Clawson: UofL had 'very, very detailed' info

Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said Friday that the leaked plays Louisville's coaching staff received before their game last month had compromised the Demon Deacons' ability to run some special plays it had installed just for the Cardinals and left Wake Forest players feeling they didn't get the best opportunity to win.

Clawson, speaking on ESPN's "Mike and Mike" radio show, recounted how Wake Forest's equipment staff found play cards - presumably that U of L had referred to during its practice - laying on the sideline of Papa John's Cardinal Stadium on the day before the Nov. 12 game. The equipment manager gave them to Wake Forest's offensive coordinator the next day about an hour before kickoff.

"Our offensive coordinator flipped through it, and there was very, very detailed information there - formations that we had never run, alignments," Clawson said. "Some of it was maybe some empty sets we've never run before, but some of it was even sets we've run, but we had flipped personnel.

"Louisville is an excellent football team, and it was a game that we felt that for in order for us to score points, we had to have some wrinkles in, and all those wrinkles were right in front of us. At that point, we know we had been compromised. As a result, a lot of those things that we had prepared, we couldn't run because we knew they had it."

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich acknowledged this week that Wake Forest radio analyst Tommy Elrod called U of L co-offensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway the week of that Wake Forest game and shared "a few plays," which Galloway then shared with the Cards' defensive coaches. Jurich said the plays were never run in the game.

After Louisville's 44-12 victory, Clawson said his players were upset that they never got to try in the game some of the plays they'd been practicing for U of L.

"They wanted to know, 'Why we did work on all these things and practice these things all week and not use them?'" Clawson said. "They were upset that they felt that we did not give them the best opportunity to win the game. And we had a team meeting and said, 'Hey, guys, something was compromised, and we're not sure how.' And at the point, it triggered an investigation."

Clawson said it's "immaterial" whether the plays an opponent knew about in advance were actually run in the game or not.

"The fact that we knew that they had it, we couldn't use it," Clawson said. "Why are we going to run a play that is a unique play that we know the other team has already prepared for?"

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Wake Forest began an internal investigation that concluded this week with the Demon Deacons saying they found that Elrod, a former Wake Forest player and longtime assistant coach, had provided or attempt to provide opponents with confidential game-plan information on multiple occasions dating back to 2014. So far, only Louisville, Army and Virginia Tech have acknowledged being notified by Wake Forest this week as teams that Elrod had contacted.

Clawson said he's never heard of a "betrayal" on the level of Elrod's in relation to a member of a program sharing confidential material with opponents.

Clawson told "Mike and Mike" that Wake Forest didn't intend for their suspicion of the security breach to become public last month, but it became a national story after first being reported in the Winston-Salem Journal. Wake Forest's statement this week on the findings of the investigation - and the news that Elrod was fired from his radio job as a result - brought it back to light with plenty of focus also being placed on Louisville.

"Our goal was not to get other people in trouble," Clawson said. "Our goal was to find out what was happening to prevent it from happening in the future, and we did that and addressed that. And now we need to move forward and get ready for a bowl game."

Last month, when news of the security breach broke, U of L coach Bobby Petrino denied during his own appearance on "Mike and Mike" that the Cardinals had Wake Forest's game plan, though it's not clear if Petrino knew at the time that Elrod had contacted Galloway.

Clawson was asked by host Mike Golic if the tables were turned and he received leaked information similar to what Elrod gave away, would he have called the opposing head coach to alert them of the leak.

"I would like to hope that in the heat of the moment that I would," Clawson said. "So the easy answer is absolutely yes, so I would hope I would do that, and I think I would."

U of L has not announced any self-imposed disciplinary action relating to the leaks, and the Atlantic Coast Conference has said it's gathering information about the Wake Forest investigation.

Clawson declined to say whether he thought anyone on a staff that used Elrod's information should be suspended.

Clawson said it's "a shame" that Wake Forest's trip to the Military Bowl has been overshadowed by news of Elrod's leaks.

"But our coaching staff, our players, our fans deserve to know this because they have been compromised, we have been compromised for three years, and that's not right and that's not fair," Clawson said. "This isn't pleasant, but we had to find out what happened to make sure it doesn't happen in the future, and from that standpoint, we're satisfied we've taken care of that."