The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Body language speaks volumes, Meyer failed
Mark Podolski gives his thoughts in the aftermath of Urban Meyer’s three-game suspension due to the ongoing investigation into his knowledge of former assistant Zach Smith.
Random thoughts in the aftermath of suspensions levied by Ohio State on football coach Urban Meyer and Athletic Director Gene Smith Aug. 22 in the wake of the controversy surrounding fired OSU assistant Zach Smith:
• ESPN’s Paul Finebaum might not be popular in these parts (he’s been critical of Meyer for years), but he was spoton describing the OSU coach while reading his prepared statement: “He looked like a hostage with a gun to his head.” Meyer came across as cold with little-to-no remorse while speed-reading through the statement. He did say he was sorry to “Buckeye Nation” but acted and spoke like a coach who did absolutely nothing wrong in this instance. A failure on his part was not mentioning the alleged domestic violence victim — Zach Smith’s ex-wife Courtney. A more genuine, remorseful approach could have gone a long to repairing his image, which has taken a huge hit in all of this. It would not have solved everything — some want Meyer fired no matter what — but it would have been helpful. Fair or not, many times perception becomes reality, and that happened here. He looked like a coach ready to scream “Who me? What did I do?” It was a bad, bad look for Meyer.
• Should Meyer have been fired is the question everyone is asking, but that’s a tiresome topic. The university made its decision, and Meyer will be back on the game day sideline soon. Going forward, the OSU media relations staff should have serious and long discussions with Meyer about addressing this matter because the guess here is the media onslaught is not over. Meyer’s first two tests — the first being Big Ten Media Day in July and the Aug. 22 news conference — have been epic failures in Damage Control 101.
• Reading OSU’s 23page investigative report and findings are jarring, to say the least. A few of the findings: “Meyer did not inform others at OSU about Zach Smith’s 2009 arrest” for alleged domestic violence; In 2016, “Gene Smith suggested that Meyer consider replacing (Smith) ... but Meyer decided not to do so;” upon learning of an Aug. 1 “bad article” — according to Brian Voltolini (OSU’s director of football operations) — Meyer and Voltolini “discussed at that time whether the media could get access to Coach Meyer’s phone, and specifically discussed how to adjust the settings on Meyer’s phone so that text messages older than one year would be deleted.” Some might see these as serious red flags, and grounds for being fired. Others might see a case of bad judgment and forgivable offenses. The bad judgment was most likely caused by Meyer’s close relationship with former OSU coach Earle Bruce, the grandfather of Zach Smith. Meyer admitted to that while reading his statement. Therein lies the gray area in these findings, and the difficulty in determining if Meyer should have been fired.
• On many occasions, Gene Smith deflected questions to Meyer back at him, which brings up another question: Who’s more to blame in this, Meyer or Gene Smith? Good luck with that one, but the feeling here is Smith sounded like an AD who might at the end of the road — whether by retirement at the end of the school year or quietly being shown the door.
• Meyer was put in a difficult situation when asked twice if he thought he should have been suspended. Each time he said this about Michael Drake, “I trust and support our president.” Many feel Meyer should have had a more forthcoming response, but I’ll given him a pass on that.