Penn State football coaches included me in a group chat about its next game against Ohio State. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started getting caught for touchdowns.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 2, 2025– The world found out shortly before 11 p.m. eastern time on Nov. 1 that Penn State used an assortment of trick plays to defeat Ohio State for the first time in nine attempts.
I, however, knew two hours before the game began that the trickeration might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Penn State’s offensive coordinator had texted me the game plan at 5:44 p.m. The plan included precise information about play sequences, pass targets and timing.
This is going to require some explaining.
The story technically begins shortly after Penn State lost to Ohio State in November 2024, the latest in a string of eight consecutive defeats at the hands of their Big Ten rivals—an evil empire whose motto is “Woody Hayes is great, death to Penn State, death to the University of Michigan, curse on the Ducks, victory to the Buckeyes.” Through 2024, Penn State’s coaching staff was ineffective in countering Ohio State’s firepower; this year, head coach James Franklin promised a tougher response.
This is where I come in.
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as QB COACH. Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text-messaging services are capable of delivering. I assumed that the QB COACH in question was Penn State’s quarterbacks coach. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual quarterbacks coach. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as the quarterbacks coach in order to somehow entrap me.
I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual quarterbacks coach, and that he wanted to chat about the price of eggs, the best way to avoid game-day traffic in State College, or some other important matter.
Two days later—Thursday—at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Buckeyes PC small group.”
It should go without saying—but I’ll say it anyway—that I have never been invited to a Penn State football principals-committee meeting, and that, in my many years of reporting on the university, I had never heard of one being convened over a commercial messaging app.
In all, 18 individuals were listed as members of this group, including the associate head coach, the co-offensive coordinator and various assistant coaches. I appeared on my own screen only as “RF.”
That was the end of the Thursday text chain.
The next day, things got even stranger.
The team’s associate head coach made a noteworthy statement, considering that he has not deviated publicly from Franklin’s position on virtually any issue. “I think we are making a mistake. I am not sure Coach is aware how inconsistent these trick plays are with his message on ball security right now. There’s a further risk that the gadget plays blow up in our faces. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for going with a conservative three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust game plan.”
At 8:27, a message arrived from the “O-COORD” account: “AHC: I understand your concerns. Waiting until next year does not fundamentally change the calculus. 2 immediate risks on waiting: 1) this leaks, and we look indecisive; 2) OSU executes trick plays before we do and the losing streak stretches to nine.”
The O-COORD message goes on to state: “AHC: I fully share your loathing of turnovers. They’re PATHETIC. But we are the only ones on the planet who can end this losing streak. Nobody else even close. I think we should go high-risk, high-reward.”
It was the next morning, Saturday, Nov. 1, when this story became truly bizarre.
At 5:44 p.m., the account labeled “O-COORD” posted in Signal a “TEAM UPDATE.” The information, if it had been read by a member of Ohio State’s coaching staff, could conceivably have been used to thwart Penn State’s bid for an upset victory. The post contained operational details on the trick plays, including information about targets, game circumstances, and attack sequencing.
The first trick play would be deployed two hours hence, at 7:45 p.m. eastern time. So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Penn State’s triple reverse/flea-flicker/fumblerooski/State of Liberty/Hail Mary extravaganza would be unfolding.
At about 7:55, I checked X and searched Ohio State-Penn State. Jubilant cries were then being heard across State College. The first trick play worked. As the whole world knows by now, all the trick plays worked and Penn State went on to victory – ending eight years of humiliation.
It is unclear why a journalist was added to the text exchange. The quarterbacks coach, who invited me into Signal chat, said yesterday that he was investigating “how the heck he got into this room.”
Here Are Excerpts from the Gadget Play Plans That Franklin’s Staff Shared on Signal
- TIME NOW (1744et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/COACH we are a GO for gadget.”
- 1945et: Fumblerooski LAUNCH.
- 2010: Triple-reverse LAUNCH
- 2022: Flea flicker (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY BE THROWN)
- 2046: Statue of Liberty LAUNCH
- 2117: Hail Mary LAUNCH
- “We are currently clean on OPSEC (operational security)”
- “Godspeed to our Nittany Lions”
- “Buckeye defense collapsed. Multiple touchdowns. Amazing job.”
- 😈☠️👏🏻💪🔥👊🏾
