ldevon1

August 24th, 2018 at 9:01 AM ^

I think you are misinterpreting his intentions. He is in Urban and Gene Smith's corner. He is claiming they were on a witch hunt, and asking things that weren't part of the initial inquiry. 

Newton Gimmick

August 24th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^

Which is why I want him to keep talking.

Urban has to be nervous as hell that Zach isn't under his direct control anymore, and that Zach has little to lose.  He's already fired, will never be hired again, and already a pariah to Buckeyes.  He could make a ton of money and media attention if he spills the dirt everyone knows he has.  His highest aspiration now is to be Jose Canseco.

Squeezebox

August 24th, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^

This was mentioned in one of the original threads - that Zach had dirt on Urban from his Florida days and threatened to use it, if ever he was fired.

Maybe we can start a thread on what is everybody's favorite brand of popcorn, while sitting down to watch the sitcom in C'bus  ;o)

Ike613

August 24th, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^

Ok, so despite Zach Smith's tenure/seniority over a first year coach he was making less... and also allowed to explore leaving on his own timeline vs being fired like any normal person who is totally unqualified from a character standpoint to hold a job.. and this in your mind makes the situation better because OSU tried a tiny bit to make it seem like they didn't want him there?

This just drives home the point even further that he was kept on staff for reasons other than being good at his job, and they were too afraid (for some straaaange reason) to just terminate him.

He was a big enough liability that under any normal circumstance, an organization would immediately sever ties with that individual... but not at OSU because they are just super nice to their employees I guess.

I Like Burgers

August 24th, 2018 at 10:12 AM ^

I'm not so sure about that.  This was a part of the initial reporting on all of this:

In those messages, Courtney shared images of injuries and details of Smith's alleged abuse. She also told McMurphy that Smith had once told her he would not be the only one to suffer consequences if he lost his job as a result of her coming forward.

“Zach once told me,” Courtney said, “if he ever got fired and this all comes out: ‘I’ll take everyone at Ohio State down with me.’ ”

That's from August 1st, well before things got really crazy.  So if Zack is now saying he's looking forward to sharing the bullshit questions the investigative team had for him, and he's saying they were only trying to conjure a story to cover for Urban and Gene Smith...that doesn't seem like he's necessarily in their corner to me.  Maybe still loyal to Urban, but ready to take aim at Ohio State as a whole.

Leaders And Best

August 24th, 2018 at 10:16 AM ^

yup. It is the reason he put "investigative" in quotations to imply it wasn't a fair investigation. That report was nothing but as kind as possible to Urban Meyer.

 

He deleted his text messages and lied about his knowledge of events to the media. That is not how it is portrayed in the report. The university avoided a FOIA on his communications, and the report put it in the most positive light possible. They took at his word that he had no knowledge of anything related to the case where there was no hard evidence even though it stretches the imagination that he could not possibly know about it when so many people did.

Section 1.8

August 24th, 2018 at 9:03 AM ^

To me it appears that Zach Smith remains loyal to Coach Meyer, and instead he is ready to attack the nature and the conduct of the investigation.

That's interesting to me, since my big gripe all along has been with the way that universities so often handle these internal investigations.  Then again, if it was handled by Debevoise & Plimpton, I'd expect it to be substantive and professional.

Anyway, I am eager to hear from Zach Smith.  On this, and in court on September 14.

(And reading the responses on Twitter; good lord what a cesspool of ignorance on Twitter!)

Blue in PA

August 24th, 2018 at 9:08 AM ^

I'm still astounded that the 'investigative committee' found that meyer intentionally had text messages deleted from his phone before turning it over to the investigation and they made no effort to have those messages retrieved (which isn't even high level digital forensics).

 

this entire ordeal has been a laughable shitshow.... once you get over the fact that a violent, abusive asshole was harbored and protected for a decade, and the actual victim has been largely ignored by all parties involved, minus the reporter that broke the story.

LJ

August 24th, 2018 at 9:12 AM ^

It is pretty mind blowing. Recovering that phone could be done by pretty much any decent PD in a few hours. And at least one of the people on the committee is a former federal prosecutor, and knows full well what can be recovered from a phone with deleted texts.

Hab

August 24th, 2018 at 9:19 AM ^

Haven't followed the facts too closely, but if UM didn't consent to giving his phone over for said search, not a whole lot that the investigators could do.  If it was an OSU phone, that would imply that someone along the way decided that they didn't want to know what the texts said.

