Meyer met with team after his suspension

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer’s current suspension and previous paid leave have restricted him from talking football with his staff and athletes during August with one exception — a team meeting the day after the suspension was announced.

Meyer and Athletic Director Gene Smith were allowed to meet with the players and coaches for about 45 minutes last Thursday, according to emails sent to Meyer by the senior vice president for human resources, Susan Basso.

The emails outlining the details of Meyer’s suspension were obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday through an open records request and first reported by Ohio State’s campus newspaper, The Lantern. Meyer can’t attend practices, meetings or official events, and can’t conduct any business related to being head coach.

Meyer and Smith were suspended over their handling of a now-fired assistant coach who was accused of domestic violence. Meyer resumes some coaching duties Monday but can’t coach during the first three games. He will be allowed to run practices after the team’s first game.

Meyer and athletic director Gene Smith met with the team on Thursday. Meyer received written details of the suspension on Sunday, four days after the discipline was announced publicly. At 5:53 p.m. Monday, Meyer was sent an email from Basso confirming that the Thursday meeting — “in order to apologize to the team” — had been authorized.

Meyer’s sideline substitute for the first three games will be 39-year-old co-offensive coordinator/ quarterbacks coach Ryan Day, a second-year Ohio State assistant who has never before been a head coach but has been filling in while Meyer is out.

“I will tell you that we were happy to see him,” Day said of the Thursday meeting, adding that “there were a lot of hugs.”

“As you can imagine he was kind of giving them an update on what was going on, kind of explaining some of the situation and talking about moving forward,” Day said during a Big Ten coaches conference call. “We try to keep most of those meetings between us, but that was the gist of it.”

The suspensions followed a two-week investigation that found Meyer and the athletic director mismanaged now-fired assistant coach Zach Smith, who was accused of domestic violence and other problematic behavior. Zach Smith — the grandson of former Ohio State coach and Meyer mentor Earle Bruce — has denied being aggressive with his ex-wife.

NFL

HAWAII’S QB STARS READY FOR BIG SEASON » Marcus Mariota’s emergence as one of the NFL’s top young stars helped a lot of people realize a good quarterback can be found in the state of Hawaii.

A few years later, it’s become obvious the islands have quite a few guys who can spin a football.

The 24-year-old Mariota now entering his fourth season with the Tennessee Titans after winning the Heisman Trophy at Oregon was the start of a mini-wave of quarterbacks from Hawaii who are now making a name for themselves at the college level all over the football-crazed Southeast. Among the standouts: Sophomore Tua Tagovailoa is fighting for the starting job at Alabama after leading a secondhalf comeback in last season’s national championship game. The strongarmed lefty threw for 166 yards and three touchdowns in the win over Georgia.