Urban Meyer is officially back on the job, and will address the media shortly at his weekly Monday press conference.
However, before that event even starts, we’re hearing a lot more from Meyer about the Zach Smith controversy, as well as his suspension.
ESPN released the second portion of their interview with Meyer on Monday morning.
If you missed the first segment on Sunday, you can get a full recap and watch it here.
In a fuller version of the interview released on Monday, Meyer says he has not spoken with Zach Smith’s ex-wife Courtney in years.
“I was never really close with Courtney, the family,” Meyer said. “When the investigation took place, I was told to stand down and not get involved.”
Meyer said his involvement was limited to Zach Smith’s performance at work, which slipped as his relationship with his wife deteriorated into divorce.
“I made a commitment to try to help. Obviously, I look back now and I went too far to try to help someone,” Meyer said.
Meyer said that his wife Shelley never told him about allegations that Zach Smith had been physically abusing Courtney.
“Nothing about allegations of abuse,” Meyer said. “I do recall her concern about the children and a very messy divorce that was going on.”
Meyer said that athletic director Gene Smith informed him about allegations of abuse in 2015.
“The athletic director came up to me on the practice field and said that there was a domestic issue between Zach and Courtney. I was very upset and I said, ‘what do I need to do?’ And he said, ‘Nothing. Let the investigation go on. You can’t get involved in this. We’ll update you and we’ll let you know.’ And I saw Zach Smith and so did Gene Smith, and I said, ‘If there’s any domestic violence in this, you’re fired immediately. Do you understand that?’ And he said, ‘Yes. Coach, I never did that, I never would do that. We’re getting divorced and this is about our children.'”
Meyer said that in retrospect, he should have fired Zach Smith after the 2015 allegations.
“It would have been a hard thing to do, but I would have fired him,” Meyer said.
He cited a lack of charges against Zach Smith, and the reports he was getting personally as the reason he would have viewed it as a difficult choice.
Meyer said that his comments at Big Ten Media Days may have played a role in how big the scandal got.
“I think there was a perception that I tried to mislead people. That I tried to not be forthright about everything I knew about the Zach Smith/Courtney Smith situation, which was not the case at all,” Meyer said.
Meyer was also asked about a line in the official report from Ohio State that said there was concern that the media might be able to gain access to his phone through Freedom of Information Act requests.
“My comment was, ‘I don’t worry about what’s on my phone. There’s nothing there that I’m worried about,” Meyer said.
He was also asked about a line in the report that said that he asked a football staffer if it was possible to delete texts older than one year off of his phone.
“I made it very clear that I did not delete messages off of my phone. I also made it clear that I don’t understand how to change the setting on my phone,” Meyer said.
You can watch the entire segment below.
