Did Meyer’s relationship with the late Earle Bruce — Smith’s grandfather — have any influence on how Meyer handled the situation?Answered smoothly.
And on it went for roughly half of the 15 minutes Meyer was at the podium, fielding questions about Smith, leaning to the left and then the right, enduring the initial blow, then calmly counterpunching until the media got tired. And by the time Meyer walked off the stage, questions remained, but the initial impact of details regarding Smith’s reported transgressions, his subsequent firing and Meyer’s decision-making over a nine-year period all somewhat subsided. There’s no other coach in the Big Ten who could have come across so polished, so in demand, so comfortable, so assertive. Meyer owned the room.
Some were even applauding Meyer on how he handled the situation from start to finish, commending him for getting rid of Smith because it was, as Meyer put it earlier Tuesday morning, in “the best interests of our team.” Most fans are so blinded by the national title, the annual top-rated recruiting classes and the constant winning to ever feel as if their beloved coach did anything wrong. Maybe he didn’t.
But maybe he did. The man is a great coach, a winner and does a lot of good. But he isn’t perfect.
So let’s take a moment, pause, take a deep breath and remember what we’re talking about here: domestic abuse against a woman. We’re talking about Smith, an alleged repeatedpattern of violenceagainst his now ex-wife, Courtney, since 2009 — which, according to a police report obtained by former ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy, once involved her being thrown into a wall while she was pregnant — and his continued employment by Meyer for nearly a decade up until Monday evening. McMurphy also obtained a police report from Powell, Ohio, from Oct. 26 that reads: “The victim (Courtney Smith) reports a domestic incident happened last night at her home and that she has been a victim of sustained physical abuse by (Zach Smith).”
Meyer acknowledged knowing about something regarding an incident involving Smith in 2009, saying at the podium: “In 2009, Zach was an intern, a very young couple. As I do many times, most coaches and people in leadership positions, you receive a phone call, first thing you do is tell your boss, let the experts do their jobs. We’re certainly not going to investigate. It came back to me that what was reported wasn’t actually what happened. And Shelley (Meyer’s wife) and I actually both got involved because of our relationship with that family and advised for counseling and wanted to help as we moved forward.”
In regard to anything involving a Smith incident in 2015, six years later while he was on Meyer’s staff at Ohio State, Meyer said at the podium: “I got a text late last night something happened in 2015. And there was nothing. Once again, there’s nothing. I don’t know who creates a story like that.”
There was a five-hour break between Meyer at the podium and a chance for reporters to speak again to him for an hour starting later in the afternoon. Meyer, who had just finished doing interviews with television stations, returned to another podium, sat down and said he was ready for questions: “Different questions,” he joked.
Meyer took “different” questions regarding quarterback Dwayne Haskins, the new-and-improved Buckeyes offense, the College Football Playoff and everything else before Cleveland.comcolumnistDoug Lesmerises brought everything back into focus. He asked Meyer four pointed questions to remind the world what we’re all doing here today, getting much-needed clarification from Meyer on key issues.
Q: Urban, I know you answered some questions about this up at the podium, but I think we need to make sure there’s no ambiguity about the Zach Smith stuff, so can I ask you a few clarifying things?
Meyer: Sure.
Q: The 2015 reported incident, are you saying you don’t know anything about that or do you believe that didn’t happen?
I can’t say it didn’t happen because I wasn’t there. I was never told about anything and nothing ever came to light. I’ve never had a conversation about it. I know nothing about it.
Q: So anything about that did not factor into your decision?
First I heard about that was last night.
Q: So you don’t know about 2015 and it wasn’t a factor?
No, and I asked some people back at the office to call and say what happened and they came back and said they know nothing about it.
Q: With what you knew about 2009, why were you comfortable hiring Zach in 2012 at Ohio State knowing what you knew about 2009?
My comments about ’09, obviously a long time ago, but whenever you get an accusation, you contact your superior, you find out what happened and let the people do their jobs. Then, I guess, you let legal course to run its course and you ask them because they are experts. They came back to me and we found out what happened according to both parties, according to everything. We met with them, there were no charges, everything was dropped. It was a very young couple, and I saw a very talented young coach. And we moved forward.
Q: I know you don’t want to talk about this all day, but …
We’re done (after this).
Q: Do you have any regrets with how you handled any of this or how Ohio State handled any of this along the way? It’s about Zach, but it’s also about you and the university.
Oh, sure. No, and more importantly, our superiors, we handled it the right way, in our opinion. Once again, I’ve been down that road, where it’s ‘why didn’t you do this’ or ‘why didn’t you do that.’ It’s a very personal matter. Domestic issues are a lot of ‘he said, she said,’ and I care about people. We care about people as they move forward. So after now digesting it, praying on it, going through the typical conversations with the few people I have, it’s whatever time of day it is, I think we handled it right.
That was it. Any attempt to talk about Smith for the remainder of the day was immediately shot down by Meyer, so now all we’re left with are lingering questions that everyone should individually answer on their own:
1. Did Ohio State simply fire Smith because all of these incidents became public and there was a pressure to make the move?
2. Should Meyer have retained Smith at Florida or hired him at Ohio State?
3. How much did Meyer know throughout the course of the last nine years?
4. Was everything handled the right way?
