Urban Meyer Investigation Report Details Missing Texts, Zach Smith Issues, More

Ohio State University published the findings of its investigation into head football coach Urban Meyer shortly after he was suspended for the first three games of the regular season on Wednesday night.

The investigation was initiated earlier this month when a report surfaced suggesting Meyer may have known about domestic violence allegations against former assistant coach Zach Smith in 2015 while he was on Ohio State's staff.

Those allegations were outlined in an Aug. 1 piece authored by Brett McMurphy. In a lengthy investigation, McMurphy published text messages between Urban's wife, Shelley Meyer, and Zach's ex-wife, Courtney, that indicated "Urban Meyer and a number of Ohio State assistant coaches were aware of Smith's domestic violence issues for several years."

According to Ohio State's findings, "[Ohio State director of football operations] Brian Voltolini, who was on the practice field with Coach Meyer went to speak with him, commenting that this was 'a bad article.' The two discussed at that time whether the media could get access to Coach Meyer's phone, and specifically discussed how to adjust the settings on Meyer's phone so that text messages older than one year would be deleted."

Upon further review, Ohio State's investigation determined Meyer's phone did not contain any text messages older than one year. The investigation noted the school "cannot determine, however, whether Coach Meyer's phone was set to retain messages only for one year in response to the August 1st media report or at some earlier time."

In summary, the school concluded: "It is nonetheless concerning that his first reaction to a negative media piece exposing his knowledge of the 2015-2016 law enforcement investigation was to worry about the media getting access to information and discussing how to delete messages older than a year."

The investigation also details Meyer's issues with Smith prior to his dismissal, including Smith's 2014 trip to a strip club in Florida that resulted in Meyer adding a morality clause to the program's coaches manual. The clause also prohibited coaches to store pornography on university-issued electronics.

That incident was not reported to Ohio State's compliance office.

In April 2015, Smith allegedly proceeded to take explicit photos of himself during a team visit to the White House in celebration of their 2014 national title. The report stated Meyer and Gene Smith were likely not aware of the photos at the time.

Additionally, Ohio State's findings showed Smith was admitted to a treatment facility in June 2016 "for addiction to a stimulant prescription drug used to treat ADHD."

Citing a source, McMurphy had previously reported Smith left treatment after four days despite committing to a 10-day stint in rehab.

Ultimately, the school deemed Smith displayed "a pattern of troubling behavior" that included "promiscuous and embarrassing sexual behavior, drug abuse, truancy, dishonesty, financial irresponsibility, a possible NCAA violation, and a lengthy police investigation into allegations of criminal domestic violence and cybercrimes."

Despite the litany of transgressions, the investigation explained Meyer didn't take any disciplinary action against Smith before firing him in July.

As for Meyer's press conference at Big Ten media days, Ohio State provided the following write-up after the head coach told reporters he was not aware of a 2015 domestic violence incident involving Zach and Courtney Smith:

"We accept that in July 2018 Coach Meyer was deeply absorbed in football season and wanted to focus on football at Big Ten Media Days. The firing of Zach Smith the day before – the first time Coach Meyer had fired a coach – was also on his mind, as was the erroneous media report of a felony arrest of Zach Smith in 2015. We also learned during the investigation that Coach Meyer has sometimes had significant memory issues in other situations where he had prior extensive knowledge of events. He has also periodically taken medicine that can negatively impair his memory, concentration, and focus. All of these factors also need to be considered and weighed in assessing Coach Meyer's mindset on July 24th."

Meyer, who will not be allowed on the sidelines for games against Oregon State, Rutgers and TCU, will return to his post prior to the Buckeyes' Week 4 meeting with Tulane.

Gene Smith has also been suspended for more than two weeks without pay.