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Meyer text messages allegedly recovered re: asst domestic abuse in 2015

Do you remember how the media went after TO over Lawrence Phillips? How did that turn out? The deal with LP was at least as bad as UM fibbing in a press conference and TO survived. UM is OSU's TO so unless they have a Pearlman running the show, UM is going to survive. OSU could have lots of coaches, but nobody out there they could get has shown they can run a program like Urb. Love him or hate him, he's run a tremendous football program.
We are living in a very very different time. I don't think the 2 can be compared. If the TO situation took place today. I believe he would also be gone.
 
TO wouldn't be gone, because had that happened today TO would have never been given the leeway to keep Phillips around or let him back on the team. Phillips would have been booted out of school.
 
We are living in a very very different time. I don't think the 2 can be compared. If the TO situation took place today. I believe he would also be gone.
Time is different but TO would not be fired today if he had just won a NC like Urban did. What did Urban do? he fibbed in a press conference. You can be President of the US and get away with telling blatant lies about nuclear deals with Iran or meetings with Russians.
 
Do you remember how the media went after TO over Lawrence Phillips? How did that turn out? The deal with LP was at least as bad as UM fibbing in a press conference and TO survived. UM is OSU's TO so unless they have a Pearlman running the show, UM is going to survive. OSU could have lots of coaches, but nobody out there they could get has shown they can run a program like Urb. Love him or hate him, he's run a tremendous football program.

Yes, he's simply an excellent HC without a shred of doubt. But even as great as he is......he's in deep do-do.
 
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We are living in a very very different time. I don't think the 2 can be compared. If the TO situation took place today. I believe he would also be gone.

Many analysts wanted to nail Osborne to the cross. There was no Facebook and Twitter but they had TV programming where they would talk about it and the print media could write anything they wanted to ridicule Osborne. Nebraska's staff, I'm sure, could ignore watching TV or picking up a paper and not reading what they have to say but in today's PC world, that's incredibly difficult to do.
 
Yes, he's simply an excellent HC without a shred of doubt. But even as great as he is......he's in deep do-do.
From an outside perspective he's in deep doo doo BUT I can guarantee you that there isn't a single person with any power at OSU that isn't doing their best to spin it to keep him. The question is is how much backbone does OSU have. OSU will be fine one way or another and what they've done is delayed things to allow the 7 day news cycle and mass hysteria to die down. I'll be surprised now if they can him.
 
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Many analysts wanted to nail Osborne to the cross. There was no Facebook and Twitter but they had TV programming where they would talk about it and the print media could write anything they wanted to ridicule Osborne. Nebraska's staff, I'm sure, could ignore watching TV or picking up a paper and not reading what they have to say but in today's PC world, that's incredibly difficult to do.
The print media was all over Osborne. Times are different but in some ways the writers were much more credible and had more power. It wasn't just sports media it was virtually every print and TV network running hit pieces against TO.
 
We are living in a very very different time. I don't think the 2 can be compared. If the TO situation took place today. I believe he would also be gone.
One huge factor distinguishing the two situations is the fact TOSU has other recent scandals staining their precious reputation, including the deceased pervert doctor. Timing is everything in life and this latest scandal hit at about the worst possible time for those who would like to have it just disappear. At a minimum I would think the AD is toast as he was also around when the doctor was up to his tricks.
 
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One huge factor distinguishing the two situations is the fact TOSU has other recent scandals staining their precious reputation that they are juggling, including the deceased pervert doctor. Timing is everything in life and this latest scandal hit at about the worst possible time for those who would like to have it just disappear.
Hmmm...didn't everybody have MSU's head bball and fball coaches fired and gone a few months ago..... How did that turn out?
 
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And who do you think is going to pay her off?
Don't think there's any rules about boosters paying an ex-coach's ex-wife. She's irrational for going public with this and IMO that may add more credence to Smith's story.. By going public she has cut off the money train by costing her ex his job. How's he going to pay the alimony and child support? If she's out for revenge, she should have gotten it monetarily. At some point, she's going to wake up and realize that she should have handled this differently. There's nothing men hate more than having to write that check every month to a woman who hates their guts. She should have kept her mouth shut and let her attorney squeeze him for everything they could.
 
