Just when you think Corchgate can’t sink any lower…

… along comes Brett McMurphy to prove that wrong.

Documents and receipts Stadium has obtained show Zach Smith ordered more than $2,200 in sex toys, male apparel and photography equipment and had the items delivered to him at Ohio State’s Woody Hayes Athletic Center in 2015.

The Woody Hayes Athletic Center houses all Buckeye football operations.

All of the items were delivered to “Zach Smith, Woody Hayes Athletic Center, 535 Irving Schottenstein Drive, Columbus” between February and May 2015. Copies of some of those documents are listed below.

Courtney Smith said Zach Smith took multiple photos of his penis inside the Ohio State coaches’ offices, inside the White House when the Buckeyes visited in 2015 and also photographed himself in the coaches’ offices receiving oral sex and having sex with a OSU staffer.

After winning the 2014 national title, the Buckeyes were honored at the White House on April 20, 2015.

One photo of Smith’s penis, taken on April 20, 2015 according to a time stamp, shows Smith in his black suit he wore to the White House event. Another photo of Smith’s penis includes a White House bathroom towel featuring the Seal of the President of the United States.

As they like to say on the Internets, read further and you’ll see that McMurphy has the receipts.  And Smith’s attorney is freaking out.

Brad Koffel, Zach Smith’s attorney, said Friday that he had “no idea” about the photos and sex paraphernalia sent to Smith to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

After providing Koffel with copies of some of the sex orders and photos, I asked Koffel: What was the purpose of Zach Smith taking those photos in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and the White House, and why were the sex items delivered to him at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center? Did Urban Meyer have knowledge of this information?

The following was the entire text exchange between Koffel and myself.

Koffel: Sounds like extortion. Thanks for the texts Brett. I’d get a lawyer if I were you.
McMurphy: Not extortion. I’m not asking for money nor have I received any money. I’m asking for your comment to my original question: what was the purpose of taking these photos and why were the items delivered to the Woody Hayes Center? And did Urban Meyer have knowledge of any of this?
McMurphy: As a courtesy, as you said you would extend, here are my questions: what was the purpose of taking these photos and why were the items delivered to the Woody Hayes Center? And did Urban Meyer have knowledge of any of this? Thx u
Koffel: You know these were accessed illegally. Another felony
McMurphy: I don’t know how they were accessed. Can you answer my questions please
Koffel: You absolutely know or should know these were obtained without my client’s consent. If not, you do know.
Koffel: *now
McMurphy: What are the answers to my questions?
Koffel: You have my answers & my advice. Tread very lightly.
McMurphy: You didn’t answer my questions? So you have nothing further?
Koffel: Not him except with his face. Gag gifts. The oral sex is not him.
McMurphy: Want to double check: White House picture with his tie and wedding ring that are visible from media photos of the event is not him?
Koffel: Nope
McMurphy: Thx u
Koffel: This is receiving stolen property.
Koffel: If any one of this is published or referenced we will refer to the county prosecutor. This is a felony ORC 2913.04
Koffel: Also you are under RC 2913.05

Citizen’s ay-rest!  Citizen’s ay-rest!

It’s not him, but it’s stolen property is an interesting take, I have to admit.

Ohio State says the investigation is concluding Sunday.  At the rate this is going, the school probably wishes it could wrap things up in the next fifteen minutes.

Advertisement

A different kind of McGarity’s Minutes

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this marks the first occasion when Georgia’s AD has devoted an entire one of his special emails to the subject of fan experience.

That doesn’t guarantee complete success, of course, but if it is an indication that Butts-Mehre finally feels some need to grease a squeaky wheel that hasn’t gotten enough attention, at least it’s a start.  We’ll see.

“It will be finished when it is finished.”

I am shocked, shocked to discover that the two-week period Ohio State announced for its investigation of Urban Meyer is a mere goal and not a definitive timetable.

They’re probably hoping for a couple more major scandals at other schools to suck oxygen out of the media tent.  With the way things are going lately, I can’t say that’s an unrealistic strategy.

By the way, when do we start referring to this mess as “Corchgate”?

Sam Pittman is a golden god.

Georgia's offensive line allowed the fewest QB pressures in the SEC a season ago pic.twitter.com/M2u1BzLDOh

— PFF College (@PFF_College) August 16, 2018

This is a continuing series.

What, no fences in Tennessee?

If you didn’t hear, yesterday Smart got a commitment from Tennessee defensive tackle Tymon Mitchell.  If that sounds like a somewhat familiar theme, that’s only because it is.

