Louisville Admits Contact In "Wakey Leaks," But Cardinal Fans Don't Waver

Wake Forest University has cut ties with one of its radio analysts, Tommy Elrod, over allegations he slipped the football team's plans to coaches at the University of Louisville before the rivals met in November.

On Wednesday, officials in Louisville admitted that one of the team's assistant coaches, Lonnie Galloway, had been in touch with Elrod and received information. But what comes next is uncertain, especially after the Cardinals had a great season, featuring a 9-3 record, a bowl bid, and a newly-minted Heisman Trophy winner.

Elrod – a former player and coach for Wake Forest – has been let go from broadcaster IMG over the situation. But the statement from the University of Louisville did not indicate any action would be taken against Galloway.

To find out more about how the story of possible colllusion between Elrod and Galloway is playing in Louisville, WFDD's Sean Bueter called up WFPL's Rick Howlett, who covers Cardinal athletics.

Interview Highlights

On what the University of Louisville's administration is saying:

I don't know. It sounds as though the investigation is continuing and perhaps maybe something will come up after the bowl game is over or maybe sooner, if some new evidence comes up.

But when all this broke back in November, coach Bobby Petrino was was quick to shoot it down. He said, you know, “we don't know anything about this. We play with the utmost level of sportsmanship." And kind of just left it at that. The game itself U-of-L won 44-12…but [the Cardinals] were trailing for much of the game. So that would seem to suggest that they really didn't have their hands on anything effective. So you know whether there's going to be another shoe drop here we'll just have to wait and see.

On how the fans are reacting:

There hasn't been much reaction really from the fan base. Perhaps that's because they've been preoccupied with some other things. They were in the hunt for the national championship there for a while. And Lamar Jackson became the first U-of-L player…to win the Heisman Trophy. They're a little bit swallowed up in all that excitement. So there really hasn't been much said about it.

Now that the statement has come out from Tom Jurich, though, I can see social media lighting up and the message boards and all that. So I'm sure there's going to be some chatter about it from here on out.

On whether this news puts an asterisk on a successful season at University of Louisville:

I don't think so. If what Jurich said here is accurate, that none of the information was actually used in the game, you know perhaps...I'm just guessing this is my personal opinion, there could be some disciplinary action within the staff of the assistant coach there for accepting that information. But if it hasn't been used, you know, apparently, there was no compromise and they won the game fair and square.

So, we'll see what happens but I don't see this having a big effect on U-of-L's season, which has been very good – a little bit disappointing, more disappointing than they had set out to be – but a great season for U-of-L nonetheless.