You may recall that following the Louisville-Wake Forest game, in which game preparation information was allegedly provided to Louisville, an investigation began. The results are being reported as follows:
Crazy email. Wake Forest's radio broadcaster was a mole! pic.twitter.com/dePj81GcCP— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 13, 2016
Elrod was previously an assistant coach on Jim Grobe's staff but was not retained by Dave Clawson.
http://www.bloggersodear.com/2016/12/13/13941776/former-wake-forest-foot...
I guess it remains to be seen how many games were compromised. It's amazing to me that Wake is 6-6 and going bowling in spite of attempts (apparently some successful) to provide opponents with their game plans, coming from the guy who called their games and was actively undermining a program that was his previous employer. This is just awful all around.
Comments
This still doesn't seem significant to me. He was a radio announcer, no way he had substantially significant access to their actual gameplans from week to week.
Announcers usually meet with coaches during the week. A lot of times they have access to practice. He may very well have gotten scheme information. He also could have known info about injuries that wasn't available to the public.
The team play by play guys have to have a lot of inside info for interviews, gameday stories and weekly segments.
You're telling me Laaser couldn't find a playbook laying around the athletic dept. if he really wanted to find one?
This guy apparently had a vendetta against the new staff for not being retained. Must have been extremely butthurt to keep doing it for multiple seasons.
Radio report this morning said that he had unfettered access to team meetings, film sessions, and coaches meetings.
This started in 2014. I'm not sure what I want to be true:
1) He didn't give anything to Loeffler;
2) Loeffler had inside info and still couldn't put up points.
I laughed.
I cried.
It moved me, Bob.
You sir win the thread!
I feel like comments that score 100+ legs should become maroon or orange
maroon AND orange
He also was a former player for Wake Forrest. Seems odd, but maybe he held a grudge against Clawson for not retaining him.
That guy won't even be allowed to call a middle school game after this.
Someone either really pissed him off or he was getting a lot of money on the side for the info. He had to know that if/when it got out he would be done working in sports.
Equally alarming are the persons belonging to opponent staffs that may have accepted such info.
Yes but with how shady recruiting is these days, and how much of a $$$ system college football is, I'm not even surprised. It's basically corporate espionage / intelligence equivalence.
You could say this was an act of "Wakeyleaks"
No?
Ok, I'll see myself out
See also "The Leakin' Deacon"
(not my idea)
Both of these are gold
So, did you come up with that, cause that what it is officially being called on the internet now
I hadn't read it anywhere else, but I'm sure that someone else came up with it before me.
Shoulda copywrited that shit! lol
Removed to stop a spiraling unneeded conversation
What? So he deserves to suffer for cheating in a football game more than McQueary deserves to suffer for seeing a man sexually assaulting a child and only telling his boss?
I'd rather someone cheat in a game.
I've met McQ, he's been steamrolled.
There are obviously other parties who are more guilty than him, but I take issue with any adult seeing what he saw and not physically intervening immediately. At the very least you call 911. But he could have and should have stopped it right then and there.
Rather than get into what will obviously be a rabid hole of additional unneeded conversation about who saw what and who is a worse individual I am removing my initial post because the trajectory of the last few comments does nothing to benefit this community.
Fair enough.
This truly shows the integrity of Beamer and the program to not accept these plans in 2014.
Godamnit I knew somebody was gonna post it.
We will never live this down (and IMO we shouldn't). Luckily, this is as close to a "Wide Right" moment as we've had and it was only on regional TV.
Life Champions!
There isn't any mention of the school being notified by other teams about being contacted to accept such info. If that is the case, it's disturbing that other schools wouldn't report it. I'd have a hard time believing that someone could offer information to Beamer like that, that he would not contact Wake about it.
Well, given our performance vs Wake in 2014, I'd say that the coaching staff didn't have any insider info. Given FB's rep, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he wasn't even approached.
Petrino on the other hand....
Agreed.
Like others, still not buying a former radio announcer had unfettered access to week to week gameplans.
Head Coach Dave Clawson disagrees.
I can only believe that if VT had an alum in the radio booth, Frank would've given as much access as WF apparently gave Elrod.
That said, I'm sure there are those in the locker room (or recently graduated from it) that would like some words with him.
"Virginia Tech has more alums in the radio booth than UVA had fans at its spring game." -Mike Burnop
This was the only year in that time span that they weren't terrible, wouldn't have changed anything.
I fell bad for any Wake Forest fans. I doubt the athletic department allows access like that to anybody for the foreseeable future.
It shouldn't just be this guy that suffers. Any school (cough, Louisville, cough) that accepted whatever Elrod gave them should be equally punished. That's shady bullshit to accept that from an opposing team.
