I just finished the 23-page report.
It is my firm belief that a suspension is probably fair. I have a hard time complaining about it. Zach Smith was given far too many chances. I think it's fair to conclude that Urban Meyer made a managerial mistake in not cutting ties sooner.
But the ironic thing is the goosechase that led us down this whole path merits ZERO action against Urban OR Gene Smith.
Fact is, the deputy Title IX coordinator ALREADY KNEW about the 2015 allegation. In fact, she is the one that went to Gene who went to Urban. It's sheer lunacy to say "we know your superior knew, and we know the person both of you should report to knew, but you still should report what they told you about."
Come on. Use some common bleeping sense.
The report concludes that Title IX was not an issue and the policy doesn't apply, but the subject of reporting seems to be a gray area. As we've determined, it's written very confusing in sections. Although the firm concludes they probably should have reported, they also state no violations of law, policy or contract were made by either Smith or Urban. Basically they didn't do anything wrong but should have reported.
It's like flair from office space. If you want 37 pieces of flair, make that the rule.
They basically concluded they felt Urban didn't lie. Texts corroborate he did ask about the 2015 arrest report the night before and came back that there were no arrests. He did get reminded of the 2015 incidents and was advised to not go into detail. So it's possible Urban was addressing the report as it was stated directly and still thinking he was being sensitive to personal issues of Zach's life.
Problem is, they concluded Urban wasn't lying, but still found he was being untruthful. So they also suspended him for not lying but not being truthful with the media. Hogwash.
So my conclusion here is this is baloney. It's not baloney because ironically I believe he deserves a small punishment for making questionable management choices. But the witch hunt that sent us down this road? Undeserving. Both Meyer and Smith did what they should have reasonably done.
This was a PR decision (which didn't even help PR). They crime was fit to the punishment rather than the other way around. They should have just said we're doing this because of bad managerial choices and left it at that.
It is my firm belief that a suspension is probably fair. I have a hard time complaining about it. Zach Smith was given far too many chances. I think it's fair to conclude that Urban Meyer made a managerial mistake in not cutting ties sooner.
But the ironic thing is the goosechase that led us down this whole path merits ZERO action against Urban OR Gene Smith.
Fact is, the deputy Title IX coordinator ALREADY KNEW about the 2015 allegation. In fact, she is the one that went to Gene who went to Urban. It's sheer lunacy to say "we know your superior knew, and we know the person both of you should report to knew, but you still should report what they told you about."
Come on. Use some common bleeping sense.
The report concludes that Title IX was not an issue and the policy doesn't apply, but the subject of reporting seems to be a gray area. As we've determined, it's written very confusing in sections. Although the firm concludes they probably should have reported, they also state no violations of law, policy or contract were made by either Smith or Urban. Basically they didn't do anything wrong but should have reported.
It's like flair from office space. If you want 37 pieces of flair, make that the rule.
They basically concluded they felt Urban didn't lie. Texts corroborate he did ask about the 2015 arrest report the night before and came back that there were no arrests. He did get reminded of the 2015 incidents and was advised to not go into detail. So it's possible Urban was addressing the report as it was stated directly and still thinking he was being sensitive to personal issues of Zach's life.
Problem is, they concluded Urban wasn't lying, but still found he was being untruthful. So they also suspended him for not lying but not being truthful with the media. Hogwash.
So my conclusion here is this is baloney. It's not baloney because ironically I believe he deserves a small punishment for making questionable management choices. But the witch hunt that sent us down this road? Undeserving. Both Meyer and Smith did what they should have reