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.]
just came across this
Rolling Stone article claims Urban Meyer might have covered up an Aaron Hernandez drive-by shooting
In college his coach (then-University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer) may have helped cover up failed drug tests, along with two violent incidents — an assault and a drive-by shootout outside a local bar.
this is from 2013 so... my bad
This is a HUGE so what. Meyer and Dantonio beat Michigan on the regular. They therefore will retain their jobs. Period.
They’ll circle the wagons around Urban.
Character is fate.
He is snake. His # of players arrested is astounding, but nothing will come of this, and he will still be their coach for however long he wishes to be.
I don't see how they can keep him.
Urban Meyer is undefeated against us as the head coach of Ohio State - his job would be safe even if it was him having the domestic violence issues.
One of the best coaches of all time is going to be brought down by a patronage hire that was so shitty he never advanced past WR coach in a decade plus. Seems about right.
Dammit Urbz. It's always best to come clean and admit your mistakes and lack of sound judgement right off the bat. They call that dignity. They call it integrity.
More lying always catches up with you. Always.
It also becomes really hard to keep track of the sequence of historic events you've manufacturered and rationalized in your head to fit all of the lies.
Then some dumb asses outside of the bubble of lies you have manufactured start spouting off actual, witnessed versions of historic events.....to the press....welp, then you know you done fucked up but good.
Meyer is not going to be fired. And he will never step down.
But still, what a fucking idiot.
Also the back and forth at 11 Warriors on this is a great read for teh lulz. (https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football/2018/08/94773/new-report-suggests-urban-meyer-ohio-state-knew-about-long-history-of-zach-smith-abuse-allegations#comments)
Like watching two labradors try to locate a misplaced bone.
Urban Liar?
Time to put the “Liar, liar....” sign back up on Hwy 23....or was it on I-94....damn can’t remember that era of football very well.
Meyer is definitely following in Tressel’s footsteps.
Grandson of a mentor aside, Urban's unwillingness to fire a bad coach and even worse person makes me wonder what hard facts Zach Smith knows about Urban's adventures with co-ed's at Florida.
I actually don't think we should talk about it. I hate Ohio State, but I probably hate the pitchfork mafia that loves to destroy people's lives even more.
- Smith has never been convicted or even tried for a crime related to this.
- He was arrested once, in 2009, 9 years ago, charges were dropped.
- Meyer got wind of the 2015 incident, but it's easy to see why it came to nothing. (No arrest, no charges, we are splitting up, problem solved).
- Even though Smith is probably prone to become violent at home, and should probably see some consequences from it, why does that mean he shouldn't be able to have a job?
- Even more, what does Meyer's employment have to do with this whatsoever?
Let's leave this one to the local police, divorce attorneys, and investigators in Ohio and move on.
Are you fucking serious? Just sweep it under the rug and carry on huh?
1. Lots of people don't get charged for domestic abuse. Pictures have surfaced showing the abuse that was done. Just because he wasn't convicted it doesn't mean that it did not happen.
2. Charges were dropped because she was pressured by family and people close to Meyer to drop the charges.
3. He lied and said he did not know anything. Total bullshit if you think this was not a cover up.
4. So criminal behavior should not have an effect on your job? Do you own a business? I do and I sure as hell wouldn't want someone with anger/domestic abuse issues working for me.
5. Meyer lied and covered up for Zach Smith for years now. Meyer is the head coach there. He is supposed to set an example for his student athletes. They freaking have it on their walls "treat women with respect."
You are clueless and this is an awful post. Do some research before defending this scumbag.
This is just a troll post, right?
Right?
Pure trash of a human being..on top of this, look at all the other just mind boggling criminal acts he has probably/most likely knew about..yet just swept them under a rug.
Do you Urban, pile of shit
Isn't this just another example of people tyrannically insisting that leaders do the right thing? Why are people embracing the corruption and totalitarianism of accountability?
There is zero chance OSU will do anything to Urban over this unless someone has a tape or other irrefutable evidence of him knowing about this years back.
ESPN now has a story up with the softest possible headline:
Sad to say but he will play the Bryan Colangelo card of “my wife never told me of this” and some media types will buy it. If it wasn’t for the fact that the Sixers thought Colangelo’s presence would hurt them in FA, he still would be employed by the team with that bogus excuse.
You can take the guy out of the SEC, but you can't take the SEC out of the guy.
If Meyer leaves who replaces him? Maybe even more importantly does Meyer leaving make it any easier to beat OSU in the coming years or is their stranglehold on the conference too strong?
Brady Hoke.
