Report: Urban Meyer knew about 2015 domestic violence incident involving ex-assistant

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Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I have no doubt that the Secretary/Admin Assistant for the women's softball program is going to end up getting fired over this.

And that's about all that will come of it.
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I was honestly worried the NCAA was going to go after the Gophers if the Baylor thing got more attention.....
 


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KillerGopherFan said:
But PE thinks that Courtney Smith is the less credible one of the two Smiths.

Woah is a major understandment. Thanks for posting this JH.

Talk about ‘lack of institutional control’.
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What a clown show, or **** show if you prefer. Hard hitting reporting... Brett McMurphy has hit rock bottom. Is this an actual story, or a spoof? Was he up all night typing like Cruise in Jerry Maguire? Sad.

And, what does any of this have to do with Meyer?
 

Pompous Elitist said:
What a clown show, or **** show if you prefer. Hard hitting reporting... Brett McMurphy has hit rock bottom. Is this an actual story, or a spoof? Was he up all night typing like Cruise in Jerry Maguire? Sad.

And, what does any of this have to do with Meyer?
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Meyer hired this guy after his Florida incident and retained him after finding out about other incidents. Meyer didn’t have to wait for the supposedly higher ups to advise him on retaining Smith.

Proper reporting, if Meyer did that, isn’t an excuse for retaining Smith.

The guy was running amok right under his nose. Which is worse, not knowing or knowing and not doing anything? Answer: they both are bad.
 


Yes, Meyer, multiple police officers, the AD, Urb’s wife, Tom Herman, all the coaches wives and by extension the asst coaches, the admin staff, and the accuser’s mother were colluding to conceal the rampant abuse of a GA and WR coach.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Yes, Meyer, multiple police officers, the AD, Urb’s wife, Tom Herman, all the coaches wives and by extension the asst coaches, the admin staff, and the accuser’s mother were colluding to conceal the rampant abuse of a GA and WR coach.
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lmao. Idc which side you're on, but that was pretty funny
 


A comment on the story from a different site. Now this is funny, and pretty much sums it up. This is one of the weirdest, trashiest domestic disputes that has ever spilled its contents into the sporting arena.

[QUOTEI really hope you're kidding with this implicating or hurting Meyer at all. Unless Zach was running receiver drills in head to toe leather with an odd bulge between his legs and a ball gag in his mouth, this is a 100% personal matter, and it just goes to show that Brett McMurphy, Courtney Smith, and her lawyer are only interested in destruction. I think they severely misjudged this one though. Releasing info like this will come back to bite them.][/QUOTE]
 



Pompous Elitist said:
Yes, Meyer, multiple police officers, the AD, Urb’s wife, Tom Herman, all the coaches wives and by extension the asst coaches, the admin staff, and the accuser’s mother were colluding to conceal the rampant abuse of a GA and WR coach.
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Those other people aren’t the ones who set the “Core Values” of honesty and treat women with respect.

Meyer left a mess at Florida. Ohio State knew what mess he left. Meyer knew what mess he left.

When the 2015 incident came to his attention, he apparently turfed it off to others. Why? To relieve him of the responsibility? If he had really wanted to find out the truth, knowing this was a possible second major incident, and abided by his “core values”, wouldn’t he have done more than just report it?

When players have been involved in incidents, did he just report it up the chain or did he handle it himself? He handled it himself, publicly, though inconsistently. Just like at Florida.

Who is responsible for the program? Who ultimately makes the decisions? If Meyer said to the AD, we need to cut our ties with Zach Smith, do you think the AD would’ve fought him?

Look up “circle of trust” at Florida. Urban Meyer protects those he values or needs. Always has. Always will.
 


One thing we can all agree on: the Pulitzer Prize is locked up for 2018.

Indeed, WHAT DID Meyer know about the men’s spider enhancer thong triple c— ring, body wear CS2 metallic erotic c— strap gold and snake skin, WildmanT ball lifter red, candyman men’s jock suspenders, PetitQ open slit bikini brief and studio pro product table top photography lighting kit?

