Curious phone records between Blake and agent surface

UNC Scandal30

Tuesday evening the News and Observer posted this article.  It details a strange pattern (and odd  frequency) of communication that former UNC-CH Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator John Blake had with Gary Wichard, an agent who is a long-time friend of Blake.  Folks, I honestly don’t know what to make of a lot of this, but I am pretty sure that it portends bad things for UNC-CH.

Some highlights from the excellent article:

During the 61 days leading up to the Jan. 4 announcement that six juniors on UNC’s football team would stay in school rather than enter the NFL draft, university phone records show that Blake and Wichard never went more than four days without communicating. The records also show 152 communications (phone calls or texts) during a 235-day period between Blake’s university-paid number and Wichard’s phone.
Asked if it is ever acceptable to have that level of communication between a coach and an agent, UNC chancellor Holden Thorp said in an e-mail: “Whether the level of contact is acceptable or unacceptable depends on what they talked about, and I have no idea what they were discussing. Clearly, Mr. Wichard and Coach Blake have a very close relationship. All things being equal, it’s probably better not to have a close personal relationship with a sports agent if you’re an NCAA coach.”
It is interesting that Thorpe was asked directly whether that level of contact was acceptable, and Thorpe deflected, sort saying that that level of contact could be acceptable if they were talking about innocent things.  BUT – we know that Blake just “resigned” — so were the conversations not legitimate?  Is that what we are learning? 
Some might question the institutional control in place that would allow repeated suspicious contact between an Associate Head Coach and a prominant agent to go on unchecked for such an extended period of time.  In the article Butch Davis is quoted explaining that he had no idea as to the frequency of Blake’s communications with Wichard — “I didn’t know that he was talking to him that frequently. I didn’t know if he was talking to him once a year, twice a month. I had no idea.”  Wow!  Don’t you think he should have!?  This is the type of thing that just screams for an independent review.  Also from the linked  article:
The records do not distinguish between phone calls and text messages, but they show that Blake and Wichard communicated 61 times in the 61 days leading up to UNC’s Jan. 4 announcement that six Tar Heels players – Marvin Austin, Kendric Burney, Greg Little, Deunta Williams, Quan Sturdivant and Bruce Carter – decided to return for their senior seasons in 2010 rather than leave for the NFL draft.
Hmmmm.  I do not know what to make of this relationship between Blake and Wichard.  If you read this article that recaps an early press conference, you will see that Butch Davis is asked if he had any concerns about Blake’s relationship with Wichard and Blake responds “No.”  Davis then goes on to equivocate a little on that topic.  Going back a little further, alert readers will remember this article that we linked that delved a little deeper into the Blake-Wichard relationship.  Some highlights from that article include:

Reached by Yahoo! Sports last week, Wichard said he has not been contacted by the NCAA and described Blake as nothing more than a close friend. He also denied any impropriety involving Austin.

“If the center of this controversy is my relationship with John, there’s really no controversy,” Wichard said. “If that’s what [the NCAA] is investigating, I think it’s just absurd. … I hope – I really, truly hope – that Marvin Austin’s whole case is based on me and John Blake. I hope that for Marvin Austin’s sake. At the end of the day, there’s nothing to investigate.”

and also from that article:

“No, no, no, no,” Wichard said. “John lived [in California] after he was the head coach at Oklahoma. He lived out in [Los Angeles]. We’ve socialized. We’ve been friends. His son is my godson. It has nothing to do with that. He hasn’t worked for me at all. I don’t get where that is coming from.”

It turned out that a pamphlet existed that represented that Blake was employed by Wichard’s company.  Also, there is a lot more (including some contradictory and confusing information) about the Blake-Wichard relationship here toward the bottom of an article I did in July.

Now, what I really can’t get my head around is the actual frequency and length of the communications as reported by the News and Observer.  I will leave you with this.  I am not mathematically inclined and I am not good at recognizing patterns in numbers, but I know many who will read this are.  So have at this list and tell me what it means.  The length of the conversations is particularly bizarre:

The 61 calls from Blake’s university-issued cell phone to Wichard’s cell phone during that 61-day period:
Nov. 5, 7:02 p.m., outgoing 19 minutes

