November 13th, 2018 at 10:58 AM ^
Given all the other crap that has been said in the media and by McMurphy himself, I would hope that he has fully vetted this story instead of just throwing as much as he can against the wall hoping something sticks. I really hope that's the case, otherwise he comes across as someone who simply has an axe to grind.
November 13th, 2018 at 12:28 PM ^
Not surprising that players will rally in support of the regime. and the original incident may or may not have played out according to how the player first described it. It's possible the cover up is out of proportion to the original "Crime" - what can't really be explained is the trip to Ft. Lauderdale. Urban does not come across as being that unselfish and caring where he would fly down with his entourage to offer that kind of support to a player who is leaving the program.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
From my POV --- McMurphy is coming off as though he has a personal vendetta here. I don't see the cover-up with this story.
Now, the August story was legit. And that story had dramatic side-effects. (1) Urban has been exposed (further) as a liar with questionable morals, and (2) Zach Smith is destined to live the rest of his life as a known violent loser who won't be able to find a job coaching college football again.
Unless there truly IS a further "Watergate type story" to break, McMurphy should be moving on from these two.
Besides: Zach is potentially dangerous. I'm not kidding: he may decide it's time to pay McMurphy a "personal visit." McMurphy shouldn't be playing with that sort of fire here.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^
I'm with you, there's a lot of drama and window dressing on a story that seems fairly straightforward. We all know Smith is a scumbag, but I don;t see how this changes anything.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:38 AM ^
An interesting bit in the article:
"Nearly three months ago, Stadium submitted another public records request with the school, seeking text messages from Meyer and Director of Football Operations Brian Voltolini relating to “Zach Smith, Trevon Grimes, Leah Grimes, N-word and fight.” Ohio State’s university communications office has not fulfilled that request."
Well, we know that on August 1, Voltolini and Meyer discussed how to set the phone to delete all text messages older than one year, and that on August 2, OSU (a) imaged Meyer's phone and (b) noticed that it was set not to retain texts older than one year.
Assuming OSU still had the image when SCFI submitted their open records request, they should have texts back to August 2, 2017, but not before. That should include any texts about this fight, since it apparently happened in September.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^
unless they conveniently waiting until October to look into this.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:46 AM ^
LOL! The big question is whether OSU saved the image they took of Meyer's phone -- if so, they have his texts from 8/2/17-8/1/18 sitting on a hard drive somewhere.
My bet is they "forgot" to save it, FWIW, but I'm looking forward to finding out.
November 13th, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^
Look at what this story says about the level of interest Ohio State took in making sure the Grimes family interests were assured. They sent a contingent of coaches and players including Grimes roommate to Florida to speak with him and his family. The flight cost more than $20k for all concerned, it disrupted game preparations for the head coach and staff including media relations, and the meeting occurred one week before an open date on the school's football schedule.
What McMurphy is reporting here is that there was an incident of some kind that resulted in the immediate departure of a highly-recruited athlete who was recommended by a highly influential alum, the family's circumstances warranted a response that would assure an amicable end for all concerned without further publicity on it.
The only fly in the ointment was Grimes' father's reluctance to go along with the program and speak up on it. The circumstances themselves were never reported earlier because McMurphy was seeking all the public records he could obtain before going public. And he was hoping to get more insight from Grimes mother, which never occurred.
The story here, though, is about the Ohio State effort to cover up whatever occurred and it gives greater clarity to the effort done likewise in the preseason case against Meyer, which, to me, at least, indicates why he was so pissed about getting any kind of suspension in that situation.
The facts demonstrate that the university was complicit in a knowable way to more than one public records request surrounding issues that could have embarrassed the school and its football program, and they have done nothing to respond to those requests. And no one has forced them to comply either.
And yet, in the end, you are still left with McMurphy's rationale for running this story: why is the school protecting Urban Meyer at the expense of a former receivers coach whose work is now the bane of their joint existence?
Why was he allowed to remain on staff for so long, and receive ongoing promotions when his behavior resulted in so much turmoil for everyone concerned? We don't know the answer to that. But we do know why Smith deflected with the recent Herman twitter storm, now don't we.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:39 AM ^
FWIW current players that witnessed the altercation are tweeting that its bunk.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
Well, given the alternative...sticking up for a player who isn't even with the program anymore, over a dick of a coach...who isn't even with the program anymore...so that they can protect the reputation of the coach who is still there and sweep things under the rug even more, once again proving their MO... Yeah, I'll wait for the movie to come out.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^
FWIW, current players at OSU are incentivized to lie for PT, OSU has a history of lying to cover winning coaches, and the one objective fact (UMs texts) is being hidden by OSU despite laws saying its FOIA-able.
