Tosh Lupoi, a Washington assistant coach, is under investigation for allegedly paying for a recruit's tutoring and online classes so that he could raise his grades and become eligible to play for the Huskies.
The money was for Andrew Basham, who didn't qualify academically to play for Washington. He signed a letter of intent in February.
Mike Davis, a throwing coach who helped Basham win a state shotput title, told The Times that Tosh Lupoi, Washington's defensive line coach, gave him $3,000 to cover private tutoring for Basham through a test preparation company. Davis said he also received $1,500 from Lupoi to reimburse Basham's father for online classes Andrew could use to raise his grade-point average.
Lupoi denied the allegations to the Times, who learned of the tip when USC did. Lupoi was a candidate to move to USC after the Trojans hired Steve Sarkisian from Washington, but according to the Times, his chances of being hired on Sarkisian's USC staff are "less than zero."
Sarkisian told the Times that the first he had learned of the allegations from USC's compliance office.
"You do everything in your power to be proactive, to promote a compliant atmosphere.… I don't have the power to see everything, hear everything and know everything, but … I do take responsibility for that, to promote that atmosphere," Sarkisian told the paper.
Davis says that he spoke to Lupoi about Basham's academic situation at an open track meet and a few days later, Lupoi called Davis to say that he'd pay for tutoring. Then two weeks later, the two met at a restaurant where Lupoi left him cash in a brown paper bag, which contained $3,000 in $100 bills.
Lupoi was a defensive lineman at Cal from 2000-2005 and moved to Washington in 2012 after coaching at Cal. He's currently a member of Washington's interim staff preparing for the bowl game. Former Boise State coach Chris Peterson takes over the Huskies after Washington's game against BYU in the Fight Hunger Bowl on Dec. 27.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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