It’s hard to read this and not reach the conclusion that Corch has a problem.
Text messages I have obtained, an exclusive interview with the victim and other information I have learned shows Ohio State coach Urban Meyer knew in 2015 of domestic abuse allegations against a member of his coaching staff.
Courtney Smith, ex-wife of fired Ohio State assistant coach Zach Smith, provided text messages between her and the wives of Ohio State coaches – including Urban Meyer’s wife, Shelley – showing Meyer’s knowledge of the situation.
Meyer said last week during Big Ten Media Days that he had no knowledge of two alleged domestic violence incidents in 2015 with former assistant wide receivers coach Zach Smith that were investigated by the Powell (Ohio) Police Department.
Meyer said had he known, he would have fired Smith in 2015 – three years before he did last week after I reported the alleged domestic violence.
“All the (coaches) wives knew,” Courtney said. “They all did. Every single one.”
Yeah, well, but would Shelley have spoken with her husband?
“Shelley said she was going to have to tell Urban,” Courtney said. “I said: ‘That’s fine, you should tell Urban.’ I know Shelley did everything she could.”
Yeah, but…
Two weeks after the Oct. 25, 2015 incident, a Nov. 5, 2015 text exchange between Lindsey Voltolini and Courtney shows Meyer talked to Zach Smith about the incident.
Lindsey is the wife of Brian Voltolini, considered one of Meyer’s most loyal staff members. Brian is Ohio State’s football operations director and has been part of Meyer’s staffs for 15 seasons at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State.
Courtney: “(Zach’s) trying to make me look crazy bc that’s what Shelley is saying (he’s doing)”
Lindsey: “He (Urban) just said he (Zach) denied everything”
Courtney: “I hope urban is smarter than that”
Lindsey: “He (Urban) doesn’t know what to think”
Courtney: “I don’t really care. Ya know”
Lindsey: “Yeah, don’t worry about urb”
That urb. What a guy.
If there’s a seat worse than 37F, that’s where you’ll find Brett McMurphy.
Get The Picture 
Actual proof for the rest of the world that Urban Meyer is a world-class douchebag. Wonder what Timmy T will have to say about the ol’ ball corch. (Kinda want to hear a nice soliloquy on it from Corinne Brown, too, if someone would get to the lockup and ask her, lol).
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That brought a nice big smile to my face. I’m not smiling at abuse, I’m smiling at Corch squirming. Amoral jackass.
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I’d like to see Kirby and the Dawgs square off with Meyer one time and wreck them before he retires again, so hopefully we’ll get that soon and then we can be done with this guy for good.
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I’m pretty he will either resign of be fired over this.
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Maybe he’ll have more heart problems and have to resign.
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“where’s my ativan”.
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Great, within 2 years he’ll be coaching at Auburn.
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Nah. Baylor.
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Yep. Or OC at Alabammer.
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This is bad. I bet Meyer does a lot worse than squirm. He may lose his job
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I feel like if anyone could somehow slither their way through this scandal, it’s Urban. Not saying he will, just that he has a better shot than most.
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Urban Meyer is a lying POS? Say it ain’t so! Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye!!
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I read the whole account. Why Zach Smith is not in jail is incredible. UM clearly knew about it. If he keeps his job it will be yet another step down for college football……
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Here’s a link to another article on the topic:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/report-meyer-lied-about-knowledge-of-dv-incident-with-coach/ar-BBLmNeD?ocid=U453DHP
This quote from the article may have some relevance to Smith keeping his job:
“Zach once told me if he ever got fired and this all comes out: ‘I’ll take everyone at Ohio State down with me,’” Courtney told McMurphy.
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Oops. The quote also appears in the Facebook post.
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It’ll be some next-level Big 10 hypocritical bullshit when he doesn’t get fired.
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I can never remember, are they in the Leaders or Legends division of the Big Ten? Must be Legends, right? Has to be.
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Its been blowing up all morning and not a peep from ESPN. Look at their page its almost like they value their financial relationship with the conference over reporting the news that EVERYBODY else is reporting. Not a good look.
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I think ESPN can’t report it because they laid off McMurphy and the terms of his severance prevent them from putting him on the air. Kudos to him for going straight to Facebook, and better luck picking journalists next time, Mickey.
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I blame Kirkstreet
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It’s Ohio – their fanbase doesn’t give a shit ab this (Now-ex) coaches wife. Urban could slap his mama on the sideline as long as he sniffs the playoffs every few years.
