There are a handful of mistakes that are among the worst you can make in football. One of those mistakes has been in the headlines this season after someone with the Colorado football team slipped up and left behind a playbook at a hotel which was found by a Texas Tech fan and later posted on a fan message board.
Losing your team's opposing playbook to an opponent is just about every team's worst nightmare – obviously, you don't want your opponent knowing exactly where your plays are going and how they're designed to work. But former Miami (FL) assistant coach and Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano revealed on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday that it once happened to West Virginia.
West Virginia football practice plan found in trash by Miami (FL) before game
Pagano, who coached McAfee during his tenure with the Colts, was a graduate assistant with Miami (FL) in 1986 and a defensive backs and special teams coach from 1995-2000.
During his recent appearance on McAfee's show, Pagano and McAfee talked about how paranoid he was about their playbook in Indianapolis, and he revealed one of the reasons why: which involves a West Virginia playbook being found in the trash when Pagano was a coach with the Hurricanes.
"You remember how paranoid we were? Especially when we went to certain places, and we'd tell you, do not leave your playbook in your hotel room, bring it down to the meeting with you.," Pagano said. "We were in fear of maids going in their and grabbing that stuff, Double 007 you, mimeographing."
"We were paranoid about our playbooks..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 15, 2026
We went up to West Virginia when I was with Miami and we found their playbook in a trash can..
We put a new plan in because of that and we won 58-14" ~ @ChuckPaganoNFL #PMSLive https://t.co/FR5MkOdwWe pic.twitter.com/OlIN2nmE0G
"I'm a GA at Miami in 1986, and we go...up to West Virginia. We go up there, and someone brings in a practice plan, a practice script. All the plays for all the periods. [They say] 'hey guys, come here. We found this in a trash can.' We scrapped out plan defensively and we put a new little plan in, and you saw the outcome."
For those not aware, the result that year was a 58-14 loss for the Mountaineers, which at the time, marked the worst home loss for the Mountaineers in eight years and the most points allowed to an opponent in 13 years.
That story is all long in the past now, and there is not much that can be done about it now. But hopefully, it serves as a reminder to anyone reading this who is ever apart of a football team: do not ever lose sight of your playbook or practice scripts. After all, you never know who might get a hold of them.
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