Hmmm...didn't everybody have MSU's head bball and fball coaches fired and gone a few months ago..... How did that turn out?
I am not predicting Meyer will be fired. I was just pointing out that Meyer’s scandal hit at a really bad time as TOSU has been juggling other scandals, particularly the deceased pervert doctor. Their university president and board are surely feeling extra pressure.
 
Time is different but TO would not be fired today if he had just won a NC like Urban did. What did Urban do? he fibbed in a press conference. You can be President of the US and get away with telling blatant lies about nuclear deals with Iran or meetings with Russians.
Politics have nothing to do with football. The president has nothing to do with UM.
 
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I am not predicting Meyer will be fired. I was just pointing out that Meyer’s scandal hit at a really bad time as TOSU has been juggling other scandals, particularly the deceased pervert doctor. Their university president and board are surely feeling extra pressure.
Sure they do, but MSU was under that same pressure with all of the player problems coupled with their own Dr Badguy. We were talking sex assaults on several fronts there.
 
It is a reflection on our society. We don't value truthfulness and integrity the way we used to. In fact, the example set by the leader of the free world does impact how we view OSU.
Agree, People obviously care more about what happens in the sports and entertainment industry vs what the president does or says. I believe people almost expect politicians and presidents to lie and cheat. Politicians are one of the most distrusted groups in America. Rep and Dem. For whatever reason people believe coaches and entertainers are held to a higher standard. That is why you can't compare the 2
 
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Sure they do, but MSU was under that same pressure with all of the player problems coupled with their own Dr Badguy. We were talking sex assaults on several fronts there.
This thread has taken a number of turns and it’s hard to track all of them. I was contrasting the TO-LP situation, which others were comparing to the current Urban Meyer situation. I don’t recall NU having other scandals ongoing at that time, which may have made it easier to sweep under the rug than what TOSU admin is facing. (Of course, the LP situation still comes up frequently so even if it was easier for our admin to let it slide, it definitely blew out a tire on the Pope’s Tractor.)
 
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From an outside perspective he's in deep doo doo BUT I can guarantee you that there isn't a single person with any power at OSU that isn't doing their best to spin it to keep him. The question is is how much backbone does OSU have. OSU will be fine one way or another and what they've done is delayed things to allow the 7 day news cycle and mass hysteria to die down. I'll be surprised now if they can him.

Well, you very well could be correct. I'll be surprised if they keep him. If they do keep him, they're going to look extremely un-PC (which is everything currently).
 
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Actually NU had an embarrassing number of ‘scandals’ in the mid-90’s. LP was the most notorious, but we fans had a lot of creative thinking to do to rationalize all of TO’s disciplinary decisions.
 
If he actually did send up the report up the chain of command then all he is guilty of is lying to the media which is not really a fireable offense
 
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If he actually did send up the report up the chain of command then all he is guilty of is lying to the media which is not really a fireable offense
That's the big question. Can it be established that he did report it to his superiors. Shades of PSU, anyone? Lots of people may have known about it and nobody chose to fire him.

If they can prove that Urb sent it up the ladder, he'll (continue to) look slimy, but probably keep his job. If he's lying about that, too, he's done.

Where these things get sticky is when the charges are not pursued to the fullest extent through the legal system. It's like I argued with Riley and the Brenda Tracey situation, why should it be a football coach's job to be judge, jury, and executioner if the victim is not pursuing the case through the police and the courts?
 
It appears to me that tOSU AD is preparing to fall on the sword. However, I still think the head coach, if he gets to hire his assistant coaches, then he should fire them..... which he didn't do.
 
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Don't think there's any rules about boosters paying an ex-coach's ex-wife. She's irrational for going public with this and IMO that may add more credence to Smith's story.. By going public she has cut off the money train by costing her ex his job. How's he going to pay the alimony and child support? If she's out for revenge, she should have gotten it monetarily. At some point, she's going to wake up and realize that she should have handled this differently. There's nothing men hate more than having to write that check every month to a woman who hates their guts. She should have kept her mouth shut and let her attorney squeeze him for everything they could.