Sounds very Petrino like. Guy carries baggage like a hotel doorman.
If there is one coach in the ACC that would accept, if not outright seek out and pay for, opponent's intel, it is Petrino.
Welp. Here we go.
So, uh...what's your opinion on this statement now?
Of note, I heard on the radio this morning that 4 of the 6 teams that beat Wake this year have former Wake Forest staff on their current staff, including L'ville and Army
If he gave away team secrets because he wasn't retained by the new staff, is he salty enough to be hired by Fuck Pat Narduzzi?
A question I heard this morning was, if he's been doing this for three years, actively trying to get Intel to other teams, nobody, even those who refused the Intel, thought to tell Wake their play by play guy was selling them out?
This has been a thought of mine as well that I can't wrap my head around. I would hope that at least one coach would have had the decency to let the Wake staff know.
Either he was providing this information anonymously or he was selective on which coaches he "helped" and knew which ones wouldn't rat him out (a.k.a. not Frank Beamer)
I was discussing this with a friend last night. I have to imagine he didn't solicit everyone, and those he did were probably low on the food chain and maybe even propositioned in a way that made it seem like a joke. If he walked up to a grad assistant and was like, "hey I could help you out for game prep if you wanted" then everyone laughed it off, then no one probably took it seriously. But then along comes Petrino's staff...
Lonnie Galloway, UL Asst Head Coach, Co-Offensive Coordinator. Not very low on the food chain.
Louisville is a bit different, because Elrod and Galloway were friends and coached together at Wake. Elrod probably felt comfortable that his old buddy wouldn't rat him out. Above, I'm referring to other schools not yet implicated.
And for those scoring at home: Wake Forest still won 3 TIMES AS MANY GAMES as UVA this year.
*and beat uva
If UVA offerred their gameplan, people'd just laugh and ask "Why?" Although I suppose it could be posted to the break room fridge for a laugh, kinda like a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon.
Can't embed, wrapping Xmas gifts but Louisville AD just released a statement and it's a crock of shit.
https://twitter.com/ralphdrussoap/status/809131285381861377
Wow. So we did get the info from him and used it to gain a competitive advantage, but since those plays weren't run we are good. I have a feeling that the ethics courses taught at Louisville are outsourced to UNC's Afro-Studies department.
lol! The only reason the plays weren't run was because UofL was so sloppy with their handling of the situation that Wake Forest coaches found their notes the day before the game where their own plays that had never been run were diagrammed, and immediately pulled them from the gameplan.
This is what Petrino said when the matter was first brought up in November:
So we're supposed to believe that the OC got this information and secretly passed it on to the defensive staff without Petrino knowing anything about it? That seems odd, right? His two lead assistants knew, but no one bothered to give Petrino a heads-up?
{Turns on his Louisville Translator}
"Just like the basketball sex scandal, Petrino will do as Pitino did and blame it on an assistant coach and claim he had no knowledge of said sketchy behavior, even though Petrino, like Pitino, has a history of morally questionable behavior."
Maybe Petrino will go full Louisville and blame it on his mistress instead.
Rumor has it, Petrino only took the Louisville job because Pitino hired a stripper for his interview.
/s
So is Louisville the slimiest athletic department in the ACC now? I mean, it's gonna be tough to knock off UNC
I mean...come on guys.
Do you think that Petrino needed a sneak peek at WF's gameplan to beat them with his Heisman-Trophy-winning quarterback?
Could it be useful? Sure. Is there something malicious about? Sounds like it. Do I think it's terrible that it happened? I...don't really care.
The issue for me here isn't whether Louisville had their plays but more whether Petrino thought he needed their plays to win. If Petrino thought he needed to cheat in order to win, or is he just thought that cheating by default was cool, then to hell with that guy. His team was better by a wide margin.
I imagine after having two close calls against Duke and loluva, the proposition might've seemed a bit more tempting.
They were losing to Wake for awhile and only beat them by single digits last year.
Considering what happened the 2 weeks following the Wake game.... Yes, yes I do believe they needed it.
Petrino crashed his motorcycle while riding with a female employee that he may or may not have had an untoward relationship with. That pretty much answers your question on his level of integrity.
Hate to make it about that, but seriously, the dude is not on the level. No chance he didn't know this information was available.
There's more than just the motorcycle incident with Petrino. He causes trouble in a short amount of time everywhere he goes. Here's an article on some of the things he has done. I'd place a very large bet that he knew about the Wake Forrest info. In my opinion, Petrino should not be punished, but Louisville should be severely punished. They went out of their way to re-hire Petrino after Petrino left them abruptly and had many issues with teams including the motorcycle incident at Arkansas. In my mind, they knew what they were getting into when they hired him again.