Bravo, Mr. McMurphy! :clap:
 

Pompous Elitist said:
One thing we can all agree on: the Pulitzer Prize is locked up for 2018.

Indeed, WHAT DID Meyer know about the men’s spider enhancer thong triple c— ring, body wear CS2 metallic erotic c— strap gold and snake skin, WildmanT ball lifter red, candyman men’s jock suspenders, PetitQ open slit bikini brief and studio pro product table top photography lighting kit?

Bravo, Mr. McMurphy! :clap:
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*AND WHEN DID HE KNOW ABOUT IT
 



Pompous Elitist said:
Can we lock the Smith’s, McMurphy, Mandel, and the rest of the nuts in a rubber room?
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You've now decided that the best course of action is to lock up the journalists? That's your approach? Care to start leading angry crowds in chanting, "Lock him up! Lock him up!"
 

Pompous - in one sense, you may be right, that this latest story does not directly impact the current situation.

But, never underestimate the ability of college officials to cower before public opinion. This story paints a very ugly picture of an OSU assistant coach. Fair or not, there are people (including Glen Mason) who say that the Head Coach is ultimately responsible for everything that happens in the program - including things the players and assistant coaches do outside of football- because it is seen as reflecting on the quality of people in the program.

So, under that line of reasoning, one could argue that Meyer should have known Smith was a bad dude. If he did know - and did nothing - that reflects poorly on Meyer and the program. And if he didn't know - then why didn't he know? Or was it that he didn't want to know?

If you are in charge of a company, and it's discovered that one of your employees is an alleged abuser or pervert - that may have nothing to do directly with the operation of the company. But it still reflects on the company to some extent. Bad publicity is bad publicity.

Colleges rely on donors to cough up money. Bad publicity can impact donations. to cover they own butts, the OSU brass will take some action against Meyer. He may keep his job, but there will be some kind of suspension, and a lot more scrutiny on the way the program operates.
 


Urban Meyer must regret his neglect in failing to screen for boxes of dildos and vinyl Spartan outfits. Surely there is money in the budget. He should also accompany his employees into the White House bathroom to prevent hanky panky, confiscate employee phones, and install cameras in their homes. I think I saw a movie about this, or maybe it was a book I read.

Bottom line - you guys, and some in the media, are grasping at straws. SON, this is not a good battle to take on if you’re defending the media’s integrity. This is about as pitiful a story as any “serious” journalist has ever written and it’s clearly personal for him now. Exhibit A, B, C on the failure to self-police.
 

Urbandale said:
You've now decided that the best course of action is to lock up the journalists? That's your approach? Care to start leading angry crowds in chanting, "Lock him up! Lock him up!"
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Yes, that’s clearly what I said. I’d be satisfied for certain members to be disgraced and fired, if they had jobs to be fired from.

Criticizing certain members of any class, occupation, etc does not extend to the entire group. There are still professionals out there but the climate is not conducive to reason as you are aware. I’m frustrated, perplexed, troubled. Enabling the bad behavior doesn’t make it go away and feeds the growing distrust.


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pompous - I will agree to this: the media today in general (and it's always dangerous to generalize about an entire industry) tends more toward the big, splashy, sensational story. I think this is due to changes in the industry. Today, it's all about on-line traffic, web clicks, and generating traffic for your podcasts and video blogs. So everyone is looking for stories that are "grabbers" - grab headlines, and create that web traffic. Even in the good old days, TV news used to have the line "if it bleeds, it leads." That is even more so in the internet age. And add to that any story element including sex in some fashion.

So - a story claiming that a college football coach was ordering sex toys - taking pictures of his johnson in the White House - and having sex in the team office - is going to get play. Any coach - any program in the country. In this case, it just happens to be the same coach who is involved in an incident involving one of the top-ranked teams in the country and one of the most prominent head coaches.

