Don’t look for Urban Meyer to lose his job
The recent news that has come out of Columbus, Ohio in recent weeks about the domestic abuse issues concerning a former Ohio State assistant football coach has been troubling.
What may be more troubling is how most of the Ohio State football fandom has stood behind its coach, Urban Meyer, simply because they want him to continue to coach.
For those who have missed the news, former Ohio State wide receivers coach Zach Smith was fired a few weeks ago due to a history of domestic abuse against his former wife Courtney.
While I am no legal expert, these issues were reported back as far as 2009 and Meyer may have known about them prior to the recent announcement.
College football reporter Brett McMurphy released copies of text messages that he received from Courtney Smith which state that Meyer knew about Zach Smith蘑菇视频 domestic issues in 2015.
On Friday, Meyer released a statement saying that he went to his superior, Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith, and reported the issue.
Does any of this ring a bell?
A legendary coach was made aware of issues with a coach in his storied program and went to the A.D.
While different circumstances, former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno went to his athletic director and reported what he had been told about actions by a former coach.
Paterno was fired days later.
Based off of pure speculation, something tells me that Meyer will not meet Paterno蘑菇视频 fate of losing his job.
Ohio State has formed a committee to look into the domestic abuse issue and to see what Meyer, who was placed on paid leave last week, knew or didn鈥檛 know.
On Monday, the committee said it would announce its findings within 14 days.
My logic for thinking Meyer will retain his job is that it would take more than 14 days to truly look into the case, so my hunch is that the committee already knows it will not get rid of Meyer.
If it already had enough proof to fire him, wouldn鈥檛 it have done so already?
The tricky angle here is what Meyer actually reported.
Meyer, like Paterno, did what they legally had to do and that was to report the issue to their respective superiors.
As a mandated reporter myself as a school counselor, both Meyer and Paterno met legal requirements and did enough to cover themselves.
Paterno would say after being fired that he had wished he had done more, and morally, I wish he had.
With Meyer, what are the odds that he put his program before the issues?
One of Meyer蘑菇视频 mentors is Earl Bruce, the grandfather of Zach Smith.
This is the same Earl Bruce who, it has been reported, went to the Smith residence to convince Courtney Smith to not press charges several years ago.
When Penn State rushed to fire Paterno so quickly, it forever expedited the tarnishing of the legacy of one of the greatest coaches of all time.
But with Meyer, this is not the first time, he has had shady things happen continuously while a head coach.
When he was coach at the University of Florida, there were at least 31 arrests of his players.
When Meyer left his job at Florida for 鈥渉ealth reasons,鈥� it is a safe bet that not a lot of high-up officials at the school were upset.
(As far as the 鈥渉ealth reasons,鈥� there have been many reports that can be found online as to rumors of what those 鈥渞easons鈥� actually were.)
Ironically, there is more than one Paterno and Meyer connection.
There were a few inside the football program at Penn State that knew the 2011 season would be Paterno蘑菇视频 last as head coach.
He died of cancer in January 2012 a mere 74 days after he was fired on Nov. 9, 2011.
Two days prior to Paterno being controversially forced out, it had been reported that Meyer, who had announced almost every home Penn State game in 2011 for ESPN, had bought a house in Boalsburg, Pa.
This is the same Boalsburg that is four miles from Penn State.
A Google search for 鈥淯rban Meyer Boalsburg PA鈥� showed multiple results about it, including one from www.businessinsider.com.
Then again, www.npr.org had its own version but also stated that Meyer also bought a house in Columbus.
Regardless, had the wrongly-issued sanctions against Penn State not been levied, could Meyer have ended up in Happy Valley?
And would Zach Smith have followed him to State College?
Had the issue that nearly crippled the community of State College not happened, could Penn State be facing problems now had it hired Zach Smith?
It is always said that 鈥渋f鈥� is the biggest word in the dictionary, so we will end the 鈥渨hat if Meyer had been hired by Penn State鈥� topic here and now.
After all, the issue here is the revolting domestic abuse issue that took place.
And much like the sexual abuse issue that was uncovered in State College in 2011 should have never been made about Paterno, the issue at Ohio State should be about Zach Smith and not Meyer.
If more proof comes out that Meyer covered things up, then he needs to be fired for being an enabler to domestic violence.
But until proof comes out, the focus should not be on Meyer, although it will continue to be until he is taken off of his paid leave or is ultimately fired.
Share college sports news and names
If you know someone currently playing a sport in college, coaching, or holding another role, email me or tweet me and we will get them mentioned in this column.
Email questions/comments to powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to @BillHughes_III.