Conversations relayed by Zach Smith’s wife contradict what Urban Meyer says he knew of a 2015 domestic abuse arrest involving the former Ohio State WRs coach.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer knew about the domestic violence allegations against former wide receivers coach Zach Smith in 2015, according to college football reporter Brett McMurphy, contradicting what he told reporters at Big Ten media days last week.
“I was never told about anything. Never anything came to light, never had a conversation about it. So I know nothing about it,” Meyer said on July 24.
Smith, who was also Ohio State’s recruiting coordinator, was fired on July 23, just days after reports surfaced that an order of protection had been filed against him by his ex-wife Courtney Smith.
“The court finds that (Courtney Smith) is in immediate and present danger of domestic violence and for good cause the following temporary orders are necessary to protect the persons named (Courtney Smith and her children Cameron, 8, and Quinn, 6) in this order from domestic violence,” a protection order obtained by McMurphy reads.
Courtney Smith told McMurphy that not only did Meyer know about Zach Smith’s 2015 domestic violence incident, but his wife and members of the coaching staff were also aware.
“All the (coaches) wives knew,” Courtney Smith said. “They all did. Every single one.
“Shelly said she was going to have to tell Urban,” she added. “I said: ‘That’s fine, you should tell Urban.’ I know Shelley did everything she could.”
McMurphy reported that Smith has at least two domestic violence incidents. As a member of Meyer’s staff at Florida in 2009, Smith was arrested for aggravated battery of his wife, who at the time was two months pregnant. Charges were not filed in that case. At Big Ten media days, Meyer said that he had been informed of that incident at the time and passed it along to his superiors, noting to the assembled media that “what was reported wasn’t actually what happened” and that the Smiths were a “very young couple.”
Smith was again arrested in October 2015, this time for felonious assault and domestic violence against his ex-wife. McMurphy reports that the police report related to that incident released to the media last week differed from the original in a key way: The box initially checked to indicate that Smith was arrested was no longer checked, almost three years later. Courtney Smith was granted a restraining order against her husband on Nov. 10, 2015, and filed for divorce two days later.