As to a reporter's motives.....do reporters have agendas? yes, they do. Some disguise it better than others, but they all have agendas. Again, like it or not, we are in the age of opinion journalism. Entire TV networks exist with a specific political agenda. Newspapers publish stories that blend 'news' and 'opinion' in the same story.

So yes, reporters have agendas. but, I submit that within that framework, the vast majority of reporters want to get the story right. publishing a story that can be proven to be factually incorrect only hurts your career - at least in any reputable news organization.

So, I do not think that reporters are making things up. They have sources who are providing them with information. Those sources have their own agendas, and a reporter needs to weigh that in determining which sources are credible.

In closing - the heart of this story still comes down to this: The Smiths had a troubled marriage. There were problems. And the question remains - what did Urban Meyer know (or believe) about those problems, what action(s) did he take, and who did he tell?
 

I just listened to a podcast this morning and Mandel was pooh-poohing Facebook stories (clearly directed at Jeff Snook) without editorial oversight but in the same breath defends McMurphy’s inaccurate Facebook story without editorial oversight.

It’s understandable for non-journalists to take sides on stories because there are a lot of deranged fans that want OSU and Meyer to go down. It’s not understandable or ok for journalists to defend erroneous, inaccurate, defamatory reporting from one journalist and completely dismiss and even not report another equally valid journalist’s reporting because of a pretty clear agenda (eg ESPN has not covered Snook’s findings).

A very valid criticism of the media is the selective reporting we see and this applies to the recent Big Ten scandals. Sins of omission are just as bad as commission. I’m begging for more professionalism all around. Report all aspects, keep the editorializing out of it. Or, failing that at least don’t totally ignore relevant/important information but breathlessly report totally irrelevant information (eg many outlets didn’t cover Courtney Smith’s mother’s revelations but jumped on the three ring spider suit story).
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Yes, that’s clearly what I said. I’d be satisfied for certain members to be disgraced and fired, if they had jobs to be fired from.

Criticizing certain members of any class, occupation, etc does not extend to the entire group. There are still professionals out there but the climate is not conducive to reason as you are aware. I’m frustrated, perplexed, troubled. Enabling the bad behavior doesn’t make it go away and feeds the growing distrust.


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Thank you for your service. The burdens you carry are on a par with Lincoln's, Mandela's, Churchill's, and Dr. Martin Luther King's. And "hyperbole" is a word you use criticizing others?
 

Mulligan said:
Thank you for your service. The burdens you carry are on a par with Lincoln's, Mandela's, Churchill's, and Dr. Martin Luther King's. And "hyperbole" is a word you use criticizing others?
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That’s an accurate assessment, yes. I’d recommend Miralax.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Urban Meyer must regret his neglect in failing to screen for boxes of dildos and vinyl Spartan outfits. Surely there is money in the budget. He should also accompany his employees into the White House bathroom to prevent hanky panky, confiscate employee phones, and install cameras in their homes. I think I saw a movie about this, or maybe it was a book I read.

Bottom line - you guys, and some in the media, are grasping at straws. SON, this is not a good battle to take on if you’re defending the media’s integrity. This is about as pitiful a story as any “serious” journalist has ever written and it’s clearly personal for him now. Exhibit A, B, C on the failure to self-police.
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FYI PE, Meyer must have known about the sex in the office with a football staffer. She was either transferred out of the football department or possibly separated from the university shortly after their personal office party.

https://247sports.com/Article/Ohio-...-sex-findings-Urban-Meyers-outlook-120843516/

You can continue to make excuses and be sarcastic about it, but this is classic sexism for him to suffer no consequence while the female staffer is reassigned. So Meyer knew about 2009 and 2015 spousal abuse, and Smith’s inappropriate conduct with a female football staff, but Meyer took no significant actions against him.

If Urban Meyer truly believed in his “core values” beyond helping him to have leverage over his players when he chose to have leverage over his players, he has an odd way of demonstrating that.
 

