Using WordPerfect on Caydance's IBM 386 computer but cutting and pasting his own hand drawn diagrams of formations and plays, Griff McGuire composed the first football playbook that he had ever written. The method he employed, which he recalled learning from Madden when Madden was the Raiders' coach, featured offensive play pages on which each contained a diagram of the play at the top. Underneath the play were variations that would occur according to what the opposing defense did. Since he was not too sure how his team would shape up, this playbook was primarily for the first game, which would be played against the formidable Humboldt Rangers' defense.

Minus a cover (Caydance's lurid cover of the Fairchild Chip running down the field on fantastic transistor legs did not precisely send the message that he wanted to convey), he took the whole playbook to the Huygens copy room, where, steeped in the need to control circulation of the playbook, he watched as 50 copies were made, collated, and bound.

On the morning of the third day of pre-season training camp, all 50 copies of the Huygens Tech playbook lay on the meeting room table. As he prepared to review core plays on the chalkboard, Griff recollected that in his experience, players did not spend as much time with playbooks as coaches imagined.