Georgia now has three of the top 15 players in the state of Tennessee for the 2019 cycle. Tennessee, led now by widely-respected recruiter Jeremy Pruitt, has just one of the state’s top 15 players.

Amazingly enough, this story gets even worse from a Vol perspective.  Mitchell’s great uncle was the first African-American football player at Tennessee.

Good thing Pruitt’s widely respected as a recruiter.

I fought the money and the money won.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold what passes for cutting edge academic priorities these days:

The U. of Akron announced on Wednesday that it would phase out 80 degree programs. The next day, it announced it would open “the largest amount of dedicated esports space of any university in the world to date.”

I don’t have enough snark in me to do that justice.

Not a good look for you, Maryland.

Yeah, this seems ill-advised.

One year before University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair died after collapsing at a team workout, the school’s athletic department submitted a proposal that would have fundamentally changed how health care was delivered to athletes, a drastic overhaul aimed at better aligning the school with NCAA recommendations. But the plan was never implemented, its recommendations nixed by Maryland President Wallace D. Loh, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.

Kevin Anderson, Maryland’s athletic director at the time, sent a memo to Loh dated May 19, 2017, that spelled out the changes the athletic department aimed to make in its management of athlete injuries and illnesses, calling for the school to establish an independent medical care model. The memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post, also called for athletic trainers to report to the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and to be autonomous from any influence by the school’s athletic department.

“This relationship also better aligns resources and expertise under one umbrella aimed at improving patient care, staff education and clinical research in the care of athletic conditions and injuries,” the memo read.

Loh rejected the proposal last August because he did not want to allow medical personnel decisions to be made by another institution, according to the three people who had direct knowledge of Anderson’s proposal and Loh’s response.

Another disclosure or two, and I figure every mesothelioma lawyer in the country will start running solicitation ads for Maryland players on late-night cable TV.  It’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Keeping up with the Joneses? ‘Bama says, “hold my beer”.

While Greg McGarity tentatively tiptoes from capital project to capital project, at all times keeping a nervous eye on those reserve fund holdings, Alabama “is embarking on a ten-year, $600 million initiative”.

If Kirby ever leaves Athens (Gawd forbid), good luck on holding things together, Butts-Mehre.

Musical palate cleanser, the Queen is dead edition

Calling Aretha Franklin a giant… well, I’m not sure even that word does her justice.

Aretha Franklin, universally acclaimed as the “Queen of Soul” and one of America’s greatest singers in any style, died on Thursday at her home in Detroit. She was 76.

The cause was advanced pancreatic cancer, her publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn, said.

In her indelible late-1960s hits, Ms. Franklin brought the righteous fervor of gospel music to secular songs that were about much more than romance. Hits like “Do Right Woman — Do Right Man,” “Think,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “Chain of Fools” defined a modern female archetype: sensual and strong, long-suffering but ultimately indomitable, loving but not to be taken for granted…

Ms. Franklin had a grandly celebrated career. She placed more than 100 singles in the Billboard charts, including 17 Top 10 pop singles and 20 No. 1 R&B hits. She received 18 competitive Grammy Awards, along with a lifetime achievement award in 1994. She was the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987, its second year. She sang at the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009, at pre-inauguration concerts for Jimmy Carter in 1977 and Bill Clinton in 1993, and at both the Democratic National Convention and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral in 1968.

Iconic.  The greatest female vocalist of my lifetime.  All of that, and maybe more.

This may be her earliest recording, from when she was around 14 or so.

That is astonishing.

And here’s a wonderful story about her cover of “I Say a Little Prayer,” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

In a candid 2010 interview with NPR, David and Bacharach both laughed trying to describe how good Franklin’s version was.

“It’s a better record than the record we made,” Bacharach told Fresh Air host Terry Gross.

“Mmhmm. We did, yeah. And we did a great record, but she topped it,” David added.

When Gross prodded them a little more, they told her to listen to it, that you can just hear it in the effortless way Franklin sings and how the arrangement is crafted to enhance that. That Franklin sings the song as if it were a dress designed just for her.

“It’s just more natural,” Bacharach said. “We were talking about our changes and time changes on the chorus of ‘forever and forever, you stay in my heart, and I will’ — you know, that’s going 4-4, 3-4, 4-4, 3-4. Then regard the way it was treated by Aretha, because Aretha just makes it seamless, the transition going from one change to another change. You never notice it.”

Well, you’ll notice this.

Hers was a nonpareil talent.  Saying that she’ll be missed seems like an inadequate tribute.  Knock ’em dead in heaven, Queen.