Urban Meyer won three national championships and seven conference championships an FBS head coach. Yeah…but he enabled a domestic abuser.
Meyer announced his retirement, effective on Jan. 2, on Tuesday, citing health reasons in stepping down as Ohio State head coach after seven seasons. The announcement came four months after he was suspended for the first three games of Ohio State's season for failing "to take sufficient management action" regarding the domestic abuse allegations made against former assistant coach Zach Smith. The announcement came eight years after Meyer retired as Florida head coach. In Gainesville, he left behind a program that prioritized winning over off-the-field issues, which included more than 30 player arrests.
Urban Meyer won 85.3 percent of his games in 17 seasons as an FBS head coach. Yeah…but he failed to report Zach Smith's behavior. He ignored investigations and allegations. He deliberately lied and misrepresented what he knew.
Urban Meyer has nine losses in seven years at Ohio State, won at least nine games in a season with four different programs and has countless conference and national coach of the year awards. Yeah…but text messages disappeared mysteriously from his university-issued cell phone. He deflected responsibility and punted at the August press conference.
Forty minutes into the Aug. 22 press conference in which Ohio State revealed findings from their 14-day investigation and announced the suspensions for Meyer and athletics director Gene Smith, none of the four individuals who spoke — lead investigator Mary Jo White, university president Michael V. Drake, Smith and Meyer — mentioned Courtney Smith or domestic violence victims.
With a few minutes remaining in the media's allotted time, one reporter handed Meyer a driver and teed him up:
"Do you have a message for Courtney Smith?"
Meyer:
"I have a message for everyone involved in this. I'm sorry we're involved in this situation."
In 2009, Urban Meyer was the Sports Illustrated Coach of the Decade. He won the Woody Hayes Trophy as the nation's top head coach in both 2004 and 2012. He landed five-star recruits, groomed more than a dozen future head coaches, including Tom Herman, Dan Mullen, Charlie Strong, Kyle Whittingham and Ryan Day.
Meyer coached 14 future first-round picks, went 7-0 vs. Michigan (and 19-2 against other rivals) and has the highest winning percentage of any active coach with over 10 years of experience.
Yeah…but Urban Meyer blew it off the field. Several times.
MORE: Ryan Day is Highest-Paid Rookie Coach Ever
MORE: Ryan Day Rejected 2 Jobs Last Year