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Exactly. SMH at the folks who think ol’ Urb is going to be fired over this.
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Nah. It’s over. Had Paterno not allowed a child rapist to run around unchecked at PSU then this story might not get traction. Instead, he did, it made national headlines, and now comparisons will be inevitably be made.
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Don’t forget Baylor. We’re also in the MeToo era. I’m not saying that to belittle the situation, but this kind of thing is a lot more of a PR problem than it would have been even ten or fifteen years ago.
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Lest you forget Michigan State
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Also, Rutgers and Minnesota.
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But he can’t choke out a Clemson player. SMDH.
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What a scumbag, but how is anyone surprised by this? From Aaron Hernandez and Chris “Time to die, bitch!” Rainey to this punk. Corch couldn’t care less, that’s obvious.
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Given tOSU’s fan base is as invested in Corch as the Bammers are with Saban, no one will challenge the status quo in Columbus. This episode should end any person hanging on to the top 1% of top 1% nonsense.
I wonder if a bad headache or irregular heart rhythms are in his future.
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It would be nice if someone gave this Zach character a bad headache, with a bat or other blunt object. If his heart rate became irregular or even stopped that would be OK too.
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Don’t get too excited about the prospects of seeing Urban Meyer get his comeuppance, folks. He is a big enough scumbag to throw his wife under the bus here. He is going to deny that his wife ever informed him of the abuse. His wife is going swallow her pride and take one for the family team and the family’s considerable income and get in front of a camera or two and lie about ever telling Coach Meyer about the abuse. And then Meyer is going to go out and win at least ten games, including another win over Michigan, and the Ohio State faithful and the big money boosters will close ranks around him even more tightly.
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This does setup one helluva family conundrum for Urb’s and his wife. She lies to protect him and, consequently, their marriage is severely damaged, perhaps irreparably. He tells the truth and probably loses his job. Wouldn’t be surprised if he values his career over his wife.
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Urbs is thinking about this all wrong. He should resign (in disgrace – but only after negotiating huge severance from tOSU), disappear for 6 months, re-emerge to do his penance on the ESPN-waves, land next big time opening with a fat contract.
He’s played-out at OSU anyway. Won the damn conference but couldn’t get in the Playoff.
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Would think this is a “for cause” offense, not sure he will get his buyout money. Might negotiate some cash just to get it behind them and out of the headlines ASAP.
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You can’t even see 37F from where Ol’ Brett is going, ’cause it will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer that Brett got his ass canned for covering Zach’s drunken, philandering……..
I typed that as a funny before I read the link. After reading it? I hope this young lady burns them to the ground then pisses on the ashes.
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You don’t know when and you don’t know how… But you do know that Ol’ Urban will one day “just get tired and burn out”, will move back over to color commentary and then we’ll watch the OSU program come apart at the wheels, taking a decade or so to recover.
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That day may come sooner than I thought… Was just listening to ESPNU – they do not see how he survives this… We’ll see soon enough; but anyway you shake it – another black eye for the Big 10..
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Hold on guys, Mayor will be along any minute to tell us all how this is just further proof that men are under siege and how unfair it is that a guy can’t beat his wife without consequences. There’s hardly a point in getting married anymore!
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Did you read the link? I was going to say something similar just to be a snarky asshole and I can’t stand Meyer or tOSU anyway, but if this is true (and I believe it is) It’s serious enough that I won’t joke about it and that’s fucking rare for me.
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I thought my comments on the matter over the past week have been very clear how serious I think it is.
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Actually, your comments on this subject over the past week have shown how stupid you are.
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Ah yes, MY comments, not YOUR comments which flat out accused the woman here of being the aggressor, and casting Zach Smith as a victim. Your comments weren’t stupid at all!
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I see you are following the tactics of your hero Adolf Hitler—shouting accusations as loudly and as often as possible. He didn’t believe in requiring proof either. You’d fit right in with his mindless Brown Shirts.
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What’s the view of your rectum like?
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You tell me Adolf. You’re the one in the gutter looking up.
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“Fuck you.” Feel free to quote me.
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I knew your sorry ass would show up to double down on being a shitbag.
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All we need is his doppelganger Macallanlover to come along and cement the shitbaggery.
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If Joe Paterno got canned, this guy should too!