She was arrested and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge from domestic violence which could explain the dismissal.... The more we know about the Smiths, the Hermans, and Zachs’s mistress and estranged husband the more trailer crash crazy it becomes. Let’s get Jerry Springer’s hot take.
 

KillerGopherFan said:
So Meyer knew about 2009 and 2015 spousal abuse, and Smith’s inappropriate conduct with a female football staff, but Meyer took no significant actions against him.
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You may find this to be in very poor taste ... but does poor taste necessitate firing someone??


If you were looking to fire a coach, then this type of stuff would probably be your silver bullet. You'd probably be able to construe this into a for cause firing. But they weren't looking to fire Meyer. I be willing to bet they still aren't. Rather, they're grasping onto the side rails of the ship, white-knuckled, for dear life, trying to ride out this storm, until football season starts, and people will just plain forget about it and stop caring.


EDIT: from your link,

Travis asked McMurphy why he believes Meyer kept Smith on staff through the years despite numerous transgressions.

“If I could ask Urban Meyer two questions, that would be one of the questions and the other question would be, 'Why did you lie about this at media days?'" McMurphy said. "Everything I reported about Zach Smith’s past in 2009 and 2015, somebody at Ohio State knew about this information. Or multiple people. Zach Smith is the same person he is today as he was in 2015, 2013 and 2009. Ohio State never had a problem with Zach Smith until the information went public. Ohio State, not only Urban, needs to answer that question.”
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Again, this is stuff I find to be of the "poor taste" variety, and not of the "illegal" variety. So it smells more like a smear campaign, than an exposé breaking report in illegal activities being covered up (Penn St).

Even the lying to the media part ... I'm not so sure I believe it was actually a lie. But is lying at a media event actually a fireable offense? All stuff that OSU panel will have to decide ...
 
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Gophers_4life said:
You may find this to be in very poor taste ... but does poor taste necessitate firing someone??

...

Again, this is stuff I find to be of the "poor taste" variety, and not of the "illegal" variety..
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Regardless of taste, if I'm the boss and I know my employee is violating conduct policies and I don't do anything about it, and when asked about it, I say I don't know about them, I would expect that my superiors have grounds for termination. Seems pretty cut and dry.
 

jonnyganas said:
Regardless of taste, if I'm the boss and I know my employee is violating conduct policies and I don't do anything about it, and when asked about it, I say I don't know about them, I would expect that my superiors have grounds for termination. Seems pretty cut and dry.
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That was the final point in my post. Yes, they most likely have grounds. Or it could be massaged into grounds, legally per the contract.

But they weren't looking to fire him. Rather, they're looking for a way out of having to fire him ...
 

Pompous Elitist said:
She was arrested and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge from domestic violence which could explain the dismissal.... The more we know about the Smiths, the Hermans, and Zachs’s mistress and estranged husband the more trailer crash crazy it becomes. Let’s get Jerry Springer’s hot take.
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I couldn’t find any details on the staffer’s arrest and reduced charges. But why would she be dismissed when Zach Smith wasn’t for similar accusations? His job has a high profile and reflects more on the university and athletic department. Again, an apparent double standard.
 

Gophers_4life said:
That was the final point in my post. Yes, they most likely have grounds. Or it could be massaged into grounds, legally per the contract.

But they weren't looking to fire him. Rather, they're looking for a way out of having to fire him ...
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This has nothing to do with “poor taste”. It’s about living up to the standards that you publicly proclaim to abide by.

Ohio State has no reason to want to rid itself of Urban Meyer other than he is a poor reflection on the university and the athletic program.
 

KillerGopherFan said:
I couldn’t find any details on the staffer’s arrest and reduced charges. But why would she be dismissed when Zach Smith wasn’t for similar accusations? His job has a high profile and reflects more on the university and athletic department. Again, an apparent double standard.
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Well, one case involves arrest, charges, guilty plea while the other involves no charges, no arrest, no conviction. You consider that a double standard?

The report will be out within 48 hrs. Maybe Urban and the rest are as guilty as you think. Let’s see what they say.
 

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