Wake Forest leak confifirmed
AD says Louisville got no advantage, but ACC will review.
Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich confifirmed that a former Wake Forest assistant coach-turned-broadcaster shared “a few plays” with a Cardinals assistant before the teams played last month.
In a statement Wednesday, Jurich said Louisville offffffffffffensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway received a call from Demon Deacons radio analyst and former assistant Tommy Elrod before the game Nov. 12. Galloway and Elrod were assistants to Jim Grobe at Wake Forest from 2011-12.
Jurich said Elrod passed along the plays that were then shared with the defensive staffffffffffff, but “none of the special plays were run during the course of the game.”
The Louisville AD said after looking “further into the matter” he learned of the phone call between Elrod and Galloway who have known each other since 2007 — which came during the week leading up to the game.
“Any other information that may have been discussed was nothing that our staffff had not already seen while s t udyi ng Wake Fore s t i n their preparations for the game and the material was not given any further attention,” Jurich said. “I’m disappointed that this issue has brought undue attention to our football staffff as we prepare for our upcoming bowl game.”
The statement came a day after Wake Forest disclosed the findings of its nearly monthlong internal investigation into potential leaks when documents related to the team’s game plan were found at Louisville’s stadium.
Louisville coach Bobby Petrino has said he had no knowledge of the situation, and team spokesman Rocco Gasparro said in a statement after the Louisville investigation was completed that Petrino had no comment “in what appears to be a Wake Forest issue.”
At l a nt i c C o a s t C o nf e rence spokeswoman Amy Yakola said league offifficials are obtaining Wake Forest’s fifindings, and that the ACC will “perform its due diligence” with the potential for further, unspecifified actions.
Wake Forest’s investigation absolved all current members of the athletic department, coaching staff and team, and instead placed the entiret y of the blame on Elrod — a former player and assistant who moved into the broadcast booth when he was not retained by Dave Clawson following the 2013 season.
The school said it reviewed emails, text messages and phone records and determined El ro d e i t her pro - vided or attempted to provide “confifidential and proprietary game preparations on multiple occasions” starting in 2014.
Elrod was fifired from his j o b a s a n a nalys t o n t he Demon Deacons’ IMG College radio broadcasts and was banned from the school’s athletic facilities.
Elrod’s attorney, James Quander — a defensive end at Wake Forest from 199194 — declined comment. Elrod has not responded to requests seeking comment.
The revelations shocked c ol l e ge football , and l ed former Wake Forest linebacker Brandon Chubb — who played for both Grobe and Clawson-coached teams from 2012-15 — to call it “sabotaged” and “insider trading.”