Zach And Urban
[Eric Upchurch]
So I guess we should talk about this now:
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Text messages I have obtained, an exclusive interview with the victim and other information I have learned shows Ohio State coach Urban Meyer knew in 2015 of domestic abuse allegations against a member of his coaching staff.
Courtney Smith, ex-wife of fired Ohio State assistant coach Zach Smith, provided text messages between her and the wives of Ohio State coaches – including Urban Meyer’s wife, Shelley – showing Meyer’s knowledge of the situation.
Meyer said last week during Big Ten Media Days that he had no knowledge of two alleged domestic violence incidents in 2015 with former assistant wide receivers coach Zach Smith that were investigated by the Powell (Ohio) Police Department.
Meyer said had he known, he would have fired Smith in 2015 – three years before he did last week after I reported the alleged domestic violence.
If you haven't been following this story, it goes like this:
- Earle Bruce has a child, who has a son in turn. This person gets named "Zach Smith."
- Smith listens to "Bawitdaba" nonstop for 28 years.
- Smith gets hired at Ohio State because nepotism and proceeds to go on a series of childish rants on twitter. His coaching acumen appears to consist of yelling "hashtag zone six!" at his charges, who respond by dropping balls so emphatically their hands also fall off.
- Smith has a series of domestic violence charges during this period starting in 2009, when he threw his pregnant wife into a wall, with additional police involvement in 2015 and this year.
- Reporter Brett McMurphy exposes Smith shortly before Big Ten Media days, prompting a series of questions from reporters to Meyer; according to Courtney Smith, Zach's ex-wife, Meyer lied about his knowledge of the situation.
- Smith gets fired.
The above article is damning and should be read in its entirety. Smith's abuse was scary and persistent; a text exchange between Courtney Smith and Shelley Meyer asks whether Smith has a restraining order—which is read as obviously necessary—and says "he scares me."
Unless Urban Meyer can make the case that his wife decided not to tell him about the years of abuse Courtney Smith was enduring—and that every OSU coach's wife made the same decision—this is a case of an institution knowingly employing a serial abuser. This isn't against the law. It's not against NCAA rules. It should be unacceptable in the court of public opinion, and you'd hope that would be enough to drum other folks out of their jobs up to and including Meyer.
I'm skeptical this will happen. OSU was readying a full-throated defense of Jim Tressel ("I just hope he doesn't fire me") when it became clear that directly lying to the NCAA four times would inevitably result in a show-cause that would terminate Tressel whether OSU wanted to or not. Without a similar sword hanging over OSU's neck*, their choice is to either disrupt their football golden era or follow the example that Meyer provided—downplay, hide, dismiss, survive. I got a dollar on the second playbook.
*[McMurphy thinks there might be Title IX issues. As we've seen at MSU—why are our rivals all so awful—those take years and rarely touch the levers of power.]
August 1st, 2018 at 11:44 AM ^
If anyone had any doubt that Urban Meyer is a fucking scumbag...well....he's a fucking scumbag
August 1st, 2018 at 12:08 PM ^
I always thought of him as a scumming bagfuck myself.
August 1st, 2018 at 12:27 PM ^
I'm guessing this will kick start the "Urban has some private family matters and health concerns he needs to focus on" talk. I despise the guy, but he might as well run for political office, he's as teflon as they come.
August 1st, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^
Say whatever you want to about Harbaugh being a goofball. He sure as hell would never do THAT.
August 1st, 2018 at 12:56 PM ^
While I think you're right, statements like that make me nervous. The mentality that a coach would never do anything wrong has brought a number of programs down dark routes.
Agreed. I would like to believe he would, but none of us really know until that moment happens.
I sure hope that the Michigan community would stand up to a popular coach who did something terrible the same way we stood up to an unpopular AD. That, unfortunately, is another thing none of us know until it happens.
Gary Moeller says hi
Hoke waives goodbye forgetting to handle the Gibbons situation.
Harbaugh did get in trouble for driving under the influence before in his life....
Or, did he simply "wave"?
Bold of you to assume you know what is going on in Jim Harbaugh's head
Yeah, but did you hear what Harbaugh said about chicken?!?
I hope you're right. I hope that UM has built enough of a culture of accountability that no one would be able to get away with something like that.
And--who knows--something may actually come of this:
https://247sports.com/ContentGallery/Ohio-State-football-National-media…
That was very, very poorly written. Mixed up the damn subject of the article multiple times, to the point where the entire scope is lost.
