Ohio State announced on Wednesday August 22 that Urban Meyer would be suspended for three games for his role in the scandal involving former wide receivers coach Zach Smith. He will be suspended through September 2, but will not be able to take part in Ohio State’s first three games.
Athletic director Gene Smith has also been suspended without pay from August 31 – September16.
“Although neither Urban Meyer nor Gene Smith condoned or covered up the alleged domestic abuse by Zach Smith, they failed to take sufficient management action relating to Zach Smith’s misconduct and retained an Assistant Coach who was not performing as an appropriate role model for OSU student-athletes. Permitting such misconduct to continue is not consistent with the values of the University and reflects poorly on Coach Meyer, Athletic Director Smith, and the University. Their handling of this matter did not exhibit the kind of leadership and high standards that we expect of our Athletic Director, Head Coach, Assistant Coaches and all on the football staff. Urban Meyer is suspended through September 2, 2018, and for the games on September 1, 8 and 15 without pay. Gene Smith is suspended without pay from August 31-September 16.”
The University cited Meyer’s lack of adherence to his contract as the grounds for the suspension.
“Although Coach Meyer and Athletic Director Smith failed to adhere to the precise requirements of their contracts when they concluded that they needed to await a law enforcement determination to file charges before they reported the otherwise disputed claims of spousal abuse against Zach Smith, they did so based upon a good faith belief that they did not have sufficient information to trigger a reporting obligation or initiate a disciplinary action in the absence of law enforcement action. Other than their misunderstanding of the requirements triggering reporting obligations, neither Coach Meyer nor Athletic Director Smith violated any policy, rules, law or contractual obligation in connection with the alleged domestic abuse claims against Zach Smith.
“The investigation also concluded that “Coach Meyer has ‘a sincere commitment to the Respect for Women core values that he espouses and tries to instill in his players.’ The Independent Counsel also concluded that Coach Meyer would not hesitate to terminate any coach if spousal abuse was established:
“We believe [Coach Meyer] as did Zach Smith, that if [Coach Meyer] ever came to learn or believe that Zach Smith had physically abused his wife, Coach Meyer would have fired Zach Smith or any other coach on the spot.”
Asked if he agreed with the suspension, Meyer said, “I trust and support our president.”
Meyer admitted that his relationship with Zach Smith’s grandfather Earle Bruce may have clouded his judgment. “I followed my heart and not my head. At each juncture, I gave Zach Smith the benefit of the doubt,” he said.
The scandal first became public on July 24 with a report that a domestic violence civil protection order had been filed against then-wide receivers coach Zach Smith.
That report also mentioned an incident from 2009 when Smith was an intern on Meyer’s staff at Florida. At the time, Smith was arrested for aggravated battery on a pregnant woman after his then-wife Courtney accused him of throwing her against a wall. Courtney Smith ultimately decided not to press charges in that case.
Just hours after the first report came revelations about an incident from 2015 when Smith was Ohio State’s wide receivers coach. In October 2015, Smith was investigated for felony counts of domestic violence and felonious assault.
That evening, Ohio State officially fired Smith.
The next day, Meyer spoke at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. First, he explained his version of incident from Florida.
I’m going to address the 2009 because I’ve been asked about that. In 2009 Zach was an intern, a very young couple. As I do many times, most coaches and people in leadership positions, you receive a phone call, first thing you do is tell your boss, let the experts do their jobs. We’re certainly not going to investigate. It came back to me that what was reported wasn’t actually what happened. And Shelley and I actually both got involved because of our relationship with that family and advised for counseling and wanted to help as we moved forward.
Next, he addressed the 2015 allegations against Smith.
2015, I got a text late last night something happened in 2015. And there was nothing. Once again, there’s nothing — once again, I don’t know who creates a story like that.
Later in the day, during a separate interview session, Meyer expanded on that answer.
“I can’t say it didn’t happen because I wasn’t there. I was never told about anything, never anything came to light, we never had a conversation about it, so I know nothing about that,” he said.
He added, “First I heard about that was last night (July 23, 2018).”
Meyer said that as soon as he heard about the 2015 report, he asked his staff to investigate.
“I asked some people back in the office to call and see what happened and they came back and said they know nothing about it.”
However, a week later, a new report surfaced with text messages that appeared to show that Courtney Smith had discussed the 2015 case with Meyer’s wife Shelley.
A separate group of text messages from 2015 cited in that story appeared to suggest that Shelley and Urban Meyer had discussed the case.
That triggered a media firestorm, and cast Meyer’s definitive defense that “I was never told about anything” into doubt.
On August 1, the school placed Meyer on paid administrative leave, pending an investigation.
