Report: Urban Meyer knew about 2015 domestic violence incident involving ex-assistant

[Pompous Elitist]

You must have really thought this post was a gem to have posted it 3 times.

You also sound like someone who likes to beat women.

Considering a solid double digit percentage of your posts are personal insults it’s a wonder you’ve not been banned yet. I’m not responsible for Gopherhole technical glitches.

The double standard is interesting, don’t you think? Can you process a coherent answer rather than a personal insult this time?

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

You must have really thought this post was a gem to have posted it 3 times.

You also sound like someone who likes to beat women.

Urban didn't beat his wife. Urban heard rumors an assistant beat his wife and didn't report them.

Making this discussion into a pro or anti domestic abuse discussion is missing the point entirely.

 

[KGF]

This is a very Cruze-like take. Hey, it’s a process. Like most people, in my world the “authorities” are law enforcement not the crazy campus activists. If law enforcement decides nothing happened, despite photos, medical exams, the wife’s testimony it seems like the focus should be on the why the police failed to act. That seems like an unexplored story.

I agree. The police need to investigate the actions that they took.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

Urban didn't beat his wife. Urban heard rumors an assistant beat his wife and didn't report them.

Making this discussion into a pro or anti domestic abuse discussion is missing the point entirely.

Perhaps, maybe, possibly. Seems like Urban would issue a mea culpa and step down if this is the case. One can not shelter known criminals.

 

[KGF]

Urban didn't beat his wife. Urban heard rumors an assistant beat his wife and didn't report them.

Making this discussion into a pro or anti domestic abuse discussion is missing the point entirely.

I agree. And we don’t know exactly who is telling the truth or whether there’s truth and falsehoods on both sides.

I have my biases and suspicions.

But, my main argument that suggests Meyer lose his job is that he didn’t report what he knew to his superiors and made the decision himself about the credibility of the accusations against his assistant coach, personal friend, and mentor’s family. His contract states that he (and his wife) are obligated to report what they know. They didn’t do that.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

I agree. And we don’t know exactly who is telling the truth or whether there’s truth and falsehoods on both sides.

I have my biases and suspicions.

But, my main argument that suggests Meyer lose his job is that he didn’t report what he knew to his superiors and made the decision himself about the credibility of the accusations against his assistant coach, personal friend, and mentor’s family. His contract states that he (and his wife) are obligated to report what they know. They didn’t do that.

You’re misssing the point that we don’t know what he knew, and the policy talks about “known violations”. Is every boss supposed to be judge, jury, and executioner for any whispered rumor/allegation, without context? What was known vs alleged? Is reasonable proof required?

 

[Gophers_4life]

Urban didn't beat his wife. Urban heard rumors an assistant beat his wife and didn't report them.

Making this discussion into a pro or anti domestic abuse discussion is missing the point entirely.

Ah, so now you're changing your tune from "he should be fired because he didn't fire the guy" to "he should be fired because he didn't report a rumor he heard".


Frankly ... I'm quite certain that every FBS head coach in the country deals with "hearing things" on a DAILY basis. As the HC you're directly responsible for the actions (or inactions) of well over 100 people when you count players, coaches, assistants, etc. Things get "dealt with" internally all the time, and probably almost every day.


The real deal here, the reason it's blowing up, is because he lied about it at the Big Ten media event. That's the kit and caboodle.

 

[KGF]

You’re misssing the point that we don’t know what he knew, and the policy talks about “known violations”. Is every boss supposed to be judge, jury, and executioner for any whispered rumor/allegation, without context? What was known vs alleged? Is reasonable proof required?

I’d love to hear Urban Meyer give his side of the story on why he didn’t know, given that his wife was fully informed.

Maybe he’d offer to take a lie detector test. Let him defend himself and let us judge the credibility of his answers.

You haven’t addressed my question of ‘why would a boss ask his subordinate’s wife “how they were doing” (in an apparently sensitive manner) if he don’t know there was an issue (one that he supposedly hadn’t been told about)? Is that a question that bosses always ask subordinates spouse’s after winning a national championship?

 

[KGF]

Ah, so now you're changing your tune from "he should be fired because he didn't fire the guy" to "he should be fired because he didn't report a rumor he heard".


Frankly ... I'm quite certain that every FBS head coach in the country deals with "hearing things" on a DAILY basis. As the HC you're directly responsible for the actions (or inactions) of well over 100 people when you count players, coaches, assistants, etc. Things get "dealt with" internally all the time, and probably almost every day.


The real deal here, the reason it's blowing up, is because he lied about it at the Big Ten media event. That's the kit and caboodle.

I think you’re correct on this. If he had said that he wasn’t going to discuss personal situations, then he fired Smith the next day, he might have been safe.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I’d love to hear Urban Meyer give his side of the story on why he didn’t know, given that his wife was fully informed.