Where are you getting that she went public? She didn’t put this out there. Brett McMurphy dug around and found out she had filed for a restraining order and He ran with it. The university fired him and Meyer lied about knowing about the 2015 crap. Putting any of this on the victim is about the dumbest thing I’ve read in this thread. The WR coach is a piece of shit that is where the blame begins. He continued to harass her.

Here is a time line for you

June 21, 2009: Police in Gainesville, Fla., arrest Zach Smith on suspicion of aggravated battery against his wife, who was pregnant at the time. Courtney Smith said in a 2018 interview with Stadium that her husband grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against a wall during an early-morning argument. McMurphy reported police found Zach Smith to be the primary aggressor. The charge was later dropped because of insufficient evidence. Courtney Smith told Stadium that Bruce, Zach Smith's mother and the attorney representing her husband all pressured her to drop the charge.

2012: Meyer hires Zach Smith to be his wide receivers at Ohio State coach shortly after taking the head coaching job there.

June 6, 2015: Zach Smith and his wife separate.

Oct. 25-26, 2015: Courtney Smith calls police in Powell, Ohio, outside Columbus, and then visits the police department in person after another incident with her then-estranged husband. Courtney Smith alleges Zach Smith refused to return their son after a parental visit. She also claims that he had abused her on multiple occasions. No charges were filed. Courtney Smith told Stadium the incident "was the last time (Zach Smith) ever laid his hands on me." As part of the video interview, Stadium posted photographs Courtney Smith took in 2014 that appeared to show injuries to her arm and neck.

Nov. 9-12, 2015: Powell police investigate a claim by Courtney Smith of menacing by stalking by Zach Smith. No charges are filed, but Zach Smith is issued a restraining order on Nov. 10. Courtney Smith files for divorce two days later.

Dec. 19, 2017: Zach Smith is given criminal trespass warning after reportedly making "harassment/threats" at 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 17. McMurphy reported he tried to enter Courtney Smith's residence. No files were charged.

May 12, 2018: Powell police cite Zach Smith with misdemeanor criminal trespass after a dispute with his wife. The two argued over where Zach Smith should have dropped off his son. McMurphy reported Smith's driving into the driveway of his ex-wife's apartment violated the 2015 warning.

July 18, 2018: Zach Smith appears in Delaware County Municipal Court for a pretrial hearing related to the May trespass charge. Court records show Smith pleaded not guilty to the charge on June 5.

July 20, 2018: Courtney Smith is granted an order of protection against her ex-husband that prohibits him from getting within 500 feet of her. The protective order was filed in Delaware County after she claimed she feared for her safety.

July 23, 2018: McMurphy publishes a story on Facebook in which Courtney Smith discusses the 2009 incident. Ohio State announced later that day that Meyer had fired Zach Smith. No reason is given.

July 24, 2018: Meyer denies knowledge of the alleged 2015 incident, telling reporters at Big Ten Media Days he only learned of the allegations against Zach Smith when someone in his office told him that day.

Aug. 1, 2018: Ohio State places Meyer on paid administrative leave and begins an investigation into the Zach Smith matter. Courtney Smith tells McMurphy she and Urban Meyer's wife, Shelley, texted about Zach Smith's alleged abuse.

Aug. 2, 2018: Ohio State announces the formation of a six-person panel to oversee the university's investigation of Meyer.

Aug. 3, 2018: Zach Smith, in a series of interviews, denies abusing his ex-wife and says he would not be in favor of Meyer losing his job. Meyer releases a statement around the time of Smith's interview with ESPN. In it, he says he reported the 2015 allegations against Zach Smith and went through the proper channels within the university. He also says it wasn't his intention to be inaccurate or misleading during his Big Ten Media Days session.