Just FWIW.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
Kinda why I started my comment with FWIW, but ok.
November 13th, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^
The players coming out don't necessarily have to fight for playing time though. I'll wait to see where this story goes before I develop an opinion on it.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:40 AM ^
Not that it needs to be said around here, but... Urban Meyer is such a fucking slimeball.
Any parent that sends their kid to play for that POS should be ashamed of themselves. Full stop.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:41 AM ^
HOLY FUCKING SHIT...there is some real issues in the OSU program, there are some issues with the family of the player in question and there are some real issues with this whole crazy ass tale.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:52 AM ^
Hmmmm..
I am sure they feel they missed out on Jon Reschke
November 13th, 2018 at 10:42 AM ^
Given Zach Smith's twitter outburst this weekend I'd say someone at OSU is in the process of laying the groundwork for Urban's dismissal and making sure the public perception of Zach Smith stays the way they want it to.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^
Damn I feel bad for that kid, good luck getting out from under these exploitive adults .........shame on everyone of them.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:45 AM ^
Mcmurphy: Sources have told me Urban Meyer is in fact a human colostomy bag.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:37 AM ^
Unfortunately, this one is shaking up to be more like...
McMurphy: I have a personal vendetta against Urban and I will publish any story to hurt him.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:46 AM ^
Problem is Urban skated by with a DV issue + coverup + lying about it. Three things clearly he could have been fired for, but was barely any trouble.
Compared to what they just got away with, this is a almost a non-story. Especially since ZS is already gone.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:46 AM ^
Zach Smith seems like a horrible human being.
And this is further confirmation that Urban Meyer has no problem with enabling horrible human beings.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:04 AM ^
Unless of course the story is bullshit. Which a lot of current and ex-players are saying (Austin Mack, Paris Campbell, Johnnie Dixon, etc.).
November 13th, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^
Well...
Would they have any incentive for protecting their coach?
(insert thinking emoji)
November 13th, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^
Well most those players are starting seniors so very little incentive vs. just staying quiet.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:47 AM ^
Not enough G2 and vodka in the world...
November 13th, 2018 at 10:50 AM ^
So I actually read the whole (rambling) article, and it seems like very much a case of he said/she said. No idea what actually happened.
With Meyer, maybe it's more of a "where there's smoke, there's fire" type of situation, but this article specifically doesn't conclusively determine anything, including whether or not a slur was used, and if so whether or not Meyer was aware of it.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:52 AM ^
If you go to Zach Smith's twitter he is retweeting a lot of players saying the incident never happened. They make a lot of good points, particularly that the other black players would not have put up with it or Zach Smith if it did actually happen.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
We better beat Urbz this year because I think he will be an analyst next year. Health, spend time with family, exhausted, etc. etc.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
And yet again, I have to wonder about the world that OSU brass live. In this world, it was totally worth covering up for Meyer to keep him as coach. But, as always happens, truth finds its way into light - sometimes slowly, but it always finds light. Like some goo seeping through a crack.
Light is starting to shine on the black ooze that is Meyer's coaching legacy, as it seeps through the cracks in the world of OSU's executives.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:58 AM ^
This story seems like a big load of crap.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:59 AM ^
Grimes own mom just tweeted saying this is a lie and Trevon hasnt spoken to his dad in over 2 years. Brett really hates Urban lol
November 13th, 2018 at 11:06 AM ^
The call logs on his dad's phone seem to suggest that she's lying about that.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:00 AM ^
I don't even care about the story, I'm just here to heap plaudits on the title. Most informative title in the history of MGoBlog? At last we've found the mathematical inverse of "Justin Feagin."
November 13th, 2018 at 11:00 AM ^
ZONE 6 Forever! No Ragrets
November 13th, 2018 at 5:46 PM ^
Not even 1 letter?
November 13th, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^
As I have said since day 1, Meyer w be gone next year. Either by his choice of “retiring” or OSU finally just moving on. Many OSU players deny the racially charged tirade by the way. Personally I could care less but what the players gonna say??? Yes he did it and make MEYER look even worse!
November 13th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
Note: see posting hx... I have shit on Meyer plenty...
But this story should never have been published. It's one extremely shaky source, with zero other people verifying this and a million others saying the opposite.
Fun to believe OSU did things wrong, and they 100% have over and over, but it just doesn't seem that way here.
