Zach And Urban Comment Count

Brian

[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.]

Comments

dragonchild

August 1st, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^

Not that we can afford to ease up the vigilance.  There are more than a few obnoxious twits here and elsewhere saying it's things like education and integrity that hold Michigan back, and we should abandon all principles in a scorched-earth pursuit of national titles.

Second, Beilein and Harbaugh have demonstrated integrity on more than one occasion, but the school is more than just those coaches, and UofM has a serious issue of institutional secrecy.

This is OSU's problem, but I feel no schadenfreude, and I'm uncomfortable aware of just how many people here -- including high up the org chart -- would have us go down the same road in a heartbeat.

JFW

August 1st, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^

"Not that we can afford to ease up the vigilance.  There are more than a few obnoxious twits here and elsewhere saying it's things like education and integrity that hold Michigan back, and we should abandon all principles in a scorched-earth pursuit of national titles."

Amen. 

I spoke to some friends over the fourth, alumni, who were angry at Harbaugh over the trips. 'Just win! Stop all the other stuff.'. 

I can't understand that. 

I'm so happy that he does those trips, and encourages his players to work, and do extracurriculars. Having a good football program is about so much more than the W/L stat. 

Would you want to be a long term MSU fan, with a great story of coming from mediocrity to being a legit power, but always with that bad case of 'scandal heartburn' in the back of your throat? 

Would you want to be an OSU fan, with a legitimately great team, but always knowing that your head coach at least tacitly allowed a woman, and possibly her kids, to be endangered by a violent abuser? 

I wouldn't. No way. 

I think we'll get to powerhouse status in the B1G again. But so far, it looks like we are doing it the right way. 

I do think, 100%, that we need to cut down on the secrecy. That always worries me a bit. But so far, so good. 

Sambojangles

August 1st, 2018 at 1:25 PM ^

Responding to emphasize your point: the school has a secrecy problem. Brian and others ran into it with the Dave Brandon FOIAs and I have heard complaints from outside the athletic sphere on the same point. The more people know and can put pressure on those connected to the school to do the right thing, the better.

njvictor

August 1st, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^

"at least now it is public knowledge that Urban Meyer is a bad human"

Hasn't it been public knowledge for a while? He's been doing this type of crap since his Florida days, then when that stuff started to catch up to him, he faked heart problems and goes to OSU. Did people actually think that he magically became a good person?

wildbackdunesman

August 1st, 2018 at 11:50 AM ^

AFAIK based on me working for a school, there are Title IX issues and OSU should be worried about that if Meyer knew and did nothing and other coaches knew and did nothing.  Don't forget Shelly Meyer is an employee of OSU too.  Then again, football > laws and morality.

wildbackdunesman

August 1st, 2018 at 12:06 PM ^

To elaborate...Title IX applies to students AND employees of academic institutions.  It also covers domestic abuse outside of the academic institution.  Report not just suspected victims, but also suspected perps.  During training we were taught tons of examples - If a student said I am beating my younger sibling to a pulp at home and the sibling goes to another school I have to report it, which makes me think the Meyers do have a Title IX investigation coming their way.  

We are told that if we hear or think something might have happened we always must report it up the food chain and not doing so is an offense that will get you fired.  We are told better safe than sorry - report it up the food chain, etc...

So OSU employees Shelley and Urban Meyer knew another employee was doing domestic abuse and didn't do anything.  I think this would have to be reported and acted upon.

Anyone else have more specific info?

wildbackdunesman

August 2nd, 2018 at 9:20 AM ^

Not saying this is impossible, but this is highly unlikely for a couple of reasons.

#1 Title IX law clearly indicates that there are certain designated people that report Title IX violations to.  I can't tell a custodian and then wipe my hands clean...there are usually only a few people you can report to, to fulfill the law.  So if someone falls on the sword for Urban it won't be a measly Grad Assistant.

#2 Urban has already told and been caught in his lie at the BigTen media day.  If he goes back and says that he reported it at the time...it becomes less believable that he wouldn't have just told the truth to the media at the BigTen media day.

wildbackdunesman

August 2nd, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^

Can't verify it, but a Buckeye on Cleveland.com is claiming that there are only 2 people that he can fulfill the Title IX requirement of reporting suspected abuse to.  So if someone falls on their sword for Urban - they have 2 options...and this assumes you can explain his lie to the media day rather than just saying he told the right person.

Mongo

August 1st, 2018 at 12:20 PM ^

Agreed - Title IX investigation is guaranteed.  Would not shock me that both Mr. & Mrs. Meyer resign from their jobs within a matter of days.  Urban's wife is especially vulnerable given the text messages and years of a collaborative cover-up.  She would no doubt get fired.

Fezzik

August 1st, 2018 at 1:51 PM ^

Have you followed any of MSU's shenanigans? If Izzo can get out of that with no actual punishment then why expect anything to happen to Urban? Izzo played rapists and had a grad assistant coach on his staff who punched a woman in public and kept his job on Izzo's staff.

The ncaa is a joke man.

Blue from Ohio

August 1st, 2018 at 9:28 PM ^

It's absolutely awful what happened at MSU, but as sad as it is, with the NCAA, it seems like the bigger fish gets attention.  We got hit with that stupid over practice ru;e and it was everywhere because we're Michigan.  Sparty can have the biggest chip on their shoulder, but in the big scheme of universities / visibility to the NCAA, they're not on par with Michigan or OSU.  There will be much more media eyes on OSU's allegations then MSU's and public / media will keep a close eye.  I have a hard time believing OSU will be able to just sweep this under the rug like basically MSU did.  It's just awful for the victims no matter what the circumstances.

DrMantisToboggan

August 1st, 2018 at 12:17 PM ^

Yep, his wife knowing and (as far as the public knows) doing nothing seems to be the most likely part to get a reaction from the institution, as it likely improper in some capacity - there's Title IX and there's potentially a duty to act on her behalf as a nurse employed by the institution with knowledge of another university employee's physical abuse.

yossarians tree

August 1st, 2018 at 1:44 PM ^

Vis a vis collusion and cover-up among the OSU football program and its win-at-all-costs philosophy, the pathologically irrational fanbase, the administration, the local cops and prosecutor--what we have here is multiple times more insular and fucked up than what happened at MSU. You could torch the entire city of Columbus and Urban Meyer would be the only one still standing.

JeepinBen

August 1st, 2018 at 11:51 AM ^

Zero Tolerance.

Unless it's your guy.

Or he helps your baseball team win.

Or he's a good coach.

If Art Briles can get job interviews, Meyer's skillset will keep him employed despite his being a horrible person.

enlightenedbum

August 1st, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^

If Urban coached a non-revenue sport, he would be fired by I dunno, 5 PM?

But he doesn't, so the fanbase will mostly rally around the flag and circle the wagons and whatever other cliches you want to use.

It's kinda like the standing ovation from the Izzone for Izzo in reaction to the ESPN article... during a teal out to support Nassar's victims.

rc15

August 1st, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^

I went over to 11W just to see how they were reacting. A couple of fans willing to say Urban should be fired, but way more want to yell at one of their bloggers Ramzy for a tweet saying he knew everything and didn't do anything.

They'd rather see their blog fall than their coach/program.

grumbler

August 1st, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^

Because he didn't have the expertise to conduct such an investigation properly, and because he feared the consequences for his actual job.  The guy is a blogger, not a reporter.  I don't blame him for being reluctant to stick his dick in a meat grinder, just hoping no one is pissed off enough to turn the handle.