He probably is. And he should know. That report tells us a good bit.
For all the talk of leading men, he's just not willing to take responsibility. It's fine. Most people don't. Perhaps I'm reading your tone wrong, but it sounds like he knows more, and can't help but let that bleed through. He did always have trouble not showing some true ugliness in public, but he's a professional. At his age, after all this, he can fake it for half a second.
Let's put it this way, he's told a third-choice running back who isn't as good as last year's recruit or next years the things he needs to hear. He can do that for that question. Unless we want to know the true Urban, but that Urban probably isn't worth defending.
I am not defending him, quite opposite really.
Not unlike many powerful coaches, there is a disconnect between what they think they are doing, which is all positive, and what someone they are responsible for does.
You could see it in his eyes. He firmly believes in the principles he espouses, he believes he is helping young men be better, he personally tries to live it and breath it, and feels that he has done so much good for so many.
He is not making the connection that these incidents with Smith are polar opposite, and that he needed to take more control. He separates his loyalty, which in his mind is a good thing, from the reality that it goes against his very own beliefs.
He feels he not only did nothing wrong, but actually went out of his way to do extra by getting them in counseling and getting ZS into a rehab.
Again, in modern college football, at the big schools, the coach needs to own things like a CEO would, and practically none of them truly have or understand that skill set.