Maybe he’d offer to take a lie detector test. Let him defend himself and let us judge the credibility of his answers.

You haven’t addressed my question of ‘why would a boss ask his subordinate’s wife “how they were doing” (in an apparently sensitive manner) if he don’t know there was an issue (one that he supposedly hadn’t been told about)? Is that a question that bosses always ask subordinates spouse’s after winning a national championship?

Lie detector tests are BS...

 

[KGF]

Lie detector tests are BS...

I was only half serious. I’d love to hear his side though.

 

[Gophers_4life]

I think you’re correct on this. If he had said that he wasn’t going to discuss personal situations, then he fired Smith the next day, he might have been safe.

Urban fired Smith back on July 23 (a Monday), after Smith had a protection order file against him the previous Friday. Here's a report published on Jul 23 about that: http://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa...urban-meyer-florida/kfvi2nbtv10c1cdh4xlycy5r1

That report was cited by another report, published a day later on Jul 24, that I linked to way back in post #9 of the thread, questioning the timing of the firing. Here is that article again: http://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa...llegations-florida/1ozteceaffg9q1q6fmw8ot555d


All of this reporting is ultimately credited to the work of Brett McMurphy, who further dug in, did interviews, and broke it wide open with the reports that came out earlier this week. I have no idea why McMurphy had such a bug up his rear end to go after this story so hard. My guess is that it was either a grudge against Urban, a personal motivation to make this into his own "Penn State moment", or a mixture of the two.

 

[Livingat45north]

On this OH State football thread our own PJ Fleck is mentioned several times as a possible replacement for Meyer.

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...-means-for-ohio-state-moving-forward#comments

I just read through the comments on their board. Most of the comments say Meyer will get reinstated, but if he doesn't that the new coach will be someone that's already on the staff. PJ is mentioned, but there's not a big push for him at all, more so that they're not impressed yet by what PJ's done at Minnesota. I'd be worried about losing my coach if I were an Iowa State fan though (which I kind of am since anything good for Iowa State is bad for Iowa).

 

[KGF]

All of this reporting is ultimately credited to the work of Brett McMurphy, who further dug in, did interviews, and broke it wide open with the reports that came out earlier this week. I have no idea why McMurphy had such a bug up his rear end to go after this story so hard. My guess is that it was either a grudge against Urban, a personal motivation to make this into his own "Penn State moment", or a mixture of the two.

Maybe he knows him

 

[KGF]

I just read through the comments on their board. Most of the comments say Meyer will get reinstated, but if he doesn't that the new coach will be someone that's already on the staff. PJ is mentioned, but there's not a big push for him at all, more so that they're not impressed yet by what PJ's done at Minnesota. I'd be worried about losing my coach if I were an Iowa State fan though (which I kind of am since anything good for Iowa State is bad for Iowa).

Astute observation.

 

[FredCoxRocks]

How about....everyone wait until the facts come out. A lot of this doesn’t add up. How much did Urban really know? Could be bad for Urban, or could be overblown.

You clearly don't know how the internet works.

 

[bemidjigopher]

Urban fired Smith back on July 23 (a Monday), after Smith had a protection order file against him the previous Friday. Here's a report published on Jul 23 about that: http://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa...urban-meyer-florida/kfvi2nbtv10c1cdh4xlycy5r1

That report was cited by another report, published a day later on Jul 24, that I linked to way back in post #9 of the thread, questioning the timing of the firing. Here is that article again: http://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa...llegations-florida/1ozteceaffg9q1q6fmw8ot555d


All of this reporting is ultimately credited to the work of Brett McMurphy, who further dug in, did interviews, and broke it wide open with the reports that came out earlier this week. I have no idea why McMurphy had such a bug up his rear end to go after this story so hard. My guess is that it was either a grudge against Urban, a personal motivation to make this into his own "Penn State moment", or a mixture of the two.

Perhaps it's because it's his job? Quite frankly I think McMurphy is on his own right now, if you get a potential bombshell like this, in that line of work you'd be a fool not to see it to the end, not his fault the smoke is turning into a fire, if Meyer had done what contract mandates him to do in the first place, or if his wife had as a University employee, then there's no story here.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[Gophers_4life]

Maybe he knows him

Several people have said that Urban is a bad person. That is fine. If true, then I don't feel bad.

But I highly suspect that McMurphy's motivations were far from being completely "pure". Before this, probably only hardcore CFB fans had heard of McMurphy. Perhaps he was hoping to change that, with this scoop?

Perhaps it's because it's his job? Quite frankly I think McMurphy is on his own right now, if you get a potential bombshell like this, in that line of work you'd be a fool not to see it to the end, not his fault the smoke is turning into a fire, if Meyer had done what contract mandates him to do in the first place, or if his wife had as a University employee, then there's no story here.

