Wake Forest Demon Deacons: The Responses Begin

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are coming to grip with the information leak. There is little sympathy from the recipients.

The story of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and their adventures with their radio guy is not going to end quietly. It is looking more like the Atlantic Coast Conference will have to take some action to settle this affair for the future.

The first part is easy enough, Tommy Elrod gave and tried to give information about the Wake team and their playbook to scheduled opponents. Apparently he was unsuccessful in most instances. However there are three teams that Wake believes or knows that he gave info to. They were the Louisville Cardinals, Virginia Tech Hokies, and Army Black Knights.

In the case of Louisville and Virginia Tech, both schools admitted receiving the information but also claimed that the top level coaches were not involved. Instead they pointed the finger at lower level coaches who had known Elrod in the past. Both responses sound kind of silly, but if you want to judge for yourself:

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Tom Jurich, Louisville AD:

Our offensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway and Tommy Elrod have known each other since 2007. Lonnie received a call from Elrod during the week of the Wake Forest game, and some information was shared with him that week.

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. Our defense regularly prepares for similar formations every week in their normal game plan.

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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. I’m disappointed that this issue has brought undue attention to our football staff as we prepare for our upcoming bowl game.

If you think Jurich’s response is in poor taste, remember this is the guy who rehired Bobby Petrino after he (Petrino) left Louisville for the Falcons and after his motorcycle wreck with passenger not his wife with Arkansas.

Whit Babcock, Virginia Tech Hokies AD

Virginia Tech’s response is marginally better. It is more polite and less jerky, but there is actually less accountability for the actions that took place. Everything is in the hands of a missing assistant. I suppose it is possible that the former assistant in question accepted Elrod’s information and sat on it, but that seems out of place.

Next: There was a Mole

Finally there is the responsibility of the other schools. The ones who did not accept information but were approached should have told Wake or the conference about it. That they did not is unfortunate too.