Our schools are failing us miserably, and standards for "writers" these days are atrocious. Mlive level writing.
failed gif post. sorry first time using it with the new site.
timmay?
Urbs fits that shithole like a glove.
mixed metaphor?
August 1st, 2018 at 11:45 AM ^
Yeah but Jim Harbaugh has some weird nutritional theories. That's probably what we should focus on.
August 1st, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
But for real. How much (digital) ink was wasted on chicken that should have been investigating Meyer and Retschke?
So we rape girls.
They won't eat poultry, that's right incorrect nutritional guidance(or watch Harbaugh is scarily correct and like beef causes extra testosterone balance vs poultry or something insane).
Clearly you should investigate them!
Eating chicken makes you a chicken/it's a nervous bird is just pure gold. I'm not sure if he really believes these things or he's just an amazing poker player.
August 1st, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^
He slept over at a recruit's house!
Meanwhile the wife of an OSU coach was so afraid that Meyer's wife thought she needed a restraining order against her husband to keep him out of her house. But OSU won the playoff, so everything is good!
August 1st, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^
Meyer may actually have some legitimate plausible deniability with regards to his wife getting the information. All he has to say is, "my wife and I still weren't on speaking terms at the time because of that time I nailed a Florida cheerleader."
Bulletproof.
Logged into upvote - well done
About half way through I was going to say that he can't say that his wife didn't tell him because he claims they tell each other everything. Then I finished reading... Well played.
hall. of. fame. comment.
[clapping hands gif or picture, or whatever, because its not possible for a klutz like me to do that with 3.0]
August 1st, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^
Just goes to show you how much harbaugh moves the needle. people want to hear about harbaugh, nobody cares about urbs.
well if Urbz' wife wasn't so worried about picking up milk on the way home, maybe she could have done something important, like you know: protect a battered wife. . .
CAN HARBAUGH 'GET IT DONE' THIS YEAR??!! CAN HIS SUCCESS MATCH HIS HYPE?! I'LL TAKE YOUR CALLS AFTER THE BREAK.......
August 1st, 2018 at 11:45 AM ^
Put me in the camp that nothing will happen, and unfortunately so.
With that said, this COULD (and I emphasize COULD) distract the team this season. That's probably it.
August 1st, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^
Same for me. Something should happen, but its Ohio State and Urban. For Urban to get fired, you'd need video of him abusing someone while wearing a Michigan polo or something.
August 1st, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^
And without the Michigan polo, he's probably still good.
Carlos Hyde hit a woman on camera. I think he got suspended three bullshit games for it.
I seem to remember that chick instigating that shit with Hyde. Not saying the answer is violence but when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.
Meanwhile, Sparty Nation will be burning couches in joy over this. They will no longer be ground zero for public wrath, at least for the 15 minutes of notoriety that this will garner before Gene Smith manages to bury it.
August 1st, 2018 at 12:45 PM ^
My guess is that he'll get a 1 game suspension, maybe 2, but I honestly doubt if even that slap on the wrist will happen.
Oh, something will definitely happen. Just waiting for the FBI to clean up college basketball recruiting first.
/s
Additional training on having a good fall guy could cut into practice time?
Delaney will petition the NCAA to reduce allocated stretching time at UM in order to offset the additional training needed at OSU.
Even in the unlikely event that OSU does fire Urban, he will then be replaced by a lab-created golem with the reconstructed brains of Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh, and Bobby Fischer.
It'd be Schiano...ironically .
August 1st, 2018 at 11:46 AM ^
Seems like you cant be an OSU coaching legend without doing some bad shit.
Actually, I can't really remember any "bad shit" being attached to Earl Bruce or John Cooper. If there was, please remind me. Woody, of course, was another story; but there is no evidence he cheated. He was just a miserable asshole. I think the "bad shit" era really began with Tressel and has definitely not subsided.
August 1st, 2018 at 11:47 AM ^
Nothing will happen.
August 1st, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^
welp, at least now it is public knowledge that Urban Meyer is a bad human. No longer will any OSU fan be able to respond "you're just butthurt because we always win" when and if you mention it (I use butthurt because it's still part of the vernacuar down here, and yes, Ive lived in Ohio far too long).
Win with character. Winning isn't everything. Character matters. I love you, Jim Harbaugh
August 1st, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^
Oh don't you worry. They'll find a way to spin this so Meyer is still a fantastic guy. Just wait and see.
Comments