Frankly, I think even the failure to report is hocus pocus, here. This is all boiling down to Urban lying at the Big Ten media event. The guy was fired right before the event. McMurphy pressed Urban with a hard question, and Urban lied to swat it away. Instead of letting it go, McMurphy pushed hard on it, and released a report that makes Urban out to be a liar and doing favors for a domestic abuser.

It looks terrible for OSU, and that's why Urban is on leave.

 

[WoodburyTim]

You must have really thought this post was a gem to have posted it 3 times.

You also sound like someone who likes to beat women.

Just pathetic.

There is always some poster that can't formulate an reasoned argument on a subject like this, so he just falls back on this. And Unregistered is sitting at a keyboard somewhere thinking he scored a point, oblivious to the fact that he just pulled back the curtain on his lack of intelligence. And just a tip Unregistered, its not just the internet. In your everyday life, most of the people who know you, also are rolling their eyes at you.

 

[50PoundHead]

Urban didn't beat his wife. Urban heard rumors an assistant beat his wife and didn't report them.

Making this discussion into a pro or anti domestic abuse discussion is missing the point entirely.

To me, this is about the tension of being designated a mandatory reporter. Urban's contract at least implies that he is. But when one is designated a mandatory reporter, you have a responsibility to be right, so it's not a slam dunk one way or the other.

 

[HoustonTXGopher]

Urban fired Smith back on July 23 (a Monday), after Smith had a protection order file against him the previous Friday. Here's a report published on Jul 23 about that: http://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa...urban-meyer-florida/kfvi2nbtv10c1cdh4xlycy5r1

That report was cited by another report, published a day later on Jul 24, that I linked to way back in post #9 of the thread, questioning the timing of the firing. Here is that article again: http://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa...llegations-florida/1ozteceaffg9q1q6fmw8ot555d


All of this reporting is ultimately credited to the work of Brett McMurphy, who further dug in, did interviews, and broke it wide open with the reports that came out earlier this week. I have no idea why McMurphy had such a bug up his rear end to go after this story so hard. My guess is that it was either a grudge against Urban, a personal motivation to make this into his own "Penn State moment", or a mixture of the two.

McMurphy said he sat at the BIG media days and listened to Meyer's lies and then dug deeper. Meyer dug his own grave, he can now lye in it.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

To me, this is about the tension of being designated a mandatory reporter. Urban's contract at least implies that he is. But when one is designated a mandatory reporter, you have a responsibility to be right, so it's not a slam dunk one way or the other.

Absolutely.

I think it's a slam dunk that he can be fired for breaking his contract.

The larger issue for me is whether or not that is what we want as a society.

Ohio State University is a large institution that dominates Columbus. Do we really want to fire any employee of the University that might hear whispers of a fellow employee's history of domestic violence? To me, that's insane and an absolute abuse of power.

 

[Unregistered User]

Just pathetic.

There is always some poster that can't formulate an reasoned argument on a subject like this, so he just falls back on this. And Unregistered is sitting at a keyboard somewhere thinking he scored a point, oblivious to the fact that he just pulled back the curtain on his lack of intelligence. And just a tip Unregistered, its not just the internet. In your everyday life, most of the people who know you, also are rolling their eyes at you.

Oooh...Looks like you scored a point. Good for you! You are the keyboard hero that we need!

 

[short ornery norwegian]

being cynical - If I had to guess what happens -

Urban comes out and says "my wife never told me anything" and the wife backs him up. She falls on the sword, and Urban keeps his $7-million a year job.

 

[Gophers_4life]

being cynical - If I had to guess what happens -

Urban comes out and says "my wife never told me anything" and the wife backs him up. She falls on the sword, and Urban keeps his $7-million a year job.

Despite what others here think, I don’t believe the failure to report really has anything to do with it. That might be the official, legal reason given if he is terminated.

But the thing that actually got him was lying about not knowing in 2015.


More often than not, it’s the lie/cover up that gets you, rather than the thing itself.

 

[dpodoll68]

Absolutely.

I think it's a slam dunk that he can be fired for breaking his contract.

The larger issue for me is whether or not that is what we want as a society.

Ohio State University is a large institution that dominates Columbus. Do we really want to fire any employee of the University that might hear whispers of a fellow employee's history of domestic violence? To me, that's insane and an absolute abuse of power.

To be clear, they can absolutely fire him regardless of whether he broke his contract or not. The question is whether they'd have to pay his buyout or not.

 

[KGF]

Absolutely.

I think it's a slam dunk that he can be fired for breaking his contract.

The larger issue for me is whether or not that is what we want as a society.

Ohio State University is a large institution that dominates Columbus. Do we really want to fire any employee of the University that might hear whispers of a fellow employee's history of domestic violence? To me, that's insane and an absolute abuse of power.

