OSU WR coach Zach Smith repeated domestic violence arrests

Submitted by Bigfoot on

So, an interesting timeline for this story.  Last Wednesday OSU WR coach Zach Smith had a court date for breaking a protection order against his Ex-wife.  All was quiet in the media until a random poster on 247 sports with zero posting history posted court documents on multiple team boards on the website asking why the local media wasn't reporting it. Several hours later, and caught with their pants down, a few local reports came out with quotes from Smith's lawyer saying he was more or less trapped trying to drop his kids off. LINK.

A lot more on the story broke today by former ESPN investigative reporter Brett McMurphy.  Smith has had multiple arrests for domestic violence dating back to his time in Gainsville in 2009 and others while at OSU.  Link.

So, this whole thing is kind of crazy.  I have a hard time believing this was unknown to a lot of people. Also, if that random poster never posted the court docs in the first place it in all likelihood would have continued to be kept quiet, which is a tad troubling.

Heywood_Jablome

July 23rd, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^

FWIW, OSU fans do not like this guy.  Only reason he's even on the staff is because he's Earle Bruce's grandson.  With Bruce dead, and now this story, I doubt he lasts the week.

Sounds like he was a decent recruiter, but a terrible coach.  Probably going to be a net positive for OSU (no surprise there).  They fall in shit and come out smelling like a rose.

BroadneckBlue21

July 23rd, 2018 at 2:50 PM ^

He should not be rewarded by keeping his job: 1) it is unfair to the assault victim, 2) it horribly condones his behavior to OSU players, which puts more women at risk by the nature of him being an authority figure/guidance to these young men

3) this is moot, but OSU WRs seem to love him, as do other offensive players. I’m pretty sure Michael Thomas and Zeke have said how cool the guy is to them. I don’t think denigrating his coaching talent and wishing they’d keep him as a result is...good. We need to stop justifying domestic assaults in anyway, including arguing that his poor performance is good for Michigan.

Reader71

July 25th, 2018 at 8:07 AM ^

Regarding point 1, it’s not unfair to the victim. Victims are not entitled to have their assaulted lose their job. In fact, victims are often entitled to money damages, which can only be paid if their assaulted has a job.

He should be fired because his own actions reflect poorly on his employer, not as a concession to the victim. 

redwhiteandMGOBLUE

July 23rd, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^

What happens in the cooler stays in the cooler.

Not surprising that ohio media wasn't interested in this until their hand was forced.  Too bad the freep isn't located down there.

darkstar

July 23rd, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^

As a divorced parent with shared custody I see his side of thinking that it's no big deal dropping his son off. But I don't have a protective order against me because I get along with my ex well to the point where we actually talk regularly and attend functions together. 

If there is anything to be upset about in this it's that his son is now in the middle of this and that is a crappy thing to do to a kid dealing with split households and parents who can't be civil to each other.

Also kudos to unnamed random 247 poster for doing the job that local media in Urbz pocket didn't.

Squash34

July 23rd, 2018 at 6:26 PM ^

Talk around bucknuts247 was the poster was none other than Ed Warinner. They of course turned it into Ed being the true bad guy, if the rumors we're accurate. 

I have to take acception to the second paragraph because it seems like you are placing equal blame on the mom for acting uncivil here. If everything I have read is true, the guy has been physically abusive for years, including one incident when she was pregnant. She got a restraining order and Smith was told to never go to her apt. 

It's not that she is being childish or uncivil, it seems to be strictly to protect her from Smith. 

darkstar

July 24th, 2018 at 9:40 AM ^

I see that.  Wasn't really my intent to put them on equal basis. Just seemed like she didn't need to call the cops to enforce the protection order and escalate the situation.  But clearly is a history there otherwise a protection order wouldn't be needed so it could be completely understandable from her perspective if she felt threatened in any way.

Stringer Bell

July 23rd, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^

So Urban's got Schiano, who was complicit in the Sandusky coverup; Wilson, who abused his players; and Smith, who beat his wife, all on his staff.  Clearly he values character.

AZBlue

July 23rd, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^

I feel bad for those he has effected with his behavior.

 

That said, the Craziest thing about this that I have seen is that apparently some posters on Bucknuts (one of those OSU sites) claim that the unknown whistleblower is actually Ed Warriner who is trying to bring down OSU for a personal grudge against Smith.

