There’s a major scandal brewing in college football that you’ve probably already heard about. And, surprise, surprise, Louisville and Bobby Petrino are right in the middle of it.
Former Wake Forest player, coach and radio analyst Tommy Elrod has been sharing confidential game plan information with Wake Forest’s opponents for a couple of years now, and Louisville is one of the teams he’s sold information to. The investigation into the matter began when a copy of Wake Forest’s game plan was found inside Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.
Earlier today, Louisville’s athletic director, Tom Jurich, admitted that the rumors were true. Jurich said that Louisville offensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway accepted confidential game plan information from Elrod, and shared it with other members of the staff.
Here’s part of Jurich’s statement:
“Our offensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway and Tommy Elrod have known each other since 2007. Lonnie received a call from Elrod during the week of the Wake Forest game, and some information was shared with him that week. Among the communication were a few plays that were sent and then shared with our defensive staff. None of the special plays were run during the course of the game. Our defense regularly prepares for similar formations every week in their normal game plan.”
“Any other information that may have been discussed was nothing that our staff had not already seen while studying Wake Forest in their preparations for the game and the material was not given any further attention. I’m disappointed that this issue has brought undue attention to our football staff as we prepare for our upcoming bowl game.”
“Undue attention”? Are you serious? Stealing game plans from your opposition isn’t cause for attention?
Louisville AD Jurich's statement contradicts what Bobby Petrino said in NOV unless BP was somehow out of the loop: https://t.co/KfXAjmFTlc
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 14, 2016
And the worst part of all this is that Jurich accepted no blame, no fault and no guilt. Despite the fact that coaches are committing fireable offenses (as Kyle Tucker calls it), this program is still as pure as it gets in his eyes.
Uh. Welp. That's called a fireable offense. https://t.co/FN6nqv7Sp9
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_AJC) December 14, 2016
But will anyone be fired for this? As long as Jurich has his way, probably not.
Outrageous comments from Jurich aside, Louisville lied their butts off leading up to this admittance (as they always do).
One lie comes from Louisville spokesperson Rocco Gasparro, who told the Louisville Courier-Journal that Louisville Head Coach Bobby Petrino “doesn’t have a comment (on) what appears to be a Wake Forest issue.”
There are so many things wrong with this comment that I’d love to speak on, but Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg does a great job of pointing out all the flaws in this article. But here is my favorite quote from Rosenberg.
When Petrino hired his mistress at Arkansas over more qualified candidates, then crashed his motorcycle with her on board and lied about it to his bosses, was that a Harley-Davidson issue?
Another lie comes from Petrino himself (shocker!) as he said back in November that he didn’t know about the situation.
According to the Winston-Salem Journal, Petrino said he had “no knowledge of the situation.”
“We take a lot of pride in the way we operate our program. As I’ve stated already this season, my coaching philosophy has always been to play the game with sportsmanship,” Petrino said via email.
Petrino is the last person who should ever be talking about playing football with sportsmanship. The man has no morals, not on the field nor off of it, and to hear him deny that he had any knowledge of this is truly mind-boggling, especially now.
And another lie came from Petrino this morning, when he went on Mike & Mike in the Morning and said “I have no idea what they’re talking about” when asked about this issue.
You really can’t make this stuff up. Like I’ve said before, scandals like this couldn’t happen to a better guy, right?
The sad part is, after Louisville’s basketball scandal, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Cards get off pretty easily here. It’s almost as if the expectation is for Petrino to do things like this; we expect him to lie and cheat to get his way. Anything else would be out of the ordinary, both for him and for Louisville.