Ohio State doesn’t want to fire Urban Meyer. If they fire him, it will be b/c they have to whether it is for appearances, reputation, political correctness, or otherwise legitimate reasons.

If there is no proof that he knew or lied about this situation, I wouldn’t endorse firing him for “whispers”. But, there already appears to be very strong circumstantial evidence that he did know, made no attempt to investigate, didn’t report it to his superiors, and lied.

I saw a Buckeye media site comparing it to the Colorado head coach’s situation when an assistant was accused of hitting his girlfriend. It pointed out that the alleged abusive assistant kept his job through the season after the allegation was made directly to the head coach, that the assistant resigned after the season, and the head coach didn’t lose his job for not revealing it publicly. There were, however, very significant differences. The head coach immediately went to the AD with the allegations. They investigated the allegations. The assistant was allowed to stay while the allegations were investigated. Urban didn’t take any of those steps.

I share your concerns about politically correct or appearance dismissals, but I don’t think that is the case here.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

being cynical - If I had to guess what happens -

Urban comes out and says "my wife never told me anything" and the wife backs him up. She falls on the sword, and Urban keeps his $7-million a year job.

If that happened, it could be a lie, also could be true, we don't know at this point.

 

[KGF]

https://sports.yahoo.com/two-key-el...recarious-situation-ohio-state-023055036.html

...Urban acknowledges he was aware of Zach Smith’s 2009 arrest for domestic abuse while Zach was working for him at the University of Florida. He said since Courtney dropped the charges he chalked it up to a volatile young couple that needed counseling and kept Zach employed.

Urban said last week he didn’t, however, know about the 2015 incident where Courtney said Zach choked her and threw her against a wall while their then-5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter clung to her legs. Zach was only dismissed from his job late last month because he violated a protective order Courtney, now his ex-wife, placed on him.

“I was never told about anything, anything never came to light, never had a conversation about it, so I know nothing about that,” Meyer said last week of 2015.

Reporting by Brett McMurphy on Wednesday however revealed extensive text messages between Courtney Smith and Shelley Meyer about the alleged 2015 incident. It included disturbing photos of Courtney’s injuries. Shelley acknowledged seeing the photos, repeatedly expressed concern for Courtney and even declared of Zach that “he scares me.”

Now, can anyone plausibly believe that Shelley Meyer never mentioned this to Urban Meyer? The two are famously close, with Urban calling Shelley his closest confidant and almost a co-head coach of his program. Yet Shelley wouldn’t bring it up, not once in three years? She’d just let him continue to employ someone she believes beats his wife and has photos to prove it?

This wasn’t a fleeting story either. Shelley had counseled Courtney and Zach on their marriage after 2009 and she and Courtney discussed it via text on numerous occasions.

“I told Shelley,” Courtney said in an interview with Stadium. “I sent her some pictures. I spoke to her on the phone. She said she was going to have to tell Urban. I said, ‘That’s fine. You should tell Urban. You can’t have someone like this coaching young men.’ ”

There are further texts between Courtney and Lindsey Voltolini, wife of Ohio State football staffer Brian Voltolini, that suggested that Urban did know and asked Zach Smith about it. That is secondhand information, but damning nonetheless in the court of public opinion.

Perhaps Shelley and the others really did keep it to themselves and thus neither Urban, nor anyone else at Ohio State, was aware of the allegation and couldn’t spark an investigation into it.

Or perhaps Urban was aware of it on some level and just lied last week to the media? If he was aware, how aware was he? And what did he do about it? Did he investigate himself? Did he pass it up the chain of command within the Buckeyes athletic department...

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Ohio State doesn’t want to fire Urban Meyer. If they fire him, it will be b/c they have to whether it is for appearances, reputation, political correctness, or otherwise legitimate reasons.

If there is no proof that he knew or lied about this situation, I wouldn’t endorse firing him for “whispers”. But, there already appears to be very strong circumstantial evidence that he did know, made no attempt to investigate, didn’t report it to his superiors, and lied.

I saw a Buckeye media site comparing it to the Colorado head coach’s situation when an assistant was accused of hitting his girlfriend. It pointed out that the alleged abusive assistant kept his job through the season after the allegation was made directly to the head coach, that the assistant resigned after the season, and the head coach didn’t lose his job for not revealing it publicly. There were, however, very significant differences. The head coach immediately went to the AD with the allegations. They investigated the allegations. The assistant was allowed to stay while the allegations were investigated. Urban didn’t take any of those steps.

I share your concerns about politically correct or appearance dismissals, but I don’t think that is the case here.

I'm not even talking about PC dismissals or dismissals for appearance, are you okay with someone getting fired because they heard about a fellow had an issue with domestic violence and they didn't report it?

I realize it's a rule (because of Title IX) and I realize tOSU could fire him regardless.