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I think Urban is a sleazy asshole who doesn’t deserve to run a football program, but this is nothing like covering for a child rapist for 30 years.
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Okay, it’s a little like it, but it differs significantly by degree.
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I interpret this comment to mean that you think Paterno maybe should not have been fired. It’s not possible to read the Freeh report and feel that way.
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I say Urban survives this unscathed. If HE was beating his wife I’d give him 50/50.
Nick Saban could kill 5 more hookers and be just fine.
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Craig James would like some of that action.
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I can see them talking to jurors after the acquittal or citizens after they change the law to make hooker-killin’ legal: “Well, dems hookers was bout to touch his cocaine and he done had to stand his ground”.
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Was Brett the reporter of seat 37F fame?
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I thought Urban was going after Shane Matthews for something he said on the radio when he made those comments.
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Mike Bianchi from the Orlando Sentinel if memory serves.
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That is absolutely repulsive.
Meyer should be fired for being a lying, enabling hipocrite.
I hope the ex-wife sues Ohio State.
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Looks like we need a survey for this one Senator. Does Urban survive?
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“He said ‘if you don’t drop the charges, Zach will never coach again,’ ” Courtney said. “ ‘He’s never hit you before. He was drinking. He’ll probably never do it again. You should think about giving him a second chance.’”
He’ll probably never do it again? How reassuring! And what a stand-up guy!
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The fact that these folks work at the Woody Hayes Athletic Complex pretty much tells you all you need to know about how Ohio State will choose to handle this situation. Rule number one: NEVER give a man a second chance to abuse you. No man who respects you will EVER hit or hurt you for any reason. It doesn’t matter how drunk, how stressed or how depressed he is. If he does it once, he WILL do it again. Don’t give him the opportunity. And why is everyone saying “don’t report him because he’ll lose his job?” That’s exactly what SHOULD happen. Her own family didn’t want her to report the abuse to the police. That’s unconscionable.
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This is so bad Urban might bench himself for the 1st half of the Oregon State game.
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That was good.
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The four letter has an article up about it now. I didn’t know Meyer’s wife is an instructor at the OSU school of nursing. If she’s a nurse you would think she would have reported the abuse.
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She should have, and she will likely lose her job over this, too.
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It is a requirement, she is definitely out. She has no way to deny not knowing. Urbie of course could throw her under the bus, but after Baylor and State Penn, don’t expect an administrator to cover for him, they haven’t fared too well recently. Liar will resign, imo, and never admit he was part of a coverup, just don’t think that will fly in this day and age. He put the noose around his own neck last week when he said he would have taken action in 2015 if he had known of a 2nd incident. Public will not buy his story, just delusional ohio fans.
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Does mandatory reporter status apply to social activity with fully functional adults? I know most states have some boundaries, such as diminished capacity (minors, mentally ill), or being on the job. I honestly don’t know.
And not to bring politics into this, but sports and politics have a lot of similarities – and people just seem much more willing these days to blow off obvious things if someone is their guy. Got him on video admitting it? Doesn’t matter, he’s our guy, and the media is just fanning the flames because they don’t like us or our guy.
And Meyer very much OSU’s guy, and the OSU is very much the B1G’s crown jewel. I think OSU says he and his staff is going to attend some awareness training, done, next.
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Urby just saw the lead on ESPN, he is now sitting in the corner of his office eating Dominos contemplating his heart condition. Meanwhile the OSU president is writing up a contract extension to try and convince him to stay.
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You mean the lead that says ‘some people around Meyer knew of report?’ Could you possibly write a more non-committal headline? Jeez, man. You might as well write ‘please don’t fire Urban.’
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That was my impression when I saw the title too.
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ESPN host (a woman) interviewing Joey Galloway starts by saying, “I’m sure you’re like everyone and completely surprised…”
Anyone surprised by Urban Meyer being a sleazy SOB just hasn’t been paying attention, or is willfully ignorant of his time in Gainesville.
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Wins cover sins
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From a purely coaching standpoint, the winner here is Greg Schiano, who got run out of Knoxville before he got started, and now is in line to take over at tOSU. Somebody get him to pull some lottery numbers, stat.
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Early rumor is Junior to ohio. If true, more Title IV issues down the road. Lock up your coed daughters, Suckeyes!
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Didn’t know Jr. was stealing money. Title IV states that “… any federal funds disbursed to a student’s account in excess of allowable charges must be delivered to the student.”
