Former Auburn football staffer charged with giving confidential information to competitors
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A former Auburn athletic department employee has been arrested and is facing felony charges for allegedly passing along confidential information to competing universities.
David Rudolph Jenrath, 24, of Franklin, Tennessee has been charged with theft of trade secrets and computer tampering. He turned himself in to Auburn police on Monday, Sept. 28 and was booked in the Lee County (Alabama) Jail on $15,000 bond.
The charges are tied to an incident at the 300 block of South Donahue Drive, where the university’s athletic department offices are located. According to a report from an unnamed business at that location, sensitive information had been stolen from it and given to competitors, who turned around and gave it back. The competing schools were not identified.
An investigation identified Jenrath as the suspect and authorities obtained warrants, ultimately leading to Jenrath’s arrest.
According to his since-deleted LinkedIn profile, Jenrath worked at Auburn as a player personnel scouting assistant from January 2026 through June 2026. In that role, he focused on running backs and special teams, along with evaluating prospects, preparing scouting reports and recruiting summaries, assisting with opponent scouting and maintaining recruiting databases.
The Auburn University Controller's Office lists five payments for a combined $535 to Jenrath from Sept. 12 to Dec. 5, 2025, which occurred during the final season of former coach Hugh Freeze's tenure at the school.
Jenrath’s profile says he’s currently a student at the University of Tennessee, where he’s studying sports analytics. In an odd bit of timing, Auburn plays at No. 17 Tennessee on Saturday, Oct. 3. First-year Tigers head coach Alex Golesh was an assistant with the Volunteers from 2021-22 and several assistant coaches on the Auburn staff have previously worked at Tennessee.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former Auburn football staffer charged with giving confidential information to competitors
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