Cactus Jack wrote:bmurph128 wrote:Cactus Jack wrote:It was an "internal investigation" by the school. But yeah, should the NCAA get involved, Ohio State will be in a world of trouble.
Quite frankly, both Meyer & the AD should have lost their jobs.
I disagree with everything said here cactus.
For one, Ohio State didn't violate any NCAA rules, so they can't really get involved.
Secondly, people keep saying this stuff without thinking about both sides. I hate domestic violence as much as anyone, but when the police can't even tell what's going on and they're being called out to the residence within minutes or hours of an incident, how can we expect Urban to terminate him immediately? Or even report it up the chain? What would he be reporting? "I've heard through the grapevine that Zach Smith might be abusing his wife" - not too solid.
I understand. But, your too close to this situation. You need to remove yourself as an OSU fan, and look at the bigger picture.
1. Urban lied.
2. It wasn't reported.
Both the AD & Urban are at fault here.
You also have to acknowledge that this is a bad look for the University. The fact is that if Urban Meyer was just an average coach without his resume, he would have been let go. The school is clearly prioritizing winning/losing (Money) over ethics with this move. Plain as day.
I really don't care enough about college football to be biased for Urban. Ohio State was a power before him and would be after him.
When I first heard this I was 50/50 as to whether he would be let go - where I started to swing is the why of it all.
Bondom brought up several good points - Urban did some things that look bad - but I feel like I at least have a good enough explanation for them and it's simple: Courtney wasn't completely innocent. There are reports about her that paint her in a bad light too.
Add all this up and it makes sense to me: at every turn Urban questioned Smith and he had some part of his story (which was probably at least partially true) about Courtney that made Urban pause (i.e. "she came at me with a knife" or "she attacked me").
Shelly Meyer was brought in yesterday and talked to the board - my guess is that was partially to discuss the texts and partially to discuss Urban's own account of things - which it's worth pointing out we will never, ever hear. In that my bet is that Shelly, assuredly having seen Courtney in a setting without Zach Smith (after all, coaches work late hours and it makes sense that if the coaches wives have a group text, that they got together at some point) and noted that Courtney's behavior was questionable. If nothing else, this is backed up by her mother defending Zach Smith while also sending texts to Zach Smith condemning him - seems a little crazy doesn't it?
Finally, let's compare this to Art Briles and Joe Paterno:
In both Briles and Paterno's cases, what happens if they come clean about what had been going on? Death penalty.
In Urban's case, what happens if he comes clean about Zach Smith? Nothing.
Where is the motivation for Urban to hide this? Sure, he showed bias toward Zach (being Earl Bruce's grandson), but enough to potentially lose your job over? Yikes. That does not make sense to me. Conversely, had Urban just come clean, there would have been no repercussions whatsoever.
As for Ohio State, they've been mostly praised for handling the investigation and even for the suspension - Urban is catching flak for his press conference, which makes sense...except...again putting some clues together, either Urban is a terrible person, or there's more to the story. I think it's more to the story.
As for why Urban had sketchy behavior - neither he nor the university can come out and say that Courtney was **** crazy - that would be way too insensitive, but the truth is, that's a perfectly logical reason for Urban to not get involved and wait on the police - which again, is what sounds like happened.
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