Is it breaking community guidelines to bring up Richard Nixon? Because it's a pretty appropriate comparison to your question of "why bother cheating in the first place?"
Let's just not go there.
is that a 'yes'?
that sounds like a 'yes'
I don't care if you can beat someone without even practicing. Cheating is cheating!
What if Burnop had done this? Would you feel betrayed? Would you feel he had been unethical? And would you want that school to let Babcock and Fuente know?
We all, I believe, admired the way the Tech program was run by CFB. But I have often worried, when reading of another program's transgressions, whether something like that could happen at Tech. Thankfully, nothing has, yet, and I believe we walk with our heads held high. I like that feeling. Win or lose, we try do it the right way.
I'm no Pollyanna. I know this stuff goes on just about everywhere, whether in business, government, or athletics. Doesn't mean it's right!
What seemed suspicious was Wake was winning the game in the first half, then out of
nowhere UL stormed to victory.
IMHO, it doesn't matter if he needed it or not. If he willingly sought it out and used it, that is on him.
L-Ville is not anOSU or Bama. They want to run with the big boys.
Let us take a look at what type of person Petrino is:
1) Left to take an NFL job, then left the NFL job mid season to take a college job. Gives zero fucks about his players if there is a better deal for him to take; he will take it immedietly
2) Stepped out on his wife (his business), but made sure that woman was also paid by his employer, then got caught up in a scandal when that woman was injured in a bike accident with him. Tried to lie his way out.
This guy would do anything if he thought he could get away with it.
As a sidenote, whenever I see the word 'Elrod" it makes me think of drinking large margaritas with sorority girls that may or may not have been of legal drinking age...
Me, too. First stop on the "I'm getting wasted tonight!" tour.
I had dinner with a friend who works for Wake Forest last night. She told me that she has heard that Wake Forest is "Lawyering up." I assume that means Wake is taking action against Elrod, not Louisville.
This has opened up a full ethical discussion which is interesting. On Mike/Mike this morning, Greenie was railing against this (as was Booger McFarland,) basically drawing a line in the sand that if the Wake Forest in this situation did something to deserve it (leaving playbooks out, not covering up signals), then its on them. What makes them the victim in this situation is that it was stolen information. They then interviewed Spurrier and the HBC said that if he got this information, he would inform the HC "some time later" or "after the season." So....he'll take the advantage when he can, then tell the coach to pull his pants up later.
I read a quote from Tommy Bowden this morning:
What? Really? Wow.
I can understand video'ing someone's public practice. I can understand video'ing someone's private practice if they don't take sufficient precautions to cut down all the Stadium Woods. I can understand calling a colleague at a school that just played your opponent to pump them for information. I can understand stealing Loeffler's signals if he isn't smart enough to change them up before playing his former team in week 3.
This is just the gamesmanship of the sport. Recruiting is a whole separate issue. Lots of ethical issues up for discussion, thanks Wake!
Very interesting and thought provoking stuff here. In the Wake scenario they effectively had a double agent who was giving away their secrets for some reason that we don't really know yet. Wake very much is a victim in all of this.
I listened to that Mike & Mike segment as much as I could stand, and.... Those guys are ready to hang the entire conference just to set an example. I had to turn it off because of how over the top they are being with this.
Right now, I'm a little afraid we're going to be implicated here. Even though we've had a coaching change, if we're implicated, the media shitstorm that will arise will eventually hit us hard. Some school is going to fry for this, and its not going to be Wake. Though, it does seem like UofL is willing to fall on that sword already.
Edit: Shit
If we get implicated in this, although apparently Beamer has stated nobody on his staff was contacted, that will only make the 2014 games a million times more embarrassing.
Take this for what it's worth, but I don't think it takes O&M glasses to trust the word of Beamer.
Because the guy probably knew that Beamer would turn him in.
I think Frank would have given the classic "I'm disappointed" Grandpa look, which would have resulted in a spectacular instance of seppuku-via-letter-opener by the perpetrator. I think Frank then calls the NCAA and ACC head offices to forfeit that game.
Forfeit?! We lost the game anyway! That's how bad we were.
What's the target demographic for this show again?
Loeffler honestly did not change his offensive line and hard count keys before playing us. We didn't change all of our defensive signals but at least had poster board preventing loeffler from seeing our stuff.
O SHIT
https://twitter.com/davidteelatdp/status/809488168567369728
Incoming.
Army took action today against their coaches that were involved in the Wake Forest debacle.
Defensive Coordinator was fined $25K and suspended for two weeks of football activities.
http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/18638227/army-black-knig...