While I guess it IS possible, I doubt he would have time to spare from his work hiding the “round” Earth, 911, Moon Landing, and JFK conspiracies.

Squash34

July 23rd, 2018 at 6:39 PM ^

I mean, the original post just created an account, then posted the same message on a few boards. It is not that crazy to think he hated Smith for being the abusive douche that he is and take 30 mins out of his day to try to actually try to make sure his actions are not swept under the rug. 

In fact, I hope it was him. 

 

bronxblue

July 23rd, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^

My guess is that some people at OSU knew about it but either didn't care or didn't care enough to risk their jobs.  And as we've seen recently, OSU might not have the best oversight when it comes to abuses by coaches.

MgoHillbilly

July 23rd, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^

The slappies will try and downplay the events by saying he was never convicted.  Sad, because it's entirely likely that since she was pregnant and had his kid, she didn't want to jeopardize his career because it would have affected the child support amount the child gets.  

If so, it's pathetic that he can't respect the distance she needs and that she has to still go through the trouble of getting a protective order from the abusive prick. 

 

FrankMurphy

July 23rd, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^

This seems like a really ugly and unfortunate situation, especially since there are children involved. They're the ones who have my utmost sympathy (along with his ex-wife, if the abuse allegations are true). A family being torn apart and having its issues turned into a public spectacle is heartbreaking for the children, no matter who it happens to. The rivalry is secondary, to be honest. 

Arb lover

July 23rd, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^

I'm on wait and see mode with this current issue. IF what his attorney says is true, this is a non-issue.

However, the prior domestic violence and cover up reads exactly the same as no less than 3 incident from the OSU football team over the past 3 years... This makes it look a little like Meyer is actually part of the problem. 

HenneGivenSunday

July 23rd, 2018 at 1:06 PM ^

Interestingly enough, I work with a lot of OSU alums.  To their credit, they’ve long considered this guy to be a joke.  This may be the last straw.  I can’t verify, but one of my OSU buddies told me that Smith is Earl Bruce’s grandson.  Anyone know if that’s true?  Not that it matters, but it is interesting.  

maize-blue

July 23rd, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^

Hopefully this is handled "internally" and he remains and OSU WR's are sub-par for a long time.

BroadneckBlue21

July 23rd, 2018 at 2:57 PM ^

Not even remotely funny—if he’s beaten his wife, and if he beat her while pregnant—then you are condoning that we win at all cost by hoping they keep a shitty coach wh they know openly has beaten a woman.

Having institutions not condone and hide domestic assaults supersedes any fucking football game—even The Game. 

Baughsome

July 23rd, 2018 at 1:20 PM ^

11W seems to be firing up the torches to chase him out of town. Could look bad on Urban if you believe the story that Urban was pushing him to interview at several schools during the off-season because he knew and wanted him to have a soft landing instead of an axe falling when this inevitably came out. I don’t think anyone at osu cares if he gets fired. Most on the defensive side at 11W seem to be more “women hating, can’t trust those bitches crowd” rather than “let’s wait and see the facts”.

stephenrjking

July 23rd, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^

Publicly available information not getting reported by any local media, eh? Who would have thought that?

One of the biggest reasons the low-level problems (e.g. player payments) in college football persist is that the local media that actually know the landscape around these universities will never, ever spend the effort to report stuff that is relatively easy to schuss out. 

Columbus-area media had every tool available to discover that an OSU coach has legal issues. Honestly, there are almost certainly people at those locations that knew--legal things like this are public information. 

But they don't want to report it. Media that serve in college football markets depend upon the readership of fans of the team for their increasingly small operating margins. Game columns and reports are a big deal. This means that there are two extraordinarily powerful incentives against a local paper or tv station ever exposing negative information: Retaliation from the team in the form of reduced or eliminated access, and retaliation from the fans upset that the paper/website/station dared to expose bad news about their team.

A media outlet in Baton Rouge will never, ever damage the precious LSU football team; neither will outlets in Knoxville or Athens. Or Columbus.

We know all about this, because almost a decade after the fact, after every relevant writer and personality has left, people still seem to think that the Freep is unacceptable around here. Now I've never been a huge Freep fan, but the "freep warning" stuff is old now and not necessary. One may accurately say that the story wasn't very accurate, but the fallout from that was a loud siren call warning all media that any non-positive reporting about a local college football team will be ruthlessly punished, and papers have heeded the warning.