Aug. 3, 2018: Shortly after Meyer's statement and Smith's interview, McMurphy tweets what he says is a text exchange between Courtney and Zach Smith. In it, Courtney appears to remind her ex-husband that he attempted to strangle her during a vacation trip to Mexico in March 2015 and then attacked her in April of that year. Zach Smith appears to confirm the incidents and then apologizes.
 
Nobody will buy the Gotcha media angle. He fired the WR coach the day before media days for an incident that happened in 2015. If he wasn’t prepared to answer questions about when he found out about the incident, then he is either incompetent, stupid or arrogant.

If I ask you when you found out your employee was beating his wife, answering with I need some time to review the facts is not a good answer. Last week, 2015, never? No one was looking for a specific date and time.

They knew enough to fire the guy, surely they had time to put together a plan on how they were going to answer questions about the firing.

The smart move would have been to nip it from the jump and say “we made a move to fire the WR coach, we won’t be answering any questions with regards to that at this time. We will address that at a later time”. Then you can say no comment or repeat that verbatim if someone asks.
Yes that would have been the smart move. But what difference does it make if he lied about it? He wasn't on trial or under oath. It was just the media.

And Ohio State was stupid for placing him on administrative leave. That's what really caused a shit storm. If you just keep him on staff as normal, everything would have blown over in a couple days. But place him on leave, and this is going to drag on for weeks and months.

You couldn’t be more incorrect on placing him on administrative leave. That is an essential part of the investigation and should be done. The investigators are free to contact anyone, look at files, emails, etc without Urban being around. He has no opportunity to tamper with or alter anything as he is out of the picture. The whole idea is to conduct a complete investigation as soon and as quickly as possible and having the accused around is a problem, been there done that.

No way this would ever just blow over. What wishful planet are you living on. People are piling on from all over about current and past events.
 
Don't think there's any rules about boosters paying an ex-coach's ex-wife. She's irrational for going public with this and IMO that may add more credence to Smith's story.. By going public she has cut off the money train by costing her ex his job. How's he going to pay the alimony and child support? If she's out for revenge, she should have gotten it monetarily. At some point, she's going to wake up and realize that she should have handled this differently. There's nothing men hate more than having to write that check every month to a woman who hates their guts. She should have kept her mouth shut and let her attorney squeeze him for everything they could.
Was she the one that actually go public with this story or was it a reporter(McMurphy) that got wind of Zach Smith breaking a protective order and that is what made all of this go public? I truly don't know the answer to this. If he hadn't broken the protective order, would we know anything about this? It seems like the only reason that she is talking now is because of all the stuff that McMurphy dug up.

Here's my opinion on this whole situation. There are a lot of moving parts here. Is Zach Smith actually guilty of these charges? Is his ex wife lying? Did Urban lie in the presser? Did Urban Meyer actually cover this stuff up and/or pressure Smith's ex wife into not pressing charges? Did Meyer actually send this up the chain to his superiors? Was this actually investigated by the university? My hope is that we will get some answers to these questions when the university goes through its investigation. Just the feeling I get is that Gene Smith may be in as much trouble as anyone here. Not just with this, but some of the other crap going on here that is being investigated. Does Meyer deserve to be fired? If he covered up everything and intentionally kept Smith around, yeah he does. The biggest issue here is that there were never any official charges filed, but why was that? Was she lying or was she told to keep it quiet like we heard in 2009. In watching the interview by Zach Smith and the interview by his ex wife, I am inclined to believe Courtney as Zach came off like a raving lunatic in the interview, but that is circumstantial. The copy of the text message also makes it seem like he was guilty.

There is so much stuff that has come out, it is just hard to wrap your head around it. Was Urban's statement meant to deflect the blame to the higher ups? Was it a coordinated effort by Urban and OSU? No matter what happens here, my opinion will never change of Zach Smith and Urban Meyer. They are both scumbags in my opinion. If Urban truly sent this up the ladder when it happened, I still struggle with the fact that supposedly Urban has a "no tolerance" rule when it comes to domestic violence against women. If so, after it had been reported numerous times, why even keep him around, even if charges weren't filed. Also, if he supposedly sent this up the ladder, does OSU have documentation on how they handled it. If not, that is an issue in of itself is a problem and points to a cover up by someone.

