According to Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, there may be some wandering eyes along the Notre Dame sideline when the Irish play the Spartans.

"They don't look to the sidelines as much, but against us they did for some reason," said Narduzzi, whose defense surrendered 31 points and 461 yards total offense in its three-point overtime victory over the Irish in 2010.

"Whether they're stealing our signals, I don't know. But we've got something (changed) on the signals, too. You never know. Guys are thieves, you know?

Asked to elaborate further, Narduzzi accommodated.

"Against everybody else, they just kind of make checks," Narduzzi said. "Against us, it seemed like he was looking to the sideline to see what (the coaches) said. Well, if they are looking to the sideline, there's a chance. You never know."

"He" presumably is Irish head coach Brian Kelly, who was asked about the accusations following Thursday's final tune-up before the Irish (0-2) and the Spartans (2-0) play for the 75th time Saturday afternoon in Notre Dame Stadium.

"No, we're not looking to steal anybody's signals," Kelly said. "We have enough problems with our own stuff. I'm worried about whether we're going to get the play in and call the right play. That's just too much for us to handle."

Kelly said he didn't think it was appropriate to film another team's sideline in order to decipher and discern the significance of the opposing team's hand signals.

"We're going to take care of what we can take care of," Kelly said. "Believe me, that's the last thing on our mind. We've got our hands full with our guys."

Narduzzi also said that the Spartans don't try to steal opposing team's signs and that there was no time to steal them anyway. Yet he had another interpretation as to how Notre Dame apparently steals Michigan State's signals.

"What they do is they try to get you lined up quickly, and we have to get our stuff in," Narduzzi said. "They look at that and all they are doing is getting lined up and getting into a formation and calling a dummy play. They look over and say, 'Oh!'

"But we have four dummy signals or so, so we should be okay. Three dummies and one real."

Kelly said the Irish have to change their offensive signals every week.

"Tommy Rees is out there doing this (rolling his arms) and everybody sees it, then next week is has to be a new signal," Kelly said. "If we did the same thing and they picked that up, that's on us. We need to change the signal if everybody else can see it."

Like a baseball team picking up the opposing third base coach's signals, Kelly believes a team has a right to diagnose signs from the sideline.

"If it's in the basic flow of the game and you know what that is, the team has to make sure they're not breached from that standpoint," Kelly said. "But I don't think you should be doing any undercover work to steal signals. You need to spend time on your own team."