Paul Johnson believes game-plan leaking is commonplace

Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall shakes hands with Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson after the Yellow Jackets beat the Cavaliers 31-17 Saturday, November 19, 2016. SPECIAL/Daniel Varnado

Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall shakes hands with Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson after the Yellow Jackets beat the Cavaliers 31-17 Saturday, November 19, 2016. SPECIAL/Daniel Varnado

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson did not express surprise at the Wake Forest leak scandal that made news Tuesday. Wake Forest announced that the Demon Deacons radio analyst Tommy Elrod, a former Wake Forest player and coach, had been sharing game-plan information with several opponents going back to 2014.

“I think anybody who’s been in coaching for any amount of time has been skunked before somewhere,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that he believed it happened to Navy when he coached the Midshipmen at the 2003 Houston Bowl against Texas Tech.

“We had a couple plays that we hadn’t run all year and when we lined up, they went and started checking to ’em,” he said.

Johnson said that he was sure that high-school coaches who had attended Navy’s on-site practices brought the information on the plays to Texas Tech, then coached by Mike Leach. Navy lost 38-14.

“That’s why you have to be careful with all that stuff,” he said.