It is such a mess that I really have no idea what is going to happen. In the least, I don't see Gene Smith surviving this. Other than that, I have no clue.

BTW, sorry about the incoherent ramblings. I just put together some random thoughts while I was at lunch. Ha ha.
 
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Where are you getting that she went public? She didn’t put this out there. Brett McMurphy dug around and found out she had filed for a restraining order and He ran with it. The university fired him and Meyer lied about knowing about the 2015 crap. Putting any of this on the victim is about the dumbest thing I’ve read in this thread. The WR coach is a piece of shit that is where the blame begins. He continued to harass her.

Here is a time line for you

June 21, 2009: Police in Gainesville, Fla., arrest Zach Smith on suspicion of aggravated battery against his wife, who was pregnant at the time. Courtney Smith said in a 2018 interview with Stadium that her husband grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against a wall during an early-morning argument. McMurphy reported police found Zach Smith to be the primary aggressor. The charge was later dropped because of insufficient evidence. Courtney Smith told Stadium that Bruce, Zach Smith's mother and the attorney representing her husband all pressured her to drop the charge.

2012: Meyer hires Zach Smith to be his wide receivers at Ohio State coach shortly after taking the head coaching job there.

June 6, 2015: Zach Smith and his wife separate.

Oct. 25-26, 2015: Courtney Smith calls police in Powell, Ohio, outside Columbus, and then visits the police department in person after another incident with her then-estranged husband. Courtney Smith alleges Zach Smith refused to return their son after a parental visit. She also claims that he had abused her on multiple occasions. No charges were filed. Courtney Smith told Stadium the incident "was the last time (Zach Smith) ever laid his hands on me." As part of the video interview, Stadium posted photographs Courtney Smith took in 2014 that appeared to show injuries to her arm and neck.

Nov. 9-12, 2015: Powell police investigate a claim by Courtney Smith of menacing by stalking by Zach Smith. No charges are filed, but Zach Smith is issued a restraining order on Nov. 10. Courtney Smith files for divorce two days later.

Dec. 19, 2017: Zach Smith is given criminal trespass warning after reportedly making "harassment/threats" at 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 17. McMurphy reported he tried to enter Courtney Smith's residence. No files were charged.

May 12, 2018: Powell police cite Zach Smith with misdemeanor criminal trespass after a dispute with his wife. The two argued over where Zach Smith should have dropped off his son. McMurphy reported Smith's driving into the driveway of his ex-wife's apartment violated the 2015 warning.

July 18, 2018: Zach Smith appears in Delaware County Municipal Court for a pretrial hearing related to the May trespass charge. Court records show Smith pleaded not guilty to the charge on June 5.

July 20, 2018: Courtney Smith is granted an order of protection against her ex-husband that prohibits him from getting within 500 feet of her. The protective order was filed in Delaware County after she claimed she feared for her safety.

July 23, 2018: McMurphy publishes a story on Facebook in which Courtney Smith discusses the 2009 incident. Ohio State announced later that day that Meyer had fired Zach Smith. No reason is given.

July 24, 2018: Meyer denies knowledge of the alleged 2015 incident, telling reporters at Big Ten Media Days he only learned of the allegations against Zach Smith when someone in his office told him that day.

Aug. 1, 2018: Ohio State places Meyer on paid administrative leave and begins an investigation into the Zach Smith matter. Courtney Smith tells McMurphy she and Urban Meyer's wife, Shelley, texted about Zach Smith's alleged abuse.

Aug. 2, 2018: Ohio State announces the formation of a six-person panel to oversee the university's investigation of Meyer.

Aug. 3, 2018: Zach Smith, in a series of interviews, denies abusing his ex-wife and says he would not be in favor of Meyer losing his job. Meyer releases a statement around the time of Smith's interview with ESPN. In it, he says he reported the 2015 allegations against Zach Smith and went through the proper channels within the university. He also says it wasn't his intention to be inaccurate or misleading during his Big Ten Media Days session.

