#WAKEYLEAKS: Disgruntled ex-coach leaks game plans to opponents

How did they access his emails, text messages and phone records ? Did someone get a warrant ?

Mugsy's Jock said:

[I'm sure you'll be shocked -- shocked -- to learn that world-renowned bastion of ethics and higher education Louisville has been the first team revealed to have received Wake game plans in advance.]

http://www.bloggersodear.com/2016/12/13/13941776/former-wake-forest-football-assistant-provided-game-plan-information-to-opponents-tommy-elrod

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The link says he attempted to give Louisville the info, not that they took it and used it.

I'm not saying they didn't, but as of now, it's not saying that.

How did they access his emails, text messages and phone records ? Did someone get a warrant ?

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Could have been work property. Could have been given access by Elrod.

So, we now know how Daz was able to beat them.

Sounds like real sour grapes to go from player, coach , broadcaster to traitor. Not sure why broadcaster would have game plans.

Well BC lost 3-0 last year so I think we can cross us off the list.

Radio guys sit in on practices, meetings, and talk with coaches as part of their prep. It's commonplace. This is a major breach of trust and he deserves all of what's coming to him.

kenneycb said:

Well BC lost 3-0 last year so I think we can cross us off the list.

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Can we...?

RedOctober3829 said:

Radio guys sit in on practices, meetings, and talk with coaches as part of their prep. It's commonplace. This is a major breach of trust and he deserves all of what's coming to him.

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Can anything actually be coming to him outside of having to find a new industry to work in?

kenneycb said:

Can anything actually be coming to him outside of having to find a new industry to work in?

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I don't think so. It's just a dickbag thing to do and he'll never do anything associated with college athletics or Wake Forest-related ever again.

Sports Illustrated calls for offending teams to be punished.

The Elrod-Louisville connection: "When Elrod coached at Wake Forest, he was co-coordinator of the passing game. His other co-coordinator, Lonnie Galloway, now works on Petrino’s staff." And "documents pertaining to the Wake game plan" were discovered at Louisville's stadium the day before the game.

The Louisville game was weird-- Wake was a big underdog but was actually leading 12-10 in the fourth quarter, until Louisville came alive and totally shredded them, outscoring them 34-0 in less than a quarter.

I'm disappointed Belichick hasn't found a way to access other teams' radio guys.... or has he?

Proprietary game preparations - are they trying to say strategy is a trade secret or the like?

Marciano490 said:

Proprietary game preparations - are they trying to say strategy is a trade secret or the like?

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Trade secret might be a little over the top. All they are saying now is that Elrod was given access to confidential team information and that during their internal investigation they uncovered evidence that he transmitted this information in some form to WF opponents and for that he was terminated. Determining if other teams received and used the confidential information should be left to the ACC. I don't see this thing going to lawyers. The ACC should investigate and determine if there were any violations of their by laws and proceed accordingly. (Full disclosure my kid is also a student at WF-GO DEACS)

Understood. Proprietary usually has a legal connotation. Or maybe I've just been out of the real world for too long.

Louisville AD confirms that Benedict Elrod gave info and plays to Louisville assistant coach Galloway.

"Among the communication were a few plays that were sent and then shared with our defensive staff," Jurich said in the statement. "None of the special plays were run during the course of the game. Our defense regularly prepares for similar formations every week in their normal game plan."

Yes, none of those specific plays were run during the game-- because Wake's equipment manager found documents with the plays on them at Louisville's stadium the day before the game, so Wake then realized they had better not run them, since Louisville probably knew about them.

Jurich also claims that other info Elrod gave them was stuff they had already guessed, so that shouldn't count:

"Any other information that may have been discussed was nothing that our staff had not already seen while studying Wake Forest in their preparations for the game and the material was not given any further attention.”

Even if that is true, then they did at least get direct confirmation of what they anticipated to be the Wake game plan. Who knows what info, or if was as specific as "on 4th and short, Wake likes to run draw plays out of the shotgun."

Interesting to see what the ACC does about this. Probably nothing, but it doesn't look good for a college team's staff members to be accepting game plan info about their fellow conference members before they play them.

And don't forget that Petrino already denied having any information like this.

Wake announced in mid-November that they had found documents in the stadium before the Louisville game. They called Louisville about it. But Louisville didn't admit they knew about any of this info till now.

