Ohio State Must Get Ahead of Scandal, Fire Urban Meyer Immediately

[Herald Democrat]

Let's make this as clear and concise as possible, right away:
Everyone affiliated with Ohio State University, from university
president Michael Drake to athletic director Gene Smith to the
common Buckeyes fan, should be absolutely terrified of what
comes next.

What else has football coach Urban Meyer lied about? What does
former assistant coach Zach Smith have on the rest of the
football program? How big will this scandal become?

When you can't trust a coach you're paying more than $6 million
per year, it's time to let him go.

If you don't know what else lurks beneath a damning and detailed
report from college football reporter Brett McMurphy about
Meyer's knowledge of his former assistant coach's alleged
domestic abuse of his wife, it's time to fire Meyer and avoid
further embarrassment.

At the end of McMurphy's report, he quotes Courtney Smith, the
ex-wife of Zach, saying her ex-husband once told her if he ever
got fired and details of this came to light, "I'll take everyone
at Ohio State down with me."

Absolutely terrifying.

It is here where we pause with reflection: Jim Tressel was
forced to resign as coach of Ohio State in 2011 because he
covered up an NCAA violation (players trading tattoos for
memorabilia) and lied to his superiors about it.

That, everyone, is but a drop of sweat off Meyer's brow after
the revelations of Wednesday morning.

Already, if McMurphy's report is accurate, Ohio State may have
violated federal Title IX law, which says that "a college or
university that receives federal funds may be held legally
responsible when it knows about and ignores sexual harassment or
assault in its programs or activities," and its own university
policy on domestic violence.

If the school fires Meyer now, maybe it can mitigate the damage
by arguing it fired him as soon as it found out. If not, the
fallout will only increase in the court of public opinion—for a
university already embroiled in a lawsuit from former wrestlers
who allege sexual misconduct from a now-deceased doctor employed
by the university in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. That case has
reached all the way to Washington, D.C., where Ohio Rep. Jim
Jordan—a former Ohio State assistant wrestling coach—has been
accused by the former wrestlers of knowing about the misconduct
and ignoring it.

The concurrence of the two—while they shouldn't be unfairly
correlated—cannot be overlooked.

This is a public relations nightmare for Ohio State, which seven
years ago set precedent for coaches who lie to their superiors.
Why would this be any different?

Until it fires Meyer, Ohio State is merely underscoring the idea
that football supersedes all for big-time colleges—publicly
stating that it is willing to look past not only Meyer allowing
Smith to stay employed despite knowledge of alleged domestic
abuse but also vehemently lying about that knowledge on national
television at Big Ten media days.

"I was never told about anything," Meyer said at Big Ten media
days during a session with more than 50 reporters. "Never
anything came to light, never had a conversation about it. So I
know nothing about it."

Based on McMurphy's report, we now know that simply isn't the
case. Courtney Smith told him: "All of the [coaches'] wives
knew. They all did. Every single one." And she had the texts to
prove it.

Stadium
?
@WatchStadium
EXCLUSIVE: Longtime Urban Meyer assistant Zach Smith's ex-wife,
Courtney Smith, opens up about reported domestic violence and
what she believes Meyer knew.

9:17 AM - Aug 1, 2018
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More troubling is the idea that something worse could be on the
horizon, its revelation at the whim of a now-disgraced former
coach who was recently fired by Meyer.

So why wait to take action on Meyer? What has to be done
eventually must be done immediately.

It's not like this is unchartered water, for Ohio State or
Meyer. Tressel's failing cost him his job, and Meyer's failings
at Florida cost the Gators their program.

When Meyer left Florida after the 2010 season, he said the
program was "broken." What he didn't explain—and what wasn't
exposed until after he left—was that he was the reason it was
broken.

Rampant drug use on the team, roster manipulation and
preferential treatment for those in his "Circle of Trust"
crippled a program that won two national titles in a three-year
period from 2006 to 2008 and had three 13-win seasons in Meyer's
tenure. The Gators are on their third coach since Meyer resigned
after the 2010 season—citing health issues—and are a shell of
the former program.

Meyer's Circle of Trust was key to the breakdown at Florida. He
allowed elite players to run amuck and infect the program with
an entitlement disease. If you were valuable to the program, you
had a long leash.

If the same type of disease has infected Ohio State, and if Zach
Smith really does have information that can "take everyone at
Ohio State down with me," he was the most valuable person in the
Ohio State program—until he could no longer be protected.

It's easy to see why Meyer might want to ignore the alleged
domestic abuse and lie about knowledge of it.

It's easy to see why officials at Ohio State must be terrified
of what comes next.

The only way to get ahead of it is to fire Meyer.

What has to be done eventually must be done immediately.

Matt Hayes covers college football for Bleacher Report. Follow
him on Twitter: @matthayesCFB.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2789023-ohio-state-must-get-
ahead-of-scandal-fire-urban-meyer-immediately