Urban Meyer acknowledges that it is difficult to balance his stated attitude toward domestic violence and the graphic photos of alleged domestic abuse against Courtney Smith by former Buckeyes assistant coach Zach Smith.
His suspension is over, so what’s ahead for Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes? We talked with players and coaches who have been through similar transitions.
Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa will miss Saturday’s game against Tulane with an abdominal strain.
2 Related
Meyer said he learned during the past month that he needs to ask more questions in situations of domestic violence. Meyer said he relied too much on information from police in 2015 when Smith was accused of felony abuse by his ex-wife, Courtney, and no charges were filed. He characterized that situation Monday as “a messy divorce with child custody issues.” He said he needed to ask more questions, but did not speak directly to Courtney Smith because he was advised not to contact her during an ongoing investigation.
When asked minutes later if he believes that Courtney Smith was ever the victim of domestic violence, he said: “I can only rely on the information I receive from experts.”
Meyer ignored a series of red flags, including multiple domestic abuse accusations, about Smith while keeping him on the coaching staff for six years in Columbus. The university said when deciding to suspend Meyer, it also factored in his response to questions about the 2015 incident when asked about it at Big Ten Media Days this July. Meyer initially said he knew nothing about the incident, but reversed course more than a week later.
Meyer apologized Monday for misrepresenting what he knew about the 2015 allegations, but maintained that he didn’t intentionally lie when answering questions about Zach Smith at Big Ten Media Days. Ohio State’s investigation determined what Meyer said in those interviews was “plainly not accurate” but that he did not “deliberately lie.” They attributed the false statements, in part, to memory issues Meyer deals with because of medication he takes.
Meyer said Monday that he’s healthy, and that he has no memory issues that affect his ability to coach football.
He praised the thorough nature of the investigation, conducted by Mary Jo White and a six-person panel appointed by the university. He did, however, refute one part of the investigation that detailed how Meyer reacted when details about Courtney Smith’s allegation came to light in a report from Stadium.
According to the Ohio State investigation report, Meyer and associate athletic director Brian Voltolini met Aug. 1 — the day he was placed on administrative leave in the wake of the Stadium article — and discussed how to delete text messages on his phone. They reportedly “specifically discussed how to adjust the settings on Meyer’s phone so that text messages older than one year would be deleted.”
Meyer said Monday that Voltolini approached him on Aug. 1 and asked about text messages. Meyer said he told Voltolini that there was no reason to worry about what was on his phone and that was the end of the discussion.
“I have never deleted a text message,” he said. “I have never changed a setting on my phone.”
Investigators said Meyer’s messages only dated back for one year when they had a chance to examine his phone, but they were unable to determine exactly when he changed the settings on his phone to get rid of older messages. Meyer said the settings were changed by an IT staffer several months earlier because his phone was running out of memory.
No. 4 Ohio State won its first three games of the season without Meyer on the sideline. He was not allowed to be around the team at all from Aug. 1 through Sept. 3 except for one meeting the day after the length of his suspension was announced. For the past two weeks, he has been able to coach during the week but not attend games.
Meyer will return to the sideline for Saturday’s home game against Tulane.
Powered by WPeMatico