This is all on Gene Smith. He had all the info.
The three game suspension for Urban is penance for lying at the big 10 media days.
For the first time in years they didn’t convict first and try them later. It was a necessary circus act to break the cycle.
We are lucky to have the best football coach in the country and one of the best university presidents as well. Both men could lead at any school in the United States and they chose and continue to choose Ohio State. We come out stronger from this. Many of the recruits that Urban Meyer pursues care deeply about the academic quality of their college choice. Drake is an elite university president and he has elevated The Ohio State University as an institution. Urban Meyer is a leader and an ethical person who realizes that we can all learn and improve ourselves. He will embrace this challenge and become an even better teacher and leader. Go Bucks!
They got it right, Meyer should have let Smith go years ago and he didn’t, may CEO’s lose their jobs for keeping poor talent with baggage. Nice try on CNN comment, they are all bad, Fake Fox News is closer to China//Russia/NKorea“the government is never wrong”. Meyer has been doing press conferences for how long?? And he completely dug his own hole in Chicago
Go tip toe through the corn flakes, or snow flakes to defend communists. Children today will one day realize what fools they really are.
Did you even read the 23-page report? “…tip toe through the corn flakes, or snow flakes…” Wtf,man. Try objectivity sometime. It’s stimulating.
The report shows Zach Smith was (is) a time bomb. He needs professional help. UM should have canned him ages ago. This isn’t a PC issue. This isn’t a OSU v. everyone else issue.
This main issue is simple. UM, for whom I hold the deepest respect, erred. He erred as all people do. Gene Smith erred too. The suspensions are justified. I did not believe that until I read the full 23-page report.
So now, does UM learn from his mistake and become an even better coach and person, or does he hold a grudge? If the latter, the team falters. He is the leader. Also this- UM eventually (and sooner v. later) leaves unless he grows.
Meyer should not have brought ZS with him from Florida, no matter what he believed about the truth of CS allegations in 2009. He did not mention it to HR. Again no matter what he believed to be the case, he hid facts. For this reason alone, either Gene Smith was lying tonight or Meyer should have been fired. This should have been the first question. I know CS might have made it all up, but that is not the point. He hid the fact that there was an incident. If he did mention it to HR, GS did not hear about it, then someone did not do their job.
WHY? Because someone accused him of something? I might have to have a talk with your boss, because I believe it was you who intentionally kicked my dog. Because of that they should fire your supervisor…….????????
Where are the Lawyers in Compliance in compiling a GENUINE vetting of each hire? How is it that they didn’t pull the police blotter from Zach’s previously employer? Those records are on file at U of F.
Who does Compliance answer to? Um, that would be one Michael V. Drake. Where’s Drakes suspension?
If you were hiring me and I had worked for you and someone claimed I kicked their dog and there was a police investigation, you’d better inform your new organization of the incident or it might come back and bite you and your organization you work for. That’s why.
As your supervisor I DID report it. Just like Urban Meyer did. So your backwards thinking says that even though me, the supervisor reported an incident that had exactly NOTHING to do with me, I should be punished. ROTFL……..you MUST be a single celled collectivist.
OSU caved to PC pressure. ESPN is lambasting Urban and OSU for supporting violence against women. Funny thing the police found no evidence of abuse. Urban is not a detective nor the Messiah. Mary Jo even said the police report wasn’t enough. We now know that the suspensions are more about mob appeasement than justice. Welcome to the PC world.
What a crock. Drake is absolutely the worst public speaker of any major organization I have ever seen. He is an embarrassment to Ohio State and the State of Ohio. All of this suspension nonsense accomplishes NOTHING but pissing people off. People who think Urban should have gotten fired are pissed, and people who think he should be exonerated are pissed. No closure to this cluster bung what so ever. ESPN makes me want to puke with their high and mightiness. How would their executives like someone crawling up their backside looking for dirt for two weeks? Anyone think they don’t have any skeletons in their closet? They employ plenty of people with worse transgressions than what they think Urban is ‘guilty’ of. Not one word was mentioned from them about the shoddy journalism and shaky credibility of the accuser. This whole mess just got alot stinkier in my opinion. The university totally blew it. Exonerate or terminate should have been the only viable options. What a joke.
This is likely the end of the Meyer era hear at OSU. This is now the second coach that this school has thrown under the bus. We will likely see Meyer in Tuscaloosa or LA when the contract expires. I don’t see the man’s pride letting him live this down as the board plowed him publicly. You can thank the board of directors for this.
Ok let’s all focus on Oregon state now. The players and assistant coaches know what they need to improve on before the first game. Play hard and angry, but under control. Go bucks!!
