Updated: Social Media Post Claiming E-mails with Enos Raises Red Flags
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – There's technically a chance it's true, but at first glance, it appears the people of Arkansas are getting misled by someone claiming to be a student.
Saturday Down South reported Sunday that Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos responded to a series of e-mails from a student immediately following the Razorbacks' loss to Texas A&M. In a tweet posted by Rob Mason that has received over 400,000 views and a ton of responses as of this writing, screenshots of 10 e-mails that supposedly took place between Enos and a student between 3:50 p.m. and 3:55 p.m. Saturday are shown with, shall we say, immature, catty responses from what is being depicted as Enos.
What reads like a text message exchange rather than e-mails from a 55-year-old coach comes complete with the letter "U" instead of the word "you" and a litany of emojis. There's already enough red flags here to fill a line of Razorback car windows waiting to get into parking on game day, but let's examine what was supposedly said and then evaluate some of the evidence that suggests this might be a poorly put together hoax.
(@RobMason_02)
(@RobMason_02)
We reached out to the University of Arkansas this morning to verify whether this e-mail exchange ever happened. Razorback sports information director Kyle Parkinson responded shortly before 12:30 p.m. with a response on behalf of the athletic department.
"Respect the question and understand you asking, but [the athletics department is] not going to address internet rumors," Parkinson said. "We’ve had more than our share the last few weeks."
So, with that answer, let's sort this out in as detailed of a way as possible. Right away, there are several indications the e-mails in question might be suspect. Let's start with the fact 10 e-mails are exchanged from 3:50-3:55. It's highly unlikely a coach would respond that many times with a student hoping to troll him after the game for numerous reasons.
The first is how quickly the response came. The initial e-mail was written at 3:50 p.m. That means that shortly after the game, Enos was on his computer logged into his e-mail when it came across. He opened it, read it, and chose to write back within seconds of it being sent. The odds of that scenario taking place just on its face is low at best. The idea that this not only happened once, but six more times, is difficult to take at face value.
The second is the response itself. Enos was born at at time when English teachers beat grammar, punctuation and sentence structure into pupils, sometimes quite literally. On top of that, this is supposedly from an official work e-mail. Anyone who has ever worked in a professional setting knows how often e-mail etiquette is preached when representing a company or organization. Between those two bits of information, it seems highly unlikely Enos would send an e-mail with "u" instead of "you" and end with a double question mark. There would also be a slightly more formal tone to it.
The third concern is the lack of an e-mail signature. Considering, by nature of the business, a lot of e-mails come each day from people working for the University of Arkansas, it can be confirmed, and this should come as no shock from someone who has worked a career job, that the university has a set e-mail signature that appears to be required for all official e-mail accounts.
It includes the name in red bold lettering, followed by position with the university in bold black lettering on the top line, University of Arkansas in bold red lettering on the second line followed by the address, and phone contact information plus social media information below that. Obviously, there is no such signature in these e-mails. University officials were asked whether Enos has such a signature on his professional e-mail, but this was neither confirmed, nor denied.
The fourth thing that jumps out is the time. Based on when the game ended and the press conference wrapped up, this would be around the time Enos would be on the plane. Now, specifically where he was scheduled to be at this time was asked, but university officials chose not to answer in their response. That being said, if Pittman runs his plane rides like most coaches, Enos would have been either meeting with the staff to debrief on what happened or he would have been combing through film cut-ups from the game. Not exactly a moment that allows for petty responses to student e-mails.
And all of this is just from the initial e-mail and response. Let's look at the rest.
(RobMason_02)
Before we even move forward to Enos' supposed response, there is one indicator here that this was indeed potentially written by a student that might slip by a lot of people. Remember the point made about how those 40+ had grammar drilled into them while in school with endless days of diagramming sentences and having points deducted for the most minor error in punctuation or grammar regardless of subject? The opposite is true from those 25 and younger. Grammar and punctuation is so heavily de-emphasized with them that proper punctuation is a cultural non-starter.
Quick, go find a teenager right now and ask if they put periods at the end of their sentences when they write their friends. They don't. In fact, putting a period at the end of the last sentence in a text is considered offensive. It seems that proper punctuation at the end of a last sentence is a form of aggression and anger, especially if it's a period. It's why they think older generations are mad all the time.
As a result, the lack of period after "Dan" is a clear indicator of generation in this case. While nothing about the Enos e-mails hints at a 55-year-old man on his work e-mail, there is little doubt about Mr. Mason's expected age.
Also, if there's any doubt this exchange is supposed to be from Enos' professional e-mail, Mason goes out of his way to let someone who asked if it's a real series of e-mails know it supposedly came from his professional account with the university.
Again, no punctuation at the end of the sentence, which establishes a perceived link as far as Mason's concerned with his portion of the e-mails in question. So, let's look at the other e-mails.
(@RobMason_02)
This one raises a red flag because, as can been seen in the actual Twitter post that is at the bottom this story, the phone information at the top looks exactly like this on each post with one exception. This is the only one that doesn't appear to have the word Snapchat and the arrow beside it edited out, leaving a blank white space under the time. Perhaps that's not a thing at all, but that it appears in only one of the screenshots provided by Mason does require the question as to why it only shows up in this one instance. Also, eight laughing crying emojis in a work e-mail?
(RobMason_02)
(RobMason_02)
(RobMason_02)
Then, immediately after sending the emoji-laden e-mail, a follow-up e-mail supposedly came seconds later without even so much as a response from Mason. If this really did happen, Enos sent an e-mail, and then after hitting the send button, was staring at his e-mail inbox, saw Mason's now grayed out e-mail response and decided he needed to open it again and fire off another reply. Below is that second, unprovoked response.
There is also need to point out the disappearance of punctuation in these two responses and the random capitalization of "Defense" in the first. Also, one last laughing crying emoji for good measure. By the way, it should also be noted that there are no subject lines for these e-mails. Perhaps there are settings where those can be turned off, but why would anyone do that?
(RobMason_02)
(@RobMason_02)
Mason responds with that classic younger generation lack of punctuation at the end of the last sentence, to which, once again, seconds later, Enos supposedly responds. This time no punctuation, but he hits enter, drops a capital "U" instead of "You" and hauls off with five exclamation points to end a sentence at a kid. Even without the required e-mail signature, nothing about this says adult.
(RobMason_02)
In this case, it looks like Enos again supposedly sent an e-mail, went out to his inbox, clicked on Mason's response a second time, all to fire off a pair of laughing crying emojis for no reason. Now follow this timeline because it's important. Enos wrote an e-mail, then did the actions described above, plus Mason fired an e-mail back, all within the same minute in time. If all these red flags turn out to be red herrings instead, then these two are the most efficient answerers of e-mail on the planet.
Once again with the "U" in the final e-mail. At least it's consistent. Also, another sentence with no punctuation, but one last use of that laughing crying emoji.
It doesn't add up. Again, this has hoax written all over it. However, until the university offers a response as to whether it is indeed faked, no one can say for certain it has been, leaving Razorback fans to speculate for themselves whether the e-mails are truly authentic.
HOGS FEED:
SOME MAJOR CHANGES COMING IN RAZORBACKS' OFFENSE LINE AND IT STARTED MONDAY
PITTMAN'S GOAL AGAINST A DANGEROUS OLE MISS OFFENSE IS JUST TO LIMIT THE NUMBER OF BIG PLAYS
• Return to allHogs home page
• Subscribe and follow us on YouTube
• Follow allHOGS on Twitter and Facebook
