Good SI article on Urban Statement

Submitted by Bambi on

I found a good SI article (link) on the Urban statement from yesterday. It's a Rosenberg article for those who care, but he brings up a few good points that most defending Urban ignore.

- Why do we believe Urban about properly reporting? If he lied at media days, why wouldn't he lie now? If he didn't report the incident he's done regardless so why not lie to try and save his job?

- If Urban knew in 2015, why was Smith not fired or disciplined then?

- If they had a reason to keep Smith in 2015, why was he fired in July? He wasn't fired immediately after his trespassing charge (a statement was released the day after by OSU and he wasn't fired), only after the 2015 stuff went public. The timeline there doesn't work out.

- This is more my point, but Smith also hasn't been found guilty for 2015 or the trespassing incidents. So why would a trespassing arrest be enough to fire him without guilt but that wasn't the case in 09 or 15?

MichiganFan1984

August 4th, 2018 at 8:59 AM ^

They can either fire both G Smith and Meyer or they can face relentless protesting / distractions and a tarnished reputation. Their choice, I’ll sit back and watch either way. 

MichiganFan1984

August 4th, 2018 at 9:22 AM ^

Oh yeah for sure. It won’t be my protests, but I would think there would be protests if they are not removed. If they don’t care, that’s their choice obviously. I just have a hard time that someone with power at that University is not going to say enough is enough. 

WestQuad

August 4th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^

So if they keep Meyer they have a reputation of not having morals.   After the whole Miami (YTM) kerfuffle, with the drugs and abortions and hookers and their subsequent NCAA sanctions and their downfall you can see how OSU would care about their rep.

 

/s

Hard-Baughlls

August 4th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^

Columbus doesn't care...Local newspapers will protect the football program first.  The character assassination of the victim and her "credibility" is right around the corner.

Urban's history at UF of enabling criminals and a future murderer won't be discussed.  Everyone outside Cbus knows Meyer is a scumbag, just like everyone outside the cult of Happy Valley knows that Joe Pa knew and enabled a child rapist.  Nobody cares enough about MSU football to discuss Dantonio covering for his criminal players.  

Urban Meyer wins a lot, OSU is a football factory.  It's a perfect match; And anything besides the win-loss record is a mere footnote.

gustave ferbert

August 4th, 2018 at 11:14 AM ^

What I've found is that they don't think their rep is being tarnished.  They have this delusion that "everybody does it."  So they believe that the acts aren't virtuous, but acceptable. 

But you're absolutely correct. they value the wins.  Wins bring in money, doing the right thing like protecting battered wives and promulgating a healthy work culture is secondary.  They'll do just enough to not get in trouble.  

It's nauseating that the B1G is more worried about JH's antics and complaining about the officiating and not worrying about cultures like Penn State and O$U. 

Brimley

August 4th, 2018 at 11:44 AM ^

Solid point, Laser.  The next few weeks/months will show if OSU is a football school or a fine school that happens to have a great football team.  When this first broke, I was hopeful that it is the latter, but this statement seems to be the first salvo in a PR campaign which, in the end, will have a "humbled" Urbs who "made mistakes" coaching the first game of the season.

The Fan in Fargo

August 4th, 2018 at 9:23 AM ^

Maybe that woman had to become crazy to be heard or protect herself. I can tell you that if she were my daughter or sister and he strangled her, I'd become very crazy and Zach's knees wouldn't work right for many years!!

Bo Schemheckler

August 4th, 2018 at 10:08 AM ^

My dad is a cop and he has always told of the toll it takes on you almost daily. The big exceptions were the days when a child or wife beater had the bravado to take a swing at one of the cops called to the scene. Those days were ok. Not only because of the obvious but also because there is now a charge to bring them up on regardless of the victim's fear of testifying. 

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

August 4th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^

That’s a completely valid hypothetical question. Probably not. People were probably more annoyed by the Minnesota score than Shane’s head injury. 

I was on campus when Moeller was fired and I recall more shock at the swiftness & severity of the termination that any chatter of a rally for him. Maybe just a different situation without social media.

Do you think the UM community would rally for a coach and AD with lying & DV issues by staff?

M-Dog

August 4th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^

Sounds like they are setting up somebody internally at OSU to take the fall.  They will claim in some vague way that it was "reported" but there was some administrative snafu on procedure, and since the police did not file charges, it was not followed up on.

Smith and Meyer will walk. 

Some low level admin will get tagged with this, and then some well-connected alumni will quietly take care of them later.

 

evenyoubrutus

August 4th, 2018 at 9:39 AM ^

Why do you think they are setting up a scapegoat? If that's anyone it would be Gene Smith. Urban's statement was one he made on his own through his personal Twitter. It was not done through the university. And if what he says in it is true then why did OSU suspend him? This more so has the look of someone who knows he's going to be fired and he is trying to set up a wrongful termination lawsuit. 

