The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Columnist says Tressel fired for a lot less
The words of May 31, 2011 shook college football — particularly the section belonging to the Ohio State Buckeyes — to its core.
“After meeting with university officials, we agreed that this is in the best interest of Ohio State that I resign as head football coach.”
Those were the words of former OSU coach Jim Tressel in a statement relinquishing his post stemming from an NCAA investigation of a tattoo-parlor scandal that investigators found Tressel knew about and didn’t report.
Fast forward to 2018.
Current Ohio State coach Urban Meyer is on administrative leave while the university investigates allegations stemming from a Brett McMurphy report that Meyer knew about the alleged domestic abuse history of recently fired receivers coach Zach Smith long before he stated that he did at last week’s Big Ten Media Days in Chicago.
Has Urban Meyer coached his last game with the Ohio State Buckeyes?
If the investigation reveals that Meyer did know of Smith’s history, then the answer is likely yes.
If knowing about and covering up a memorabilia-for-tattoos scandal cost Tressel his job, then knowing about and not reporting alleged domestic violence is certainly cause for dismissal.
McMurphy’s report was hard-hitting.
The in-depth report includes an exclusive interview with Smith’s ex-wife Courtney, a litany of her text messages — many that include supposed conversations with Meyer’s wife, Shelley — and accusations that not only Meyer knew about the alleged abuse, but that so did other members of the coaching staff and their wives.
At the core of the investigation will be this: What did Meyer know and when did he know it?
Courtney Smith said she told Shelley Meyer about it. But did Shelley Meyer
tell her husband?
McMurphy appeared on ESPN on Aug. 2 and admitted he doesn’t have any evidence that Meyer was told anything by his wife. But ... “But I have mounds of evidence that indicate that Urban Meyer would have known about this basically because of his relationship with his wife Shelley, who he discussed at Big Ten Media days about how close they are,” McMurphy said. “They share everything, he relies on her for everything. They’ve been married 29 years. I find it hard to believe that the same couple they counseled in 2009 — she has evidence, she knows of domestic violence
against this same woman in 2015. And they completely ignore it, and Urban has no knowledge.”
McMurphy is likely right. What are the chances that the wife of an Ohio State assistant coach tells the head coach’s wife that she’s being abused by her husband — and that the head coach’s wife doesn’t tell her husband? That’s hard to buy. But it’s also very hard to prove, unless there is some paper trail or text message that shows that Shelley did tell Urban.
What this all could come down to is perception and public relations.
First off, if there is any solid proof Urban Meyer knew Zach Smith had this history — and according
to McMurphy’s report, it goes back to 2009 when Smith was an intern on Meyer’s staff at Florida — then Meyer indeed has coached his last game at Ohio State.
But even if there is no concrete proof, Meyer still might be in a heap load of trouble, considering:
• Smith’s grandfather is the late Earle Bruce, whom Meyer repeatedly has termed as the man closer to him than any man this side of his late father, Bud.
• Bruce and his wife, in the McMurphy report, flew to Ohio at one point to ask Courtney not to file charges against their grandson.
As crazy as it would be to believe Shelley Meyer would withhold domestic
abuse reports to her husband, does anyone believe as close as Meyer and Bruce were that the topic never came up?
Again, it comes down to proof — and there might not be any.
But then, everything could come down to perception.
Ohio State’s investigation could reveal that there was no concrete proof that Meyer knew anything about Smith. It’s safe to say, if asked, Shelley Meyer isn’t about to rat out her husband and say, ‘Yeah, I told him what Courtney said, but he didn’t listen to me.’ ”
The investigation could conclude that Zach Smith was never formally charged, and any
charges that were filed were dropped. It could surmise that Meyer was in the dark, and therefore also not in implicated in any potential Title IX violations.
But if he didn’t know — he should have. He’s the head coach. That’s his job. If he does retain his job after this fiasco, Ohio State is going to face a public relations and perception nightmare as a university who turned a blind eye to domestic abuse.
Jim Tressel was fired for much less.