Just kidding, Mac’lover–I knew what you meant.
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Yep, saw my mistake as soon as I hit “post”. But with no edit feature, I knew anyone who read knew what I meant so I didn’t waste another comment correcting it. At my age, you see the sand falling to the bottom and don’t waste energy. Since all the coaching staff knew of this, and they are university employees, do they need a whole new staff? You can get a HC pretty quickly, but building a whole new staff before practice starts would be tough. We may want to start looking at their recruiting class. Well, that was wrong too, you know KS is already on it. Fun day!
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What about Tom Herman? He can take the OSU job or leverage the offer for a better contract at Texas.
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Urban is a lying Douchebag and has been for ever. That being said, nothing I have read directly connects him to knowledge. There is evidence that Shelly knew. And it is highly improbable that she didn’t tell the Urbs. But, unless that link can be proven I think he uses the opening to slither through. Yes, that means throwing his wife under the bus to do so but, nothing I have ever seen from that man indicates he wouldn’t do it to save his own ass.
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I have a hard time seeing how Urban comes out of this with his job intact. Either he admits he lied, or he doubles down on his story despite damning evidence that contradicts his account. Either scenario probably ends with a firing or forced resignation.
Jim Tressel was shitcanned for far less than this.
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Urban didn’t violate a law or break a rule. He just made an immoral decision to keep his mentor’s grandson around, and then lied about it when pressed to the fire by the press. Tressel lied to an investigator asking about his knowledge of NCAA violations. Big difference.
I just have a hard time thinking OSU cares enough about looking bad or shady to fire Urban – it wasn’t enough to stop them from hiring him.
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There are probably Title IX implications in this case.
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Urban is a mandated reporter (so is his wife, an OSU instructor, for that matter). He did violate the law if he knew of the abuse and failed to report it. It’s similar, though not exactly identical, to what brought Joe Paterno down at Penn State.
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Does that apply to non-student victims? I would assume that you can’t hold someone accountable to a standard as broad as “required to report (any) physical abuse” they are aware of.
No expert on title IX here. Either way it’s sad that it takes something like this for many out there to realize what a dishonest scumbag this guy is.
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“Does that apply to non-student victims? I would assume that you can’t hold someone accountable to a standard as broad as “required to report (any) physical abuse” they are aware of.”
You may be right about that.
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Title IX definitely applies to staff, but I’m not sure exactly how it works with a non-student or non-employee spouse. I would think it applies, but I can’t find anything clearly stating that.
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Title IX only applies to students and staff, not third parties. BTW, the correct term for a staff member with a duty to report is responsible employee, not mandated reporter. Mandated reporter applies to minors and is usually found in a k-12 or preschool setting. Responsible employee status depends primarily on the Title lX policy of the university.
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…and now Tressel is President of Youngstown State.
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It’s Ohio Jake.
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It’ll be a nice test of how our values are holding up. Baring a campus protest I think Urban survives.
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I despise Corch but some of those texts are like triple and quadruple hearsay. Also, it sounds to me like the cops were made aware of practically every incident, and nothing was done. I’m curious to know why, other than on at least a few occasions it sounds like the abused spouse wouldn’t testify. As a former prosecutor I can tell you that makes it hard to do anything when the victim won’t cooperate. Sometimes you have another witness or some rock solid physical evidence but those situations are the exception, not the rule, often the victim is your only witness, and without them you can’t proceed. I have no sympathy for Zach Smith, but I think we are creating a precedent that can come back and bite literally anyone, whether they are deserving or not, if all it takes for your life to be ruined is for there to be a text from one person saying another person told a third person something happened (that the police already were investigating) and third person was going to tell her husband (you). I’m not going to join a social media lynch mob based on that kind of thing, and everyone who is tempted to do so needs to think about what evidence you would require for you yourself to be charged, tried, and convicted in the court of public opinion for something you find repugnant.
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Corch has to say whether his wife told him. If he can say she didn’t and there isn’t any evidence he knew, then it doesn’t stick. If his wife won’t take the fall, then he has to admit he knew and lied about it.
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If this was all known to the cops and they couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything, where’s the cover-up though? I think Meyer probably knew and is a lying sack of shit but is it his job to police the police? I get that it’s very tempting in the case of Meyer to say yes because we don’t like him but if the cops have been notified of a situation are you and I compelled to follow up with the cops, try to influence their investigation, second guess their decisions, etc? That’s a lot to lay on everybody, especially people who haven’t witnessed something.