Petrino denied it back in November, and now we find out from their AD's own statement that at least his whole defensive staff was given the info before the game. But I'm sure Petrino was kept in the dark, though, right?

Petrino from November: "I have no knowledge of the situation,’’ Petrino responded by email, when asked to comment about the report. “We take a lot of pride in the way we operate our program. As I’ve stated already this season, my coaching philosophy has always been to play the game with sportsmanship."

ernieshore said:

And don't forget that Petrino already denied having any information like this.

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Bobby Petrino has a long history of playing fast and loose with the truth.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/1/9/5288648/bobby-petrino-louisville-scandal-timeline

It's always fun to call out the utter hypocrisy of college athletics. Remember, this is a game of amateur "student athletes" being led by coaches who are "builders of men". Totally cool to accept game plans from a disgruntled jerk from an opposing program. Definitely what the "student athlete" educational experience is all about.

Apparently Wake Forest has also called Army about this.

The guy is a world-class douchebag, but for another school he contacted not to reach out to Wake Forest (who, come on, you shouldn't need help to beat) seems even shittier to me.

I was speaking to my son about this last night. We speculated whether Elrod only sent information to teams where he knew a coach or if he sent the equivalent of a weekly blast email to every opponent. Our conclusion was the former, because one of Wake's opponents was ARMY. Surely, if they had received this type of information they would feel honor bound to report it to WF or even take it to the NCAA. For now, I'm going to maintain my position of keeping the service academies on a pedestal and assume they never received any material from Elrod, but there will be a shit storm if it turns out ARMY had information and did not report it. Frankly, the fact that WF has asked ARMY to look into this is troubling.

Ray McCartney was an assistant at Wake with Elrod, then went to Army for 2014 and 2015. They played Wake both years. This past season, McCartney was an assistant at Davidson.

Randy Knorr was a Wake assistant who worked with Elrod, and was at Indiana in 2014 and 2015 when they played Wake. This past season, Knorr was an assistant at Ohio State.

Seems really likely that Benedict Elrod reached out to both of those guys and offered them info (especially McCartney at Army, since Wake has already contacted them.) Who knows what the response was.

Wake supposedly has Elrod's email and text records, so at this point they know which teams he was in contact with.

Dan Wetzel takes on Louisville. He's such a good read.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-dirt-keeps-piling-up-at-louisville-on-tom-jurichs-watch-230119357.html

I'm a Wake alum -- was there at the same time as Elrod, apparently. Since the basketball and football programs have been in the dumpster the last several years (thanks to the AD, I'll add editorially), and given how seedy college sports are, I've paid less and less attention to the program. But I said to a friend last night, "well, at least Wake sports is interesting once again."

SumnerH said:

That it "came in through a side door" is meaningless. If a disgruntled employee leaks Coke's marketing plans, obviously Coke wasn't giving them out as a courtesy. It's still fair game for Pepsi to use that info to counter-market or otherwise plan their business, and they've done nothing morally wrong by doing so.

If you want to keep a trade secret, it's incumbent on you to keep it secret. That's the trade-off you make for keeping information private. If you want to stop other people from using information like this, you have to publicize it in order to patent it. That's an intentional and fundamental goal of our system.

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As someone who regularly encounters these kinds of issues in the real world and counsels clients on how to deal with them, I strongly disagree with a lot of this.

First off, there is a ton of confidential business information where the only choice is to keep it secret rather than patent it, because it isn't patentable. Cost information, pricing of a key component or raw material, marketing and business development plans, and about a million other similar things. To the extent that any of that stuff results in a competitive advantage, your only option is to try to keep it secret, it isn't a choice.

Secondly, I also strongly disagree that there is nothing morally or ethically objectionable about using a competitor's confidential information to compete against them even if you didn't ask for it or do anything to induce someone to give it to you, but that's a longer thread hijack. We have a guide to business conduct that every employee has to sign that explicitly talks about this.

In this particular case, I am betting that if the other schools actually took the information it probably violates the school's code of conduct.

Hokies are next up.

Elrod gave info to a Virginia Tech assistant before the ugly-ass 6-3 double OT game in 2014.

"Here is the statement (by VT AD Whit Babcock) in full. Notice the stark contrast to Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich, who virtually excused his school’s involvement.

