The father of Wake Forest quarterback John Wolford believes his son may be one of the victims of WakeyLeaks, the scandal in which radio announcer and former football player and coach Tommy Elrod was fired for passing (or attempting to pass) “confidential and proprietary game preparation” material to opposing teams.
Robert Wolford believes the information opposing teams could have used to prepare for Louisville may have put his son in danger of getting hurt as defenses knew how to cover Wake Forest’s offense.
“It’s just insane,” Robert told USA Today’s Josh Peter. “It did put John potentially in danger of getting hurt. He’s not a big quarterback, and there’s no question he’s been battered all three years there.”
Robert continued, “The thing that enters your mind is whether there were situations where defenses knew what routes (Wake Forest receivers) were going to run and that put him at risk because it took longer for the play to develop and for receivers to get open.”
According to Peters, John has taken 98 sacks during his three years at Wake Forest. In a 44-12 loss to the Louisville this season, John was sacked seven times and injured his shoulder.
On Wednesday, Louisville acknowledged receiving a few plays from Elrod and sharing it amongst coaches, but doubted the benefits of the information. Louisville's athletic director Tom Jurich said the team took offense to being involved in the report as they prepare for a bowl game.
Robert said of the Louisville's statement, "For them to sort of minimize it like they did is sort of like rubbing salt in the wound."
John, however, did not want to blame the shared information on the sacks he took, telling Peters, "What I don't want to do, and I wouldn't want getting out, is I'm blaming the sacks I took or the losses we had completely on this. To attribute it all to this would be unfair. Especially when we don't know the extent to how many teams got it."
According to Joe Giglio of the News and Observer, Louisville, Army, and Virginia Tech have all admitted to receiving information from Elrod.