This story is beginning to blow up as major news outlets pick it up. The snowball has only just begun to gain steam and most articles speak about OSU firing Meyer. I'm also beginning to read (B/R) writers begin to speculate that there may be other scandalous things that Smith knew about that he is ready to use to smear the football program and university.
It doesn't look like any of this will be ABLE to be swept under the rug, as much as OSU/Urban may wish it could. I know that many posters (here and on 11W) are saying that it didn't affect Dantonio and Izzo at MSU, so it won't affect Urban. But I think there's a big difference with this case.
The brunt of the implosion at MSU was due to the Nasser situation. Even though MSU football and basketball also had some shady stuff happen in the past, it was easier for the mob to focus on Nasser and what had just been revealed. In this case, Meyer is a larger-than-life figure in all of college sports and it has just been revealed that he lied to the media re: what he know and the proof is pretty damning. He is directly in the hot water, while Dantonio and Izzo were only indirectly in it.
OSU may have no other alternative than to fire him the same way MSU fired Simon because someone has to take the blame for this, and the punishment these days is getting fired. I never thought I'd be saying these words, but I really think he's gone.
Reddit poster who works inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center building says that Meyer and AD Gene Smith have been in an office together for hours since the story broke.
Pretty sure they are just watching film from the Michigan game last year.
Either that, or negotiating the buyout.
The deluded Buckeye fanbase is out in full force over a 11Warriors:
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football/2018/08/94782/courtney-smith-says-she-believes-urban-meyer-knew-about-abuse-in-interview#comments
Pretty big risk to take over Zach Smith. Makes me wonder what else is going on over there.
The fact that virtually no knowledgeable college football fan thinks this will result in Meyer's firing tells you all you need to know about OSU.
Meyer is a scumbag and should be fired (but won't), but I don't think the Title IX stuff holds much weight. I doubt "the university's programs and activities" encompasses an employee's atrocious behavior at home with his non-employee, non-student, spouse.
Agree. I would think she'd have to prove that males in a similar situation as her were protected by OSU while she wasn't. She certainly wasn't excluded or denied benefits, because she's not an employee or student, and therefore not entitled to said benefits.
It's possible that his comments at big ten media days would be framed at least in part by legal counsel.
I'm more surprised that they would think he could get away with those comments, knowing there are texts out there. Maybe they didnt think she would break the circle of trust?
The text screenshots were the most damning for me. I really should be able to believe the interview outright, but those screenshots really drove the point home.
I watch all Urban's media interviews, and he almost treated Earl Bruce like a God. Most bucknuts wanted Zach canned for the receiver performance, and all other OSU coaches are amazing, so it's been well known that he got preferential treatment.
It's hard to see how there won't be consequences, but then again MSU.....
I don't know if he can survive this. Already we have a bunch of national newspapers/sites calling for his dismissal. And at this moment, protecting wife-abusers isn't a very good look, to say the least...
OSU will respond by having him sit out the first quarter vs Oregon State
Wow...add this to the all the shit that happened at Florida and then Aaron Hernandez.....this guy is a grade A shit bag.
I've been saying forever, he's a known POS and they didn't care (until the public did)
Holy shit. ESPN reporting that Meyer placed on paid leave during investigation.
I'd be surprised if this ends with Urban "spending more time with his family."
But given OSU's recent luck, they'll fire him and land Nick Saban.
He needs to be FIRED...Dot that "i"
The plot thickens
Literally nothing will happen because of this. It should. But it won't. This is our new normal unfortunately.
Something’s happened already - he’s been placed on administrative leave.
The nuclear implosion that is now happening over at 11 warriors has begun. Most glourious Fucking thing you will ever read!
FWIW, OSU alum and supporter of the program here. I don’t care if we go 5-7 and Urban Meyer is no longer the football coach because of this. Some things are bigger than football. Scratch that. Most things are bigger than football. Covering up DV is high on that list. The precident has been set at the program: treat women with respect. If the head ball coach can’t live up to that, next man up.
Why post to MGo? Because level heads need to meet in the middle, no matter what a rivalry and tradition dictates. Sometimes that means crossing the line and finding common ground.
I don't post on here very often at all, but I decided to hop on to respond to you. I love seeing someone "cross enemy lines" to offer a civil discourse on an issue bigger than sports. If the tables were turned and Harbaugh was covering up an abuser I would call for his head too. This is a much bigger issue than sports and I for one wanted to say much respect and thanks for stopping by.
August 1st, 2018 at 11:29 PM ^
You're gonna get hop ons.
That's fine. I like a good hop on.
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