Blue in PA

August 24th, 2018 at 9:27 AM ^

That's the point..... As I understand it, it was his university provided phone that was in question.  The committee learned that he asked another member of the football staff how to erase messages over 1 year old.  When they then checked the phone they found no messages over 1 year old. They believe he intentionally erased them after learning of McMurphy's tweet, and seemingly left it at that.  WOW....what a thorough investigation!

 

Mr Miggle

August 24th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^

It was an OSU phone and he was forced to turn it over when he was put on leave.

It's a huge hole in their investigation and they will eventually have to address it. My free advice to OSU is that it will be less messy if they do it while Meyer is suspended.

Section 1.8

August 24th, 2018 at 9:33 AM ^

But this is different; I don't expect that Zach Smith is talking about Urban's phone, or spoliation, or technological means to recover old text messages.

I agree that Meyer's handling of his phone is a huge issue.  But that is not -- at least not what I expect -- what Zach Smith is talking about.

What are the OSU-hating fanboys going to say after Zach Smith's September 14 hearing?  My guess -- it's only a guess -- is that the charges might well be dropped.  He is alleged to have committed misdemeanor "criminal trespass."  In the act of returning his children to their home and the custody of their mother.  And the only supposed "law" that he broke, was a "police order" not to be on that property.  As Zach's lawyer rightly points out, a court order entered in a Delaware County court of general jurisdiction ought to supersede a "police order."  And no matter what, where is the prosecution going to come up with criminal intent in that?

Zach Smith did not violate a personal protection order.  His wife applied for that later.  On the day in question in the criminal trespass case, Zach was never even arrested.  His wife took a photo of Zach's car in her driveway after she failed to appear at a condo association clubhouse to pick up the child.  A citation was issued by police after Courtney made a complaint to police, and Zach picked up the citation after being notified by mail.

 

Wyandot Buckeye Fan

August 24th, 2018 at 9:46 AM ^

I'm not saying that Urban didn't erase messages with the intent to hide messages.  But don't the newer phones automatically erase messages after a year anyway?  I bet you would find a lot of interesting things on most coaches phones.

Blue in PA

August 24th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^

So during the course of the investigation they did indeed find that he asked a staffer how to change the settings on his phone to remove any texts that were more than 1 year old, correct?

When the investigators checked his text messages, there were no messages more than 1 year old retained, correct?

This is supposed to be a unbiased investigative committee, any reasonable person would conclude that there is a better than even chance that asking how to change the settings wasn't for his general knowledge, it was to take action.  Granted, he probably took dose of medicine that caused him to forget all about that conversation and changing the settings on his phone, before he was questioned about it.

As Ricky would say, It doesn't take a rocket appliance.

 

Erik_in_Dayton

August 24th, 2018 at 10:14 AM ^

But this is ultimately obfuscation. We can be pretty confident that he deleted his messages. 

Meyer lied about meeting both Smiths in 2009 when, per Zach, he only met with Zach. He lied to the media in July about his knowledge of the 2015 incident, which he’d in fact monitored. He and his wife almost certainly lied about whether she told him about her text exchanges with Courtney Smith. He lied multiple times.

Meyer is a dishonest man. And OSU is okay with that.

LDNfan

August 24th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^

I think the OSU fans are more than okay with his dishonesty...many celebrate his behavior..I mean he's their guy and he 'won' and that's all that matters. Just win...

The ONLY thing that will hit him and his loyal followers is the L's...UM knocks that team off in Nov and the tone will change. Get two in a row and they will be begging McMurphy to dig further. 

Jeff09

August 24th, 2018 at 10:16 AM ^

It's a distinction without a difference. If you use simple logic and reason, something your fanbase seems to have an usually difficult time with, you can quickly draw the conclusion that he likely deleted the messages to purposefully frustrate the investigation. While it isn't 100% provable that he did that, nothing is technically 100% provable using Bayesian reasoning, not even things like the laws of physics and mathematics. But when we have good reason to believe something, it's OK to believe it, even if there is a small amount of doubt. That's how the world works. Stating that it isn't a fact is simply sophistry, manipulating language to cast doubt on a conclusion that seems fairly obvious.

Jeff09

August 24th, 2018 at 3:27 PM ^

The sky is likely blue, not the sky is blue. 2 plus 2 is likely 4, not 2 plus 2 is 4. You are likely a troll, not you are a troll. 

I'm sick and tired of you guys trying to tap dance around this issue by using spurious logic and mutilating sentences and definitions to try and come up with a narrative that doesn't sound as bad as we all know it to be. Enough.