The Ohio State football team opens its season in two weeks, but it may do so without the tutelage of its acclaimed coach Urban Meyer. As the whole country knows, he is currently on paid administrative leave until an investigation about the situation involving allegations of domestic violence between his former assistant coach Zach Smith and ex-wife, Courtney, is concluded.
Unlike any other assistant coach Meyer has had on his staff, Smith has had a particularly close relationship with the OSU mentor. Smith is the grandson of deceased Ohio State coach Earle Bruce, who gave Meyer his first job in 1986 as an assistant at OSU. Meyer looked at Bruce as kind of a father figure, and Meyer no doubt knew Smith since he was a young boy. Smith played for Meyer in 2002 when he was head coach at Bowling Green University, and was hired by Meyer in 2007 as an assistant at Florida. When Meyer took on the head Buckeyes job, Smith was added to the staff in 2012.
The story broke late last month about the alleged domestic problems between Smith and his ex-wife, which had been for several years. The couple divorced in 2016. When it was reported that Smith’s ex-wife had recently obtained a court domestic violence protective order, he was fired by Ohio State. The next day, Meyer was at a Big Ten Conference meeting and at a news conference there, he was asked if he knew about a 2015 incident involving the Smiths in which the Powell police were called to their residence because of a domestic abuse complaint by Mrs. Smith. Meyer denied knowledge of the incident. A few days later, it was reported that he did know about it and was not truthful with the reporter.
On Aug. 1, Meyer was put on paid leave, and an investigation by Ohio State was begun. Six persons were named to a committee charged with the responsibility of conducting the probe. The panel in turn hired a law firm to assist with that task which is to determine what and when Meyer may have known about possible domestic violence involving the Smiths and what, if anything, he did about it. A decision from that committee is reportedly due Sunday.
We feel that, at this point, Meyer has not done anything to warrant being fired. We say, “at this point,” because we don’t know what revelations could be forthcoming in the future. So far, between the Smiths, it is basically a “she said, he said” scenario. She claims a history of abuse displaying photos of red marks on her arm and neck. He admits the couple had a contentious marriage, but denies ever hitting her. He also points out that he never had criminal charges filed against him for abuse.
Meyer’s involvement stems from the responsibility placed on him as head coach to report claims of abuse by players, assistant coaches and staff members to higher authorities. He says he did report the 2015 incident allegation to his superiors.
His only mistake that we see so far is his untruthful answer to the reporter at the Big Ten media news conference. He has acknowledged that error. He was blindsided by the question about the Smiths, and felt unprepared to answer it properly.
We emphatically believe that violence of any kind between team personnel and their spouses, friends, family members or just public people is wrong and should be appropriately dealt with by the university and law enforcement agencies. Certainly if head coaches know first-hand of unacceptable behavior, they should report it.
But to expect all head coaches to monitor every team member, assistant coach, trainer, doctor, media spokesman or other staff member every day to ensure they are conducting their lives, whether in public or private, in a morally acceptable manner is asking too much of them. People complain about how high coaches salaries are, but frankly, with the increased duties they are charged with today and the pressure they are under because of this, they aren’t paid enough.
Unless there is some other evidence that has not been revealed at this juncture, we feel that there is absolutely no reason to fire Meyer. Perhaps because of his erroneous answer at the news conference a light punishment might be assessed, but that should be no more than a one-game suspension.