Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer is no longer suspended by the university. Meyer, who served a three-game suspension after the university investigated information connected to Meyer and the allegations made against former wide receivers head coach Zach Smith, took to Twitter Monday morning to share the latest in a series of statements, following up his first sit-down interview with ESPN since his suspension.
Meyer thanked interim head coach Ryan Day, who navigated the Buckeyes to a 3-0 record in Meyer’s absence capped by Saturday night’s win against TCU in Arlington, the Ohio State coaching staff and players for performing well in his absence from gameday operations. Meyer also said he has taken his forced time off from the program to reflect on the entire situation regarding the handling of Smith and said he should have done a better job with addressing Smith as an Ohio State assistant and with the way he addressed the media at Big Ten media day.
— Urban Meyer (@CoachUrbanMeyer) September 17, 2018
This statement was shared directly by Meyer by way of his Twitter account and was not distributed through Ohio State’s sports department. Meyer is scheduled to meet with the media during the typical weekly scheduled this week with media opportunities at Ohio State and through the Big Ten coaches conference call. He will be asked about all of this but how much he tries to deflect the attention to Ohio State’s next game remains to be seen.
In an interview with Tom Rinaldi of ESPN, Meyer said he did not directly talk to Courtney Smith and he denied deleting any text messages from his phone.
Urban Meyer denies to Tom Rinaldi that he deleted text messages off his phone. Says he wasn't sure how to adjust the settings on his phone to un-save old messages.
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) September 17, 2018
Urban Meyer, when asked if he has apologized to Courtney Smith:
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) September 17, 2018
"I have not talked to her directly and maybe sometime I will. That's something I'll have to think through."
Meyer will make his 2018 coaching debut when Ohio State faces Tulane this week at home. Meyer makes his first road trip of the season next week, at Penn State.