Here's hoping he started with the weakest shit on a storm leading up to The Game.
That said, Urban is still a fucking weasel.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:19 AM ^
Mostly agree. Only real angle is why the hell would urban go to Florida in this situation with players during a game week. There is smoke there but the story fails to connect the dots. With the track record of all parties — OSU, dad, mom — sussing our the truth is a fool’s errand and this article comes off a little foolish without harder evidence.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:04 AM ^
Zach Smith ain’t worth a food stamp.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:26 AM ^
Seems like McMurphy sources on this one were less than credible. OSU players would not be standing up for Zach Smith if this were true. This is unfortunate because it makes McMurphy as a whole seem less than credible with all of his Urban Meyer reporting.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:28 AM ^
Ok, this story doesn't sit well with me. Amazingly I seem to be on the same page as Section 1 and Ace (!) to some extent.
We have a couple of third-hand allegations that Smith used the n-word to address Grimes. In my reading of the article, Trevon Grimes never alleges that the n-word was used. What we have are a few people who say that Trevon told them it was used.
Elsewhere we have evidence that there was an altercation (Smith is a jerk, after all, and it is acknowledged by people denying the use of a racial slur that he swore at people in the process of coaching) and we have Trevon's transfer.
But then McMurphy hits a dead end, tries to connect the dots, and instead just starts collecting new dots to see if they connect. He digs into the not-so-clean pasts of Trevon's parents, thus proving... not much of anything.
At the beginning of the article, he says that the article is an attempt to discover the truth of the events that occurred between Smith and Trevon Grimes.
I understand why McMurphy is barking up this tree, but in my opinion, his attempt failed. I don't believe there is enough there to justify spilling all of the dirt about Trevon's parents that he spilled.
Sometimes you just don't have the story. It's frustrating, and there's probably more to this than meets the eye, but I don't think McMurphy has the story.
November 13th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
FYI. Minutes ago the university President Michael Drake just unloaded on McMurphy calling the report "outrageous and false". Further described this report as "irresponsible, Inflamitory and a severe invasion of privacy of a student athlete."
Methinks Brett crossed a bridge too far on this one.
November 13th, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^
It's risky stuff doing this kind of aggressive journalism when a portion of the audience is openly hostile.
One of the risks is that, like Icarus, catastrophe can occur if you fly too close to the sun.
November 13th, 2018 at 1:03 PM ^
Maybe it was his way of honoring veterans day...
November 13th, 2018 at 11:33 AM ^
This does not seem like a credible story by Brett McMurphy and seriously damages his reputation as a reporter... Why would he publish this without verifying any of it with people who were involved?
https://twitter.com/garrettstepien/status/1062370347939434497?s=21
November 13th, 2018 at 11:38 AM ^
LOL. Did you read the story (or just the headline)? He presents both viewpoints and says that the OSU players deny the allegation.
November 13th, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^
Something happened. Because the school which initially denied the allegation, then changed its point of view, and then sent a contingent of people to Florida to correct the matter on a game week disrupting practice, contracted media relations and spending $20,000 plus to deal with the issue.
If this were a nothingburger tale, misrepsented by a single source, then I would agree with the criticism. McMurphy is reporting here that Ohio State went out of its way to protect the apparently deeply hurt feelings of one kid, who told both parents he wanted to leave the school immediately, and no one forced him to stay. In fact, they went out of their way to make sure the kid's interests were met while the questionable background of his parents represented both a personal threat to the student and his family for obvious reasons.
So, why did the school do this? To protect who's interests? The current players are standing up for the status quo and team unity, I get that. The president is standing up for their earlier action in dealing with Meyer, I get that. But McMurphy is raising deeper questions about the handling of this matter and how it relates to the prior case against Meyer, which is the real mystery here, and the one he is trying to solve. This isn't really a story about Grimes reaction to a racial slur, so much as it is about the university's reaction to whatever you want to believe it is.
The university is stonewalling records requests and hiding behind student confidetiality and anything else it can to protect certain interests, whatever those are.
November 13th, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^
^^^This is what I took from McMurphy's article.^^^
Seems odd that Meyer chose fly to Florida with his contingent of people including Zach Smith and players on Monday and in doing so was the only time he has canceled his Monday press conference since being at osu. Disrupted game week practice and took players with him when had a bye week the following week. That to me says the trip wasn't about supporting a players parent who was recently diagnosed with cancer. If it all happened during the off week then maybe that story holds water.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:35 AM ^
Urban Meyer is such a piece of garbage, I’m glad he’s under a bigger microscope now...