No question Zach Smith, who had everything going for him at his young age, has turned out to be a slimeball. Coach Meyer has probably used poor judgement in leaning too far and protecting Zach in memory of his mentor Earl Bruce. One thing that does puzzle me in all of this aftermath, is how one single reporter (Brett McMurphy ESPN) seemed to have all of the inside information? Someone must have been paid handsomely.
It has to be the ex-wife. She has financial needs and certainly an axe to grind with her husband. She did seem to be friends at one time with Urban and Shelly Meyer but that must have gone south somewhere in this saga.
" think the latest articles about Smith's sex toys, sex in the office and sending texts of pictures of his body parts" I have also defended Meyer and I do still have faith in him as being a good solid citizen and coach who does not win a la the Paterno way at all costs. Is there any real proof he knew all about Smith's behavior and just turned the other cheek?
If, and that's a big IF, Urban Meyer is let go as the Ohio State coach. What happens to him. You have to think that being let go for this type of reason will make him Toxic to any program or TV network. I don't really worry that he'll be broke, he's made a lot of money as a coach and it's not likely he's blown it all so he'll be fine. But I can't see another school hiring him, look at Art Briles he's of course in another complete level of misconduct in running a program, but he's working in Italy coaching football. He'll never coach again in the USA at any level.
Going back to what George said about plausible deniability, this is where Urban's reputation as a micromanger and control freak could come back to bite him. People had a real hard time swallowing the premise that he was truly unaware of what his player's were doing and/or like at Florida. This is an assistant running a muck with his wang out when he wasn't beating his wife. How the hell did he not know about it? I mean, it's possible, but it's a really hard pill to swallow. Spencer did a decent article when this first broke, on what Ohio State will have to sell you to keep Urban Meyer. https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018/8/1/17639632/urban-meyer-zach-smith
Every day I wake up I look at this differently. But the longer the investigation takes and the more tawdry stories come out the more likely it is the OSU will want to sweep this clean. They have had a chance to audition this interim coach as well. They have probably formed an opinion on his viability by now. I don't think this looks good for Meyer and could be a career ender.
I think everybody should hold their water until the whole and true story comes out (and hopefully it will). A lot of this makes no sense at all.
Corey, The problem with that is: Urban doesn't control what his coaches do out of the office like he does the players. So this stuff comes up, and he brings the guy in and straight up asks him: "Did you do it?" Answer: "No coach, I swear." The law investigates... no charges. Do you fire the guy based on her word over his? Urban did screw up during media days by lying instead of taking the 5th, but that seems like a mistake of the moment rather than anything else.
Wasn't Meyer's responsibility to report the wife's allegations.to the AD? If.he had done that wouldn't he be off the hook?
I guess I have a slightly different perspective since I was once subject to a 2 month internal NCAA investigation because I received a mass email that someone sent out with the odds to March Madness in it. I was cleared eventually because I was honest about everything. Had I not been totally transparent, I would have been fired. That was at a DII NCAA baseball program. I'd imagine the microscope is a bit greater at a DI program. One thing that haunts me a bit about this situation. When ND was hit by the NCAA with their ******** 'major sanctions,' it all basically fell back on the head coach trusting a young assistant to inquire about the gifts that players were receiving. That young coach went back to the head coach, Lou Holtz, and said "How does it look investigating the gifts of a white women to a bunch of black athletes who all have a romantic connection to her?" The head coach agreed and dropped it until it became a problem. ND was always transparent about what they did and how they did it, but that didn't matter. The head coach, in their findings, was suppose to do more. That young coach was Urban Meyer. No one questioned his diligence then, and there are some who still don't want to question it now.
Corey, if I understand your description of the situation at Notre Dame, Meyer asked a question, Holtz answered the question and made a decision. That was on Holtz not Meyer, right? This time Meyer may have made the same decision Holtz made. If so, he didn't learn much. Problems like these almost never go away. They just get bigger.
The Board of Trustees of The Ohio State University will meet tomorrow morning at 9:00 A.M. We should know the decision of President Drake within a 24-hour time frame. (my guesstimate)
kp, the story I heard was that Meyer did indeed report the allegations up the ladder. I don't know that as fact, but that's what was reported. To me, it's more of whether Smith was never charged because nothing seemed to be there after authorities investigated it properly... Or if the situation was whitewashed because of who he was...or worse yet, because pressure was put on the authorities by anyone at Ohio State to give him a pass.
I wonder if the results of the investigation will be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. If so you know ESPN and everybody else is going to go after all the documentation on this.
Personally, I am just glad the special investigation is over and the suspensions have been made. I have no argument with the suspensions. I am very glad Coach Meyer is still our head coach and now we all can move forward with the program.
Personally, I knew none of the details of the investigative report until this morning and after I learned of the suspension yesterday. Apparently the investigation showed that text records prior to one year ago had been deleted from his phone before he turned it over to investigators. He also had conversations with some guy named Brian Voltolini about how to program a phone to auto-delete text past a certain date prior to releasing the phone to investigators. In addition, Investigation report: "We learned Coach Meyer has sometimes had significant memory issues in other situations where he had prior extensive knowledge of events. He has also periodically taken medicine that can negatively impair his memory, concentration & focus" The Buckeyes are going to take a real PR beating for this and Meyer in particular will never be viewed the same again. Columbus appeared to be salvation after his tenure at Florida ended so abruptly under a cloud. He has brought the football program to the summit; it may have been the perfect time for OSU to turn the page under the circumstances.
I didn't see the press conference, but I think I like AJ's question. Apparently Meyer was guilty of something because he got a 3game suspension. What was he guilty of? :?