Chuck Pagano has a wild memory from Miami’s 1986 trip to Morgantown, and it says plenty about how messy a sideline can get when the wrong paper ends up in the wrong place.
Pagano, who was a graduate assistant on Miami’s staff that season, told the story Thursday on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN after the crew talked about a similar situation involving a Texas Tech fan finding Colorado’s play script at the team’s hotel. According to Pagano, Miami arrived at Mountaineer Field and ended up stumbling onto West Virginia’s practice script.
“We were paranoid about our playbooks..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
Pagano said the discovery happened as Miami was getting ready for a Friday walk-through at the stadium.
“We go up there, and somebody brings in a practice plan, a practice script, Pagano said. "All the plays through all of the periods.
And ‘Hey, just on the down low, you guys come here.’ Guys are getting around.
‘Hey, we found this in the trash can.’ You know, you go on Friday to do their walk-through at the stadium…so we found a trash can, and I’ll be damned if we don’t start looking through there.
Terminology back then was so simple and easy to remember. I-right, I-left. 22, evens are to the right, 23 odds are to the left.
So we scrapped our plan defensively and put a new little plan in, and you saw the outcome.”
The outcome was a 58-14 Miami win over West Virginia.
West Virginia entered that game at 2-3 after three straight losses to Maryland, Pitt, and Virginia Tech, while Miami came in unbeaten at 5-0. The Hurricanes were already the superior team, but Pagano’s story adds another strange layer to a lopsided result.
That 1986 Miami squad was stacked with NFL talent, including quarterback Vinny Testaverde and wide receiver Michael Irvin.
Still, the larger point from the story is hard to miss: leaving a playbook or game plan lying around is pure carelessness.
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