern and frustration, and Texas Tech has been the most prominent source of those sentiments.

On Tuesday — the same day Tech said McGuire received the audio — Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt raised the issue of unencrypted headset communications during a meeting between Big 12 athletic directors and conference officials, according to sources with knowledge of the call. Hocutt expressed his concerns that those communications could be intercepted by opposing teams or outside parties, and he requested the conference review Texas Tech’s recent games against Baylor and TCU to ensure their integrity. Tech lost to Baylor at home and TCU on the road.

In a statement released this week, the Big 12 said the league’s review found no direct evidence that the integrity of any conference games was compromised by these security vulnerabilities.  The Big 12, per sources involved with the helmet comms matter, conducted a diligent review that included interviews with coaches and staff members at multiple institutions and a breakdown of the timeline of the incident.

All schools in the conference had coach-to-helmet equipment recalled this week to receive an encryption update. Each of the Power 4 conferences started the season using equipment from a company named GSC, which also supplies the NFL’s helmet communication. Group of 5 conferences use CoachComm, which provides the coaching headsets for almost all of Division I. Its coach-to-helmet equipment utilizes a frequency “hopping system” that changes throughout the game to make it more difficult for an outside entity to access.

GO DEEPER

Power Four schools sending helmet comms systems for tech fix amid security issue

There are no indications that the Texas Tech audio was used in a compromising manner. Still, the lack of encryption, and proof that a team’s in-game play calls could be intercepted, shines an unfortunate spotlight on the new technology in its first season of use in college football. It also comes a season after the Michigan sign-stealing scandal involving former recruiting staffer Connor Stalions, which is still under investigation by the NCAA.

Multiple teams and coaches have referenced separate (and less troubling) issues about the helmet comms faltering or going out during games this season, including during Georgia at Texas, West Virginia at Pitt and Penn State at Wisconsin. If only one team’s communications go out during a game, neither team is allowed to use the technology until both regain access.

In a sport that is often criticized for its lack of cohesion, leadership and enforcement, the helmet comms issue won’t help to dispel those sentiments.

GO DEEPER

What to know about college football’s new helmet communication rules

The encryption issue was discovered during the Arkansas vs. Texas A&M game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, (home of the Dallas Cowboys) on Sept. 28, and it could have been addressed much sooner. All four power conferences were subsequently notified by the stadium’s frequency coordinator, and the conferences then notified select football and athletic department staffers at each of their member schools.

But multiple coaching staffs and athletic directors from across the power conferences said they didn’t find out about the encryption issue until this week and were potentially left vulnerable for nearly a month.

In a memo to Big 12 ADs and head coaches sent on Tuesday and obtained by The Athletic, conference executive Scott Draper wrote that following the discovery in September, GSC and frequency experts described the risk of someone accessing the coach-to-helmet communications as “very low.” The league informed head equipment managers and, as an interim measure, changed frequencies while a software update from GSC was completed.

“In hindsight, the Conference should have shared this information with each of you,” Draper wrote in the memo.

Multiple power conference sources told The Athletic this week that they later discovered it wasn’t all that difficult for an outside entity to access the helmet communications.

“It’s pretty easy to pick up,” a Big 12 school administrator said. “You have to have a little tech knowledge, but you don’t have to be a technology savant.”

Like the Big 12, none of the other power conferences are aware of any games being compromised due to a lack of encrypted coach-to-helmet communications.

“The Big Ten reached out to schools regarding the software update based on an abundance of caution because of something that came from another conference,” Iowa football spokesman Matt Weitzel said. “Nothing happened in the Big Ten, and this was not mandatory.”

There have been no reports of stolen signals, Weitzel added.

Among coaches and administrators The Athletic spoke to this week, one of the top frustrations and criticisms was the fact that the highest level of college football — which is now a multi-billion-dollar industry — was left in this position in the first place.

“We’re using a system that is not encrypted. And it’s the same company that provides the NFL. And the NFL’s is encrypted. So I’m going, ‘Why the hell isn’t our system encrypted?’ Whose miss is that?” a Big 12 school administrator said. “Why would we even have thought about using a system that wasn’t encrypted?”

Multiple messages left with GSC by The Athletic have not been returned.

The NCAA passed a rule this year permitting schools to use coach-to-helmet communications during games, as well as sideline tablets equipped with video replay.

Dont let the half a dozen egregious calls & clear cheating from the officials distract u from te fact that MIKE BOBO WAS CALLING PLAYS WITH A WALKIE TALKIE BECAUSE THEIR HEADSET COMMUNICATION RANDOMLY STOPPED WORKING pic.twitter.com/9mWAE758Lk

— Skinny (@skinnydawg10) October 20, 2024

Were a team able to intercept an opponent’s play calls in real-time, it’s unclear what degree of advantage it could provide. Some coaches The Athletic spoke to compared the ability to access those communications to the Michigan sign-stealing controversy last season. Others thought that was overstating it, saying that it would be virtually impossible to implement in real-time.

If a defense can hear the opposing offense’s play call, that could be enough to decipher whether it’s a run or a pass and quickly relay that information with the helmet microphone to the defensive player, who can quickly alert his teammates. Conversely, an offense listening in to defensive play calls could get a sense of whether the opposing team is sending pressure or disguising coverage on a certain play.

“If you know whether it’s a run or pass … some quick cues (from a coach to a defensive player), that just takes a couple seconds,” a power conference head coach said. “You still have to stop the other team, come off the blocks and all that, but you get an indicator like that … if it helps you a few times or even just one play, that could be a big play.”

Regardless, updating the coach-to-helmet encryption should eliminate those specific concerns moving forward. Texas Tech accepted the Big 12’s conclusion that no games were compromised and announced it would have no further comment on the matter.

And everyone is left to wonder why college football was using unencrypted technology anyway when the same company has provided for the NFL and no public issues have occurred.

Manny Navarro and Scott Dochterman contributed reporting.

(Photo: Matthew Visinsky / Icon Sportswire via Getty)