Well said, Don. Memo for future hires- nepotism ain’t all its cracked up to be. I hope to never hear the term “Zone 6” again as well.
Bucks by 35 and they will play 72 players in the course of the game, to rest the starters for the now titanic struggle with 8 suspended starters.
Shout out to Urban. While you won’t be patrolling the sidelines for them, have this team ready to dump 150 on Rutgers and TCU combined.
Bottom line he didn’t want to fire Zachary smith while Earle Bruce was still living! And now I’m sure he wishes he would have!
Richard, you nailed it dead on! His blind loyalty to Earle Bruce was wrong and Urban is paying and will continue to pay a dear price for it. The people who are saying it was all about winning are ignoring the facts or just totally biased. There were a hundred coaches readily available and better qualified than Zach Smith but Urban hired Earle’s grandson.
So three games suspension means:
9/1 Urban dots the i
9/8 Shelley dots the i
9/15 Party in TX
and of course the idiots are espn are being..well idiots–paul finebaum is an absolute fool—espn might as well be CNN…they plain suck at reporting in unbiased way.
Brutusrocks is right. Drake is one of those Cloward and Piven, never let a crisis go to waste, and if a crisis doesn’t exist…….start one, worshipers. CnnSpin has the same gaggle of squawking hens…..which amounts to a bunch of uneducated dolts.
Espin and the Communist News Network have ratings that are lower than a gophers hole FOR A REASON.
Nonsensical garbage. Suspended so the OSU President can Virtue Signal to all the people who hate football.
It is ridiculous to reference anything that happened in Florida since that was knowledge to the entire university before and during the Smith tenure at Ohio State. Easy to just pile on more shit to sleep better at night.
And what does it accomplish to suspend the AD beginning August 31? What does he need to accomplish between August 23 and 30? What good does it do to have a guy sitting around waiting on a suspension to start?
Urban Meyer did EXACTLY what he was supposed to do. You could smell the Drake railroad engine churning for the last 3 weeks.
AFTER knowing the circumstances Gene Smith didn’t believe it was necessary to do any more than what they already WERE doing. So what is Urban supposed to do…..tell his Boss to go suck eggs and play NCAA Football vigilante and carry out justice in the streets?
Urban Meyer #1 should NEVER play CEO. He wasn’t hired for that position. #2 He did exactly nothing wrong except get caught off guard by a sleazy dirt bag of a fake reporter and was ill prepared to answer the question.
Suspending Urban Meyer wasn’t the BOT’s decision, that is on the Stanford politician, and it’s an I D I O T I C decision.
So why during the background checks aka vetting did HR and Compliance NOT find red flags pointing to potential DV issues? That tells me that they are a useless pile of do nothing related to their jobs, and perhaps Gene Smith knew so and didn’t bother to waste his time informing them of anything new.
NONE of this has a damned thing to do with football, or coaching football. If suddenly they are demanding Head Coaches to also be Police Officers, Judges and Juries they need to get him a badge, a uniform (or robe) and a team of foot soldier policemen to monitor everyone under the Athletic Departments watch to literally spy on individuals everywhere they go, and the University to double the Head Coaches pay for having to wear that many hats.
This decision is blazingly retarded and obvious, nor do I think for 1 second that Urban Agree’s with the decision. His body language said he wanted to barf and choke someone at the same time.
i’m not hearing ANYTHING new that gives any reason as to why Meyer should be suspended..Gene Smith knew of the 2015 but didn’t include Meyer in that knowledge..no charges against Smith (who is obviously an idiot in many areas anyway and i’m glad he is gone)–it’s not up to the coach to play police, judge and jury and he DID report it as he is supposed to…..just a bunch of politically correct BS..I’m glad he isn’t fired but this is wrong…i hope the team rallies these first 3 games, including the biggie at TCU , and becomes even stronger. time for some actual football–go BUCKS!
Total garbage driven my media hype.
If I was Urban and still wanted to coach football I would start looking around for other opportunities. OSU has ruined his reputation by not standing up for their football coach. He has poured out his soul for the football program and the university.
Well it’s about damn time. Gene Smith gets to stick around. Unbelievable
At least Meyer keeps his job. I don’t like the three game suspension, but it could have been worse.
yes, and the sad thing is that this case takes away form the (too) many victims of domestic abuse that are 100% legit. very, very doubtful that we have that here, though I’m not blindly hitching my wagon to coach smith as an innocent party here. meyer/AD both prob guilty of just letting the madness continue, but meyer is taking the fall. hope he doesn’t just bolt due to ingrate university, but imagine his loyalty to players helps placate his inner boil here.
damn!