Louisville rallied past Wake Forest on Nov. 13.(Photo: Andy Lyons, Getty Images)
Wake Forest has found its leak. But the drip-drip-drip of damaging details may be just beginning[1].
In identifying radio analyst Tommy Elrod as the mole who offered confidential football information to opponents of the Demon Deacons, Wake has provided a startling answer to the fundamental question concerning the “security breach” detected prior to its Nov. 12 game at Louisville.
But this troubling tale won’t end with a press release detailing who did it. People are going to want to know why. They are going to want to know if Elrod sold out his alma mater for financial considerations, to exact revenge or to cozy up to coaches who might be in the market for an assistant with no conscience.
They are going to want to know how many games might have been affected by the surreptitious flow of trade secrets. They are going to want to know what schools were provided inside information and on what terms. They are going to want to know a whole lot more than what we know right now.
Attorney James Quander, himself a former Wake Forest football player, told the Winston-Salem Journal neither he nor Elrod would have any comment on the allegations at this time. Given the nature of the allegations, and a trail of evidence Wake Forest says includes e-mail, text messages and telephone records, it’s reasonable to surmise prosecutors may be seeking answers soon.
Since Wake Forest’s findings point to a lone culprit and to multiple incidents over a three-year period, Tuesday’s announcement may bring some comfort to Louisville and to Cardinals coach Bobby Petrino. It means that whatever happened was not a product of the espionage of a single school, but of a broader pattern over several seasons.
If Louisville was either offered or obtained proprietary information on the Demon Deacons, it appears to have had company. It is unclear whether Tommy Elrod stands accused of disseminating inside information on a selective basis or like video game cheat codes, but he appears to have been careless enough to get caught.
Elrod played quarterback for the Demon Deacons from 1994-97 and subsequently held numerous positions on Wake Forest’s coaching staff. But he lost his job when Dave Clawson replaced Jim Grobe as Wake’s head coach following the 2013 season, necessitating an abrupt detour on his career path from the field to the broadcast booth.
When Grobe came out of retirement last spring to serve as a caretaker coach at Baylor, Elrod endorsed his former boss as a man of principle in an interview with ESPN.
“Of all the stuff we did, the thing I’m proudest of is we did it the right way,” Elrod said. “When head coaches would go on the road, he would tell everybody, ‘Guys, I can’t talk to juniors.’ That’s a rule that’s broken every second of every day by everyone else.”
It’s remarkable how many college football coaches profess ethical purity while accusing unnamed rivals of cutting corners in search of a competitive edge. Also laughable. Because the rewards are so great and the pressures so enormous, the temptation to break the rules has led many a decent man to corrupt practices. As salaries have soared and universities have grown more impatient for results, that temptation has only intensified.
That said, if Tommy Elrod is guilty as charged, he has opened a new frontier of fraud. Though some coaches might rationalize cheating as so common that it’s almost irresponsible not to indulge, it’s much harder to mount a defense for a double agent.
See Arnold, Benedict.
Clawson called Elrod’s alleged betrayal “incomprehensible,” and making sense of it is going to require more details than Wake Forest has so far divulged.
If Elrod was trying to undermine Clawson for not retaining him, his actions have made him an outcast at his alma mater and are bound to blow up on any background check.
If he was trying to help friends in the profession –— Louisville assistant coach Lonnie Galloway was a former colleague at Wake Forest — a willingness to compromise Wake Forest’s gameplan would surely raise red flags and test the trust of potential recipients.
If he was trying to gain a gambling advantage by sharing secrets with Wake Forest’s opponents, the Demon Deacons nonetheless finished 7-5 against the spread (6-6 overall) during the regular season.
In the absence of definitive answers, this looks like a can of worms with way too much wiggle room. And a long, slow drip-drip-drip of details.
Tim Sullivan writes for The Courier-Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at (502) 582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com or @TimSullivan714 on Twitter.
References
- ^ But the drip-drip-drip of damaging details may be just beginning (www.courier-journal.com)