1VaBlue1

August 4th, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^

I'm not going to believe for one simple second that Meyer wrote that statement on his own, without a lawyer.  And if his personal lawyer was involved, so was OSU's corporate lawyers.  If he acted on his own to make a statement outside of what his employers are directing, he'd have been fired for it and OSU would already be throwing him under the bus.

MileHighWolverine

August 4th, 2018 at 10:06 AM ^

But his statement made it clear that he passed it up the chain of command....the only person who is up the chain from Meyer is the AD. Hard to see the AD wanting this statement out there as it sets the sights squarely on him now.

Either way, Urban has enough experience with this guy, and presumably saw the texts from his wife, to know he was not fit to work at a major University but he kept him on anyway. This is a terrible look for him no matter how you spin it and I have a hard time seeing how he survives. Won't be shocked if actually does, though.

MileHighWolverine

August 4th, 2018 at 1:15 PM ^

You're correct, he should have reported to Title IX but my guess is the reporting up the chain will give him enough cover that he will be suspended for a small amount of time as punishment for not following Title IX protocols but not outright fired. He'll just claim he wasn't as familiar with the T9 protocols as he should have been and apologize for that but someone else with more authority will take the blame and fall on their sword to save Meyer and the program.

Mr Miggle

August 4th, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^

Meyer obviously wrote that statement with the help of his personal lawyer.

It doesn't follow that OSU's lawyers were involved. In fact, I'd say that was very unlikely. Their interests aren't aligned at the moment. They are already adversarial in my view. with Meyer's statement stemming from his objections to the school's actions so far. They must also anticipate becoming adversaries in the near future if OSU does move to terminate. 

One might look at Meyer's statement as a challenge to OSU to fire him. Firing him for making a public statement defending himself is not going to happen. That would be an enormous gift from OSU.

 

Aspyr

August 4th, 2018 at 11:33 AM ^

Does it seem odd that the an attorney representing Zach Smith would be asking Courtney's attorney if his client was a threat to players?

From one of the posts from McMurphy:

Larry H. James, a Columbus attorney selected by Ohio State in 2011 as its lead counsel to represent its student athletes in NCAA investigations, said he was Zach Smith's attorney in 2015. In November of 2015, James contacted Terry Thomas, then Courtney's attorney, seeking information. Thomas would not reveal specifics of the conversation.

"He called me and asked 'how bad was it?' " Thomas said. "I said 'it's bad.' I assume he wanted the information so he could report this back to his client."

When contacted Wednesday morning, James said he did not forward any information to Ohio State because that would violate attorney-client privilege.

In 2011 James was selected by Ohio State to represent its players in Tattoo-gate, a tattoo for memorabilia tradeoff that led to the firing of beloved coach Jim Tressel.

During the 2015 call from James to Thomas, Courtney said that Zach's attorney asked Thomas "if Zach would be a threat to the players?"

 

PurpleBeaverEater

August 4th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^

I have been meaning to bring this to light. Super curious what the take is on this from the community. I honestly have no trouble believing that Urban's statement was meant to set them up to have Gene Smith take the fall, allowing Urban to keep his job. A new AD would be easier for them to find than would a new head coach that can maintain the level of success that Urban is currently experiencing. It would also allow them to sweep some of the other issues under the rug in athletics that may have taken place under Gene Smith (if any). I can't post any topics due to point limitations, but I was wondering if anyone else was thinking this as well. Let Urban throw his boss under the bus, let boosters take care of his boss after he is fired, find a new AD, save your coach. 

evenyoubrutus

August 4th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^

It's hard to say. As we saw with Brandon, he would have taken the program down with him if he could have. Fortunately for us WD posted the email, ESPN credited Mgoblog with it, and then mgo had to prove or deny it. If that doesn't happen, Brandon may still be our AD. I have a hard time believing that Gene Smith is going to let Urban take him down.

PurpleBeaverEater

August 4th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^

I have been meaning to bring this to light. Super curious what the take is on this from the community. I honestly have no trouble believing that Urban's statement was meant to set them up to have Gene Smith take the fall, allowing Urban to keep his job. A new AD would be easier for them to find than would a new head coach that can maintain the level of success that Urban is currently experiencing. It would also allow them to sweep some of the other issues under the rug in athletics that may have taken place under Gene Smith (if any). I can't post any topics due to point limitations, but I was wondering if anyone else was thinking this as well. Let Urban throw his boss under the bus, let boosters take care of his boss after he is fired, find a new AD, save your coach. 

Mr Miggle

August 4th, 2018 at 9:50 AM ^

You don't set that up by naming a high powered committee to investigate. And you wouldn't appoint experienced prosecutors who know how to conduct an investigation.

If you want to pin a snafu on some low ranking employee there are much faster and easier ways to do it. It would be a risky approach, though. There would be multiple people with an obligation to report and a badly screwed up Title IX office invites federal scrutiny.