A former Auburn football staffer was arrested Monday on felony charges after police said he shared confidential recruiting documents with other programs.
Auburn police said David Rudolph Jenrath, 24, faces charges of theft of trade secrets and computer tampering. According to police documents, he is accused of sending Auburn athletics information to other schools without permission and of “disclosing, using, controlling or taking computer programs and data 'with the intent to harass Auburn University Athletics by disclosing trade secrets of Auburn University Athletics to their opponents.'”
Sources told CBS Sports that Jenrath was hired by first-year coach Alex Golesh’s staff in January and then fired in the spring. He allegedly used a pseudonym email account called “Don Julio” to distribute 10 documents that included personnel details on high school recruits Auburn had been pursuing for the classes of 2027, 2028 and 2029. The subject line of the email also included Golesh’s home address, a source said.
Those documents reportedly contained Auburn coaches’ evaluations of recruits, including which players the new staff was targeting and which ones it was not. The source said the emails did not contain game plan information.
Jenrath is currently identifying himself on social media as a student studying sports analytics at the University of Tennessee, Auburn’s opponent this week in the SEC. His LinkedIn profile, which has since been removed, described him as a player personnel scouting assistant at Auburn, with duties involving running backs, special teams and player recruitment. He also played football as a high school kicker.
Police said the anonymous emails were under investigation for at least two months before Jenrath was identified as the sender. One of Auburn’s competitors that received the information turned it over to Auburn, according to police.
Jenrath turned himself in to Auburn police on Monday and was taken to Lee County Jail, where he was being held on a $15,000 bond.
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