Aug. 3, 2018: Shortly after Meyer's statement and Smith's interview, McMurphy tweets what he says is a text exchange between Courtney and Zach Smith. In it, Courtney appears to remind her ex-husband that he attempted to strangle her during a vacation trip to Mexico in March 2015 and then attacked her in April of that year. Zach Smith appears to confirm the incidents and then apologizes.
So once again, what did Meyer do that warrants his firing? I'm not defending Smith but multiple police complaints by a an ex-wife perhaps seeking sole custody of the kids is not a conviction in a court nor is a protection order. So IF Courtney didn't make public the attempted strangling in Mexico, who did? Did he confirm that he tried to kill her or did he confirm that they argued and that it got physical? At this point we have a bunch of allegations with little evidence to back them up. I don't know what rock you live under, but the first thing a divorce attorney will often do is to allege mistreatment to try to get custody of the kids in a contentious divorce. She may very well be a serial 911 caller. I don't know. You don't know. The court will sort it out. I know mentally unstable women who make all kinds of unfounded accusations. I also know women who were beaten by their husbands. In no case was it beneficial for the woman's husband to be fired. At this point all Meyer has done wrong that can be proven is that he lied in a press conference. If we start firing football coaches who lie in a press conference there's going to be an amazing amount of open jobs.
 
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Well, you very well could be correct. I'll be surprised if they keep him. If they do keep him, they're going to look extremely un-PC (which is everything currently).
Ding ding ding. Right on the money. No person, business or university wants to risk being on the wrong end of politically correct. It rules the world right now. Nobody wants to risk being called a racist, nobody wants to risk being called homophobic, and nobody wants to risk not defending/protecting women. However minor the actions may seem. I can promise you Ohio St wants to be on the right end. They will be willing to lose UM to save face.
 
So once again, what did Meyer do that warrants his firing? I'm not defending Smith but multiple police complaints by a an ex-wife perhaps seeking sole custody of the kids is not a conviction in a court nor is a protection order. So IF Courtney didn't make public the attempted strangling in Mexico, who did? Did he confirm that he tried to kill her or did he confirm that they argued and that it got physical? At this point we have a bunch of allegations with little evidence to back them up. I don't know what rock you live under, but the first thing a divorce attorney will often do is to allege mistreatment to try to get custody of the kids in a contentious divorce. She may very well be a serial 911 caller. I don't know. You don't know. The court will sort it out. I know mentally unstable women who make all kinds of unfounded accusations. I also know women who were beaten by their husbands. In no case was it beneficial for the woman's husband to be fired. At this point all Meyer has done wrong that can be proven is that he lied in a press conference. If we start firing football coaches who lie in a press conference there's going to be an amazing amount of open jobs.
Trying to make the case that you're doing the woman a favor by not firing her husband won't fly. I mean come on, everyone around here thought the guy was a POS for feuding with Dubs on twitter but now maybe he's just misunderstood when he has a long history of stalking behavior and it looks for all the world like he put hands on his wife? So what you can't fire him because if you punish him then you're punishing her so you gotta let him get away with it? That's not how anything works.

Most employers have a "conduct detrimental to the company/university/team" clause and it's there for a reason. If Urban knew this guy was a beater and a stalker and he kept him on staff until it got to be too public, that's not ok. There's a hell of a paper trail here, nothing about this situation suggests to me that she's making it up. That was all the reason you needed to axe the guy, conduct detrimental. But you kept him up until it became very public that this went on. How interesting.

As somebody who has been through custody proceedings and seen people go through abusive situations, the #1 thing that police, lawyers and judges tell you to do is start documenting. Keep records of everything. Sure looks like she took that advice to heart. She's got photos, texts that appear to show him admitting he has been physically abusive, and she has let the police handle it when he has violated the orders in place. There's a long paper trail.

Man if you've never known a woman who's been stalked by some psycho, it's horrifying for them. It takes more than you'd believe to get anything done against the guy legally. And when she's got kids with him, there's basically no way for her to ever totally be rid of him. Even when a guy beats a woman up do you know how hard it is to prove it? Seen it more times than I ever wanted to.

