Louisville suspends co-OC Lonnie Galloway for role in 'WakeyLeaks'
Louisville has suspended co-offensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway in the latest fallout of the “WakeyLeaks” scandal.
Wake Forest revealed this week that Tommy Elrod, a former Demon Deacons assistant who had been working as a radio announcer, had been providing game plan material to opponents since 2014. The investigation into the situation began following this year’s Louisville game when Wake Forest football staff members discovered “materials left behind by Louisville … that showed the Cardinals were prepared for plays the Demon Deacons had not run before.”
Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said in a statement Wednesday that Elrod shared “some information” with Galloway in a phone conversation before the game. Jurich said Wednesday the team did not benefit from the “few plays that were sent and shared with defensive staff.” Friday, Jurich said after reviewing “what took place following the receipt of information,” it was best to suspend Galloway for the Citrus Bowl against LSU on Jan. 2.
“It is clear to me that the information should not have been shared by anyone at Wake Forest and it should not have been received by anyone at the University of Louisville,” Jurich said Friday. “Although no one from Louisville sought the information, once it was provided, we did not do what should have been done. The information should not have been accepted. It should have been rejected and officials at Wake Forest should have been alerted to the inappropriate action taken by Mr. Elrod.”
Jurich said “the right and ethical thing would have been for us to not accept the information.”
“This is an unusual situation. When someone receives information they should not be given, it is important that they do the right thing,” Jurich said. “Even in a competitive atmosphere, the right and ethical thing would have been for us to not accept the information. I regret very much that this took place.”
Additionally, Jurich said he has been in “regular contact” with ACC commissioner John Swofford and the school will “accept any actions commissioner Swofford deems appropriate.” Cardinals head coach Bobby Petrino has said that he had “no knowledge” any information had been shared with his staff.
When appearing on ESPN radio Friday morning, Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson said members of Wake’s equipment staff found detailed play information on the sideline the day before the Demon Deacons and Cardinals were scheduled to play:
“When we arrived for our game against Louisville [Nov. 12], our equipment staff had found materials on our sideline the Friday when they set up the locker room. You’re not allowed to get there until a certain time, the assumption being they’re having their walk-through there. And our equipment people found cards just laying right on our sideline and didn’t think much of it. And then the day of the game we got there about an hour before and we found — the equipment manager presented our offensive coordinator with the cards and said I don’t think this is any big deal. It was just a lot of stuff that we do normally. Our offensive coordinator flipped through it and there was very, very detailed information there.
Formations that we had never run, alignments, even some of it was maybe some empty sets that we had never run before. But some of it was even sets we had run but we had flipped personnel. Louisville is an excellent football team and it was a game that we felt in order to score points we had to have some wrinkles in. And all of those wrinkles were right in front of us.
And at that point we knew we had been compromised. And as a result, a lot of those things that we had prepared we couldn’t run because we knew they had it. After the game, our players were upset. They wanted to know why did we work on all these things and not — why did we practice these things all week and not use them. They felt we did not give them the best opportunity to win the game. So we had a team meeting and told them, hey guys, something was compromised, we’re not sure how. At that point it triggered an investigation.”
Elrod was fired this week when the breach was discovered following a Wake Forest investigation. Elrod played for Wake Forest as a walk-on quarterback from 1993-97 and then served as a graduate assistant from 1999-2001. He returned to Wake in 2003 and served for 11 years as an assistant coach under Jim Grobe. When Clawson was hired, Elrod was not retained as an assistant but he remained around the program as a part of the radio team.
Clawson said Elrod was allowed to have “full access to players, team functions, film room and practices.”
For more Louisville news, visit CardinalSports.com.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
