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Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Wake Forest Radio Voice Allegedly Leaked Game Plans

Tommy Elrod
Wake Forest has concluded that team radio announcer Tommy Elrod -- a former player and assistant coach -- provided or attempted to provide confidential game preparations to opponents several times starting in 2014, according to ESPN.

The school began a programwide investigation last month after an equipment manager discovered documents inside Papa John's Cardinal Stadium -- one day before Wake Forest's Nov. 12 football game in Louisville -- that showed specific Demon Deacons plays.

Elrod has been fired from the IMG Radio Network and banned from Wake Forest athletics and its facilities.

Elrod played for Wake Forest from 1993 to 1997 and was later hired as a graduate assistant under Jim Grobe. Elrod held multiple positions for 11 seasons but was not retained by current head coach Dave Clawson.

Elrod joined IMG in 2014 as a football analyst after Clawson took over.

"It's incomprehensible that a former Wake Forest student-athlete, graduate-assistant, full-time football coach and current radio analyst for the school would betray his alma mater," Clawson said Tuesday in a statement.

Athletic director Ron Wellman said he has known Elrod since his days as a player on Wake's football team.

"I'm deeply disappointed that he would act against Wake Forest, our football team and our fans in such a harmful manner," Wellman said in a statement, "by compromising confidential game-preparation information."

Messages from ESPN.com to Elrod were not immediately returned.

After the Wake Forest play sheet was brought to Clawson's attention, the coach turned the documents over to Wellman and the investigation began. Wake Forest alerted Louisville and the ACC that it was investigating a potential internal breach of confidentiality.

In announcing the results of the investigation on Tuesday, the school cited emails, text messages and phone records in concluding that Elrod had tried to give out the confidential information.

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