Nov. 5, 7:26 p.m., outgoing, 1

Nov. 7, 8:05 p.m., outgoing, 2

Nov. 7, 9:55 p.m., outgoing, 2

Nov. 8, 11:03 a.m., outgoing, 2

Nov. 8, 10:09 p.m., outgoing, 2

Nov. 8, 10:10 p.m., outgoing, 5

Nov. 9, 6:57 p.m., incoming, 3

Nov. 10, 10:33 a.m., outgoing, 4

Nov. 10, 8:10 p.m., incoming, 3

Nov. 14, 9:06 p.m., outgoing, 1

Nov. 14, 9:35 p.m., incoming, 2

Nov. 16, 2:07 p.m., incoming, 1

Nov. 16, 6:28 p.m., incoming, 3

Nov. 18, 8:59 p.m., outgoing, 8

Nov. 20, 10:04 p.m., outgoing, 3

Nov. 21, 4:13 p.m., outgoing, 3

Nov. 21, 8:01 p.m., outgoing, 1

Nov. 21, 8:02 p.m., incoming, 3

Nov. 21, 8:11 p.m., outgoing, 4

Nov. 22, 10:16 p.m., incoming,

Nov. 22, 10:31 p.m., outgoing, 1

Nov. 23, 5:46 p.m., outgoing, 5

Nov. 23, 5:53 p.m., outgoing, 2

Nov. 23, 10:25 p.m., not listed, 1

Nov. 28, 4:01 p.m., outgoing, 1

Nov. 28, 4:04 p.m., outgoing, 3

Nov. 29, 8:16 p.m., incoming, 1

Nov. 30, 12:10 p.m., outgoing, 1

Nov. 30, 12:31 p.m., ingoing, 2

Nov. 30, 12:32 p.m., outgoing, 3

Nov. 30, 11:35 p.m., outgoing, 2

Nov. 30, 11:36 p.m., outgoing, 2

Dec. 2, 11:18 a.m., incoming, 17

Dec. 7, 7:18 p.m., outgoing, 15

Dec. 9, 7:35 p.m., outgoing, 5

Dec. 9, 8:05 p.m., outgoing, 2

Dec. 10, 1:55 p.m., outgoing, 13

Dec. 12, 8:03 p.m., incoming, 3

Dec. 13, 6:12 p.m., outgoing, 8

Dec. 14, 11:14 a.m., incoming, 1

Dec. 14, 11:15 a.m., incoming, 3

Dec. 16, 9:44 a.m., outgoing, 2

Dec. 16, 9:49 a.m., incoming, 2

Dec. 16, 5:27 p.m., outgoing, 1

Dec. 16, 5:41 p.m., incoming, 8

Dec. 17, 5:40 p.m., outgoing, 3

Dec. 17, 5:47 p.m., incoming, 8

Dec. 17, 8:23 p.m., outgoing, 1

Dec. 19, 9:02 a.m., outgoing, 1

Dec. 22, 4:33 p.m., outgoing, 4

Dec. 22, 11:45 p.m., incoming, 5

Dec. 26, 9:01 p.m., outgoing, 2

Dec. 27, 1:48 a.m., outgoing, 2

Dec. 28, 9:27 a.m., outgoing, 2

Dec. 29, 9:04 p.m., outgoing, 1

Dec. 30, 12:42 p.m., outgoing, 1

Dec. 30, 10:10 p.m., outgoing, 3

Jan. 1, 11:32 a.m., outgoing, 1

Jan. 4, 1:47 p.m., outgoing, 1

Jan. 4, 3:56 p.m., incoming, 1

 

UNC Scandal

30 Responses to Curious phone records between Blake and agent surface

  1. StateFans 09/08/2010 at 12:24 PM #

    @Wolfpack_Lamb

    Comparing Blake phone records to game times shows he was making some of these calls right after games. Maybe in locker room or on team bus?

  2. Mike 09/08/2010 at 2:22 PM #

    Seems to me Blake was calling Wichard right after the game to say what a great game Brown had against the Pack and Wichard needs to sign him.

  3. PackerInRussia 09/08/2010 at 4:04 PM #

    Or maybe he just needed a shoulder to cry on after that loss.

  4. WolfEyes 09/08/2010 at 8:00 PM #

    Would be interesting to see who Santa called either directly before or after these interactions with Wichard, and if there are any other agents he was in frequent contact with.

  5. travelwolf 09/09/2010 at 2:19 PM #

    i’m sure it’s possible to retrieve the text from the messages – the question is WHETHER they will be released to the public. if so, hell’s gonna break loose in ‘blue heaven’.

1 2

Leave a Reply