Mind of Mike: Meyer's punishment should have been more severe

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Urban Meyer has not been fired. In fact, Urban Meyer apparently didn’t come close to being fired based on his three-game suspension for the Zach Smith controversy at Ohio State. Was this the right thing to do? Yes and no is my answer.

That may sound like a wishy-washy answer and it is, I’ll admit it. I never thought Meyer should be fired for the offenses committed by Smith, his former wide receivers coach, but I also thought that the seriousness of the issue and the perception that Meyer knew and did nothing would lead to harsher punishment.

What would have been fair? How about suspend him for a full season and send a message? Even half a season would send a message. But Ohio State went too lightly on the legendary coach.

I don’t think many know the details well aside from Smith, his wife, Meyer and athletic director Gene Smith. Perhaps there are others, but those are the main players. In the end, however, the topic of domestic violence is so severe and there is enough there to assume that Meyer knew who he was employing in Smith to send a message.

The message? You probably never should have hired this guy and certainly should have fired him long before you did.

According to long-time college football reporter Brett McMurphy, he obtained text messages and pictures of Courtney Smith, who said she had talks with Meyer’s wife, Shelley, in 2015 about the abuse she had suffered and that “every single one” of the Ohio State coaches’ wives knew about Zach Smith’s actions. And if Shelley knew, you know Urban knew. That has to be assumed.

So if Urban knew, why shouldn’t he be fired for keeping Smith on staff and lying at Big Ten Media Day about not knowing about the 2015 incident when he later admitted he did? This, after an incident in 2009 at Florida where Meyer knew Smith was an accused abuser. After all, Meyer is his boss, right? He could have fired Smith or at the very least insisted that Smith be dismissed after reporting the incidents to his superiors. Heck, he could have avoided hiring this guy in 2012 when he got the Ohio State job because of the 2009 incident.

This is where things get cloudy. Was it Meyer’s job to fire Smith or was it just his job to report it to his superiors as he said he did? Was it Meyer’s job to avoid hiring Smith when no charges were filed in 2009 and it was essentially a “he said, she said” incident?

This is why I don’t think Meyer should have been fired. But Ohio State could have sent a serious message to Meyer and other coaches around the country stating this – if you knowingly hire coaches accused of beating and stalking women more than once, you’re going to pay the price.

Smith should have been fired, that much is clear. Meyer should be held accountable for covering for his wideouts coach as well.

This reminds me a bit of the Penn State situation when Joe Paterno was fired in disgrace for allegedly covering up child sex abuse of his long-time coach Jerry Sandusky. Paterno claimed he told his superiors but in serious situations such as domestic and child abuse, simply reporting incidents isn’t enough. As a leader or men, as the head coach and most powerful man at a massive college football institution, you must do more than that. Paterno should have done more and paid the price dearly. Meyer should have done more and should pay a bigger price than his current suspension.

The only way to make sure this doesn’t happen again is to be hard on those who do it so a year-long suspension for Meyer would keep this topic alive for another year. Perhaps it'd make other coaches, with much less clout, come forward and get rid of guys like Smith rather than protect them.

I’ve always been a big fan of Urban Meyer and his coaching and recruiting ability. But I’m certainly not a fan of how he handled this situation. Should he have been fired? No. Is he getting let off the hook too easily? Absolutely.