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Meyer doesn’t have any criminal problems from this. It’s all in the court of public opinion. If he admits his wife told him about the abuse then he lied about it and kept a guy on his staff that he knew had abused his wife on multiple occasions. That’s gonna be tough to overcome.
My guess is he is trying to convince his wife to say she never told him. If she says that he can talk about mistakes being made and his regrets, and keep his job. His wife will look really bad though.
btw, his contract probably has a requirement for him to report DV to the school. It sounds like he reported the first incident to UF, but not the 2015 incident. So, OSU has an out if they want it.
Anyway, hopefully it’s a long drawn out process and Meyer ends up looking like the scum bag he is!
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Trust me, I have little sympathy Corch, this is the guy who called for a full scale investigation of the cameraman who injured his QB and no doubt made 1/1000th of what Meyer makes if that. It just troubles me how easy is to whip up a mob in the era of social media with some triple hearsay text messages and a one sided account. I want Corch, as much as I dislike him, to get some due process. To paraphrase The Outlaw Josey Wales, I’d like him to be decently treated, and then decently shot (well not shot but banished to wherever Bobby Knight is).
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I can agree about your courtroom points, but Meyer isn’t being charged with anything. He denied that something happened, and denied knowing anything about it. I was skeptical of that statement in its face, and these texts only remove whatever fig leaf remained.
And the hearsay point is a bit lazy. Those texts aren’t hearsay to Urban’s wife. She can be asked whether she talked to Urban about the matters discussed in them, and he can asked if she ever discussed the 2015 beatings with him. A jury could infer that he knew even without direct proof—especially when he has spoken about her heavy involvement in the football program. And, since he made affirmative denials, he can be impeached with the texts, too.
The question isn’t whether he can be convicted, but whether his conduct befits his office. If he gets locked down in a lie, he’s out. I won’t lose any sleep over it.
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Backlash against election of trump will be the demise of urban Meyer…could it get any better?
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This has nothing to do with Trump.
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He has been placed on paid administrative leave per the WWL.
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If Schiano does take over it would be hilarious for our urnge brethren to the north if he lead them to an undefeated season and a national championship.
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Didn’t Schiano look the other way at Pedo State? He’s well equipped for this situation.
I’m with Dude- Urban is dunzo. Surprised he’s lasted as long as he has after Uf debacle.
More shame on the Big 10. Maybe they should go back to “leaders” and ” legends” so everyone will know just how important they think they are.
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The red headed guy who by his own admission walked away after he saw Sandusky screwing a kid in the shower said that someone else told him Schiano told that someone else that he (Schiano) had observed some fishy conduct. Both Schiano and that someone else (I can’t remember who it was) denied it. I personally think that red headed guy is projecting his own guilt all over the place. Schiano is probably an asshole just like Meyer, but I think it’s unfair to hold the Penn State scandal against him. Troubled individuals (of whom there are tons of in the world today) can literally say anything about anyone at anytime, we’ve got to demand more evidence than that, even for people we don’t like.
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“Greg had come into his office white as a ghost and said he just saw Jerry doing something to a boy in the shower,” McQueary said he heard of Schiano, who worked under Sandusky.
That’s enough for me to at least lump him in with the rest of the shitheads involved in that crap.
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Again somebody said that somebody else said, that’s hearsay. The guy who McQueary (who I referred to as the red headed guy) said told him that said McQueary was full of shit, as did Schianno. Again anybody can say anything about anyone at anytime, it doesn’t make it true.
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i would think losing to Georgia in the natty would be enough, so let’s just go with that.
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Bend over Rover…it’s all over!!
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Could not have happened to a better guy! What an asshole!
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He is suspended with pay as of tonight while they investigate.
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He gone, thank God! No surprise…not apeep out of the Herbstreit camp.
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Kirk Herbstreit sure is quiet. Here is how you search for tweets sent to him:
https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=to%3AKirkHerbstreit%20since%3A2018-08-01%20until%3A2018-08-02&src=typd
Wow Urban…. your behavior here sure was a bad deal, eh ?
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Also think this is a deal breaker for ESPN to hire Meyer so we won’t have to listen to his ass too much the next couple decades. Added bonus.
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