Texas Tech fans found Colorado's play sheet at team hotel

A Red Raiders fan tried to get the sheet to the Texas Tech staff. It never reached them, and it turned out they didn't need it.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Despite a @RedRaiderSports user posting on the message board to see if he could get the Colorado play sheet to the Texas Tech staff, it never did. One of those only in college football moments. “Everybody’s like, ‘Holy crap. This looks legit.’” t.co/LsfWoX3pGA

On3@On3

NEW: Texas Tech fans stumbled onto Colorado's play sheet the night before the matchup, and then the Buffs ran it🤯 "It’s making the flight back home to Texas," one of the fans who found it told @PeteNakos. Story: t.co/DgfzCcMKz7

Here's how it went. Some Texas Tech fans who had traveled for the game were having drinks at the bar in Colorado's team hotel, and somebody in the Buffs program had left the game plan sitting there. One of them went on the Texas Tech message board, said what they'd found and asked how to get it to the team. The reply was basically, holy crap, this looks real.

It was real. When fans lined up what Colorado actually ran next to the leaked pages, the first 6 plays of the game and the opening plays of the second half came right off the script. That opening drive was 9 plays and 75 yards, ending in an Isaac Wilson touchdown pass to Joseph Williams. Funny thing is, the Buffs never scored again.

The second-half script went worse. Early in a drive after the break, Williams threw a pass on a trick play and it got picked off, and Texas Tech kicked a field goal off the turnover. Tech won 29-7, and Colorado dropped to 2-3.

Leaving your game plan at a hotel bar in front of the other team's fans is bad enough. It looks even worse next to a Big 12 legend who did the opposite on purpose.

Brett McMurphy

@Brett_McMurphy

Not like the great Mike Leach, who was brilliant enough to leave a fake play sheet for Texas to find before playing OU

Jody S. Laughter∴@Lubbockist

Update: It was real. 1st six plays of the first half and 1st two of the second half (then picked off) t.co/BkNt6Ov475

That's the Mike Leach story Red Raiders fans have been telling for years: a fake play sheet left out on purpose for Texas to find before the Red River game. The Pirate was messing with people. Colorado just lost track of its paperwork. Same idea, very different results.

Texas Tech didn't need a single page of it, and nobody is getting fired over a binder at a bar. But somebody in Boulder is getting yelled at this week, and every Big 12 staff is going to keep a closer eye on its game plan on road trips for a while.