“We have recently been made aware that a former Wake Forest staff member provided one of our former assistant coaches with some game plan information prior to our game in 2014. We have no indication at this time that any of this information was shared with any other staff members, nor utilized during the game itself. However, should new information become available, we will be forthcoming and transparent.

“We hold ourselves to a higher standard at Virginia Tech. We are disappointed and embarrassed that this type of information was distributed to, and apparently received by one of our former assistant coaches. The distribution of this type of information among peers or rivals is wrong and not in the vein of sportsmanship and integrity that we demand and expect, and for this, I would like to take this opportunity to personally apologize to the coaches, student-athletes, administration, alumni, students and fans of Wake Forest University.

“I am also aware of former head coach Frank Beamer’s and current defensive coordinator Bud Foster’s public remarks yesterday as to having no knowledge of the situation and I believe and support both of them wholeheartedly. It should also be noted that there is no known connection of any kind to our current coaching staff who were hired in late 2015.

We will, of course, comply fully with the ACC and all relevant parties as this unfortunate situation unfolds. Thank you.”


They didn't come right out and add "UNLIKE LOUISVILLE" at the end, but I think that is implied.

Coach Clawson was on Mike and Mike this morning. He gave a status report and a timeline of the investigation. He specifically mentioned that the "cards" that were found on the sideline by Wake travel personnel were found after the Louisville team's walk through (I think on the day before the game). The cards were turned over to the OC who told Clawson that they contained detailed information about new plays and formations that were part of the Wake game plan for Louisville. Clawson realized there had been a security breach and decided not to run the plays because Louisville would know how to recognize and defend them. He informed the WF AD and had hoped to keep it quiet for as long as possible, but after the game his players were angry because they had spent so much time practicing these plays and he said it was at that point that he had a team meeting to explain what had happened.
Although Clawson did not directly tie the two together, it was clear to me that he made these comments about not running the plays in response to the quote from the Louisville AD who said

“Among the communication were a few plays that were sent and then shared with our defensive staff. None of the special plays were run during the course of the game"

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Louisville has suspended their co-offensive coordinator.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/acc/2016/12/16/louisville-suspends-offensive-coordinator-wake-forest-leak-scandal/95530408/

I have yet to see any report of WHY this guy decided to do this- is he bitter about being let go as an assistant?

OilCanShotTupac said:

I have yet to see any report of WHY this guy decided to do this- is he bitter about being let go as an assistant?

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I'm gong to suggest that you review the thread title and then ask the question again.

Average Reds said:

I'm gong to suggest that you review the thread title and then ask the question again.

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Duh.

[emoji6]

Louisville and VA Tech each fined $25,000 for their involvement in Wakeyleaks. This is the max fine allowed by ACC bylaws. Money will be donated to a post grad scholarship program. ACC also supportive of Louisville's decision to suspend OC.
Indiana's internal investigation found no involvement and Army investigation is on going.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/12/17/13995478/acc-fines-virginia-tech-louisville-wake-forest-wakey-leaks

leftfieldlegacy said:

Louisville and VA Tech each fined $25,000 for their involvement in Wakeyleaks. This is the max fine allowed by ACC bylaws. Money will be donated to a post grad scholarship program. ACC also supportive of Louisville's decision to suspend OC.
Indiana's internal investigation found no involvement and Army investigation is on going.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/12/17/13995478/acc-fines-virginia-tech-louisville-wake-forest-wakey-leaks

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This better not be the extent of the penalties. It's brazen cheating. No different than paying a player.

Im sure there is a formal process, but as a practical matter it's pretty arbitrary. Basically, if there is a public outcry, the NCAA will get involved. If not, then probably not. (Unless they clearly have jurisdiction based on the allegations.)

Absent a massive media-driven escalation, I don't see them jumping in here.

Mugsy's Jock said:

So it's two months later and surprise surprise -- no further discipline has been disclosed against the Virginia Tech or Louisville programs for having accepted stolen game plans from a rogue Wake Forest radio announcer. The NCAA simply doesn't give a rat's ass about a "minor" program -- I'm sure had this unfolded at Duke or Indiana or something, Congress would be involved.

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Duke and Indiana are major football schools?

And if you're calling them major because of a completely different sport than where they infraction occurred, then Louisville would be one too.