Still waiting to meet my first dude who keeps winding up in the back of cop cars over the course of a decade because he's just being picked on though. I can't name any of those.
 
Time is different but TO would not be fired today if he had just won a NC like Urban did. What did Urban do? he fibbed in a press conference. You can be President of the US and get away with telling blatant lies about nuclear deals with Iran or meetings with Russians.
By keeping a known wife beater on staff to me is his biggest downfall, remember coach dubs and his 3rd DUI some people wanted him gone, I know smith was his best recruiter but knowing this since 09 that's unexpectedly
 
By keeping a known wife beater on staff to me is his biggest downfall, remember coach dubs and his 3rd DUI some people wanted him gone, I know smith was his best recruiter but knowing this since 09 that's unexpectedly
I agree. Lying to the media at this point is a non factor. Someone still has to answer the question to why was he still employed up until this year
 
You couldn’t be more incorrect on placing him on administrative leave. That is an essential part of the investigation and should be done. The investigators are free to contact anyone, look at files, emails, etc without Urban being around. He has no opportunity to tamper with or alter anything as he is out of the picture. The whole idea is to conduct a complete investigation as soon and as quickly as possible and having the accused around is a problem, been there done that.

No way this would ever just blow over. What wishful planet are you living on. People are piling on from all over about current and past events.
An investigation should work around normal course of business, not the other way around. He shouldn't be placed on leave because he might tamper with files when he hasn't done anything wrong besides lie in a press conference, which by the way every single college football coach has done.
 
Trying to make the case that you're doing the woman a favor by not firing her husband won't fly. I mean come on, everyone around here thought the guy was a POS for feuding with Dubs on twitter but now maybe he's just misunderstood when he has a long history of stalking behavior and it looks for all the world like he put hands on his wife? So what you can't fire him because if you punish him then you're punishing her so you gotta let him get away with it? That's not how anything works.

Most employers have a "conduct detrimental to the company/university/team" clause and it's there for a reason. If Urban knew this guy was a beater and a stalker and he kept him on staff until it got to be too public, that's not ok. There's a hell of a paper trail here, nothing about this situation suggests to me that she's making it up. That was all the reason you needed to axe the guy, conduct detrimental. But you kept him up until it became very public that this went on. How interesting.

As somebody who has been through custody proceedings and seen people go through abusive situations, the #1 thing that police, lawyers and judges tell you to do is start documenting. Keep records of everything. Sure looks like she took that advice to heart. She's got photos, texts that appear to show him admitting he has been physically abusive, and she has let the police handle it when he has violated the orders in place. There's a long paper trail.

Man if you've never known a woman who's been stalked by some psycho, it's horrifying for them. It takes more than you'd believe to get anything done against the guy legally. And when she's got kids with him, there's basically no way for her to ever totally be rid of him. Even when a guy beats a woman up do you know how hard it is to prove it? Seen it more times than I ever wanted to.

Still waiting to meet my first dude who keeps winding up in the back of cop cars over the course of a decade because he's just being picked on though. I can't name any of those.
Smith was never convicted of allegedly assaulting his wife, and it's not hard to see why. There's no solid evidence that he did. It's just as plausible if not more so that she's a serial manipulator who calls the cops every chance she gets than that he's a wife beater.
 
If he actually did send up the report up the chain of command then all he is guilty of is lying to the media which is not really a fireable offense

Which is why the Ohio State lawyers coached UM to say he wasn't fully truthful with the media. If he weren't, in the eyes of the public, being truthful with the Ohio State administration, then the entire Ohio State system would be under fire. This way, Urban will be looked at as just a coach that has no regard for the media, which isn't really a big deal to anyone.

Someone will be blamed internally for not taking UM's '15 reporting of Zach Smith's domestic abuse seriously enough, and that person will be let go, with a large amount of dough to keep quiet. This is going to work out fine for UM and Ohio State. They'll take some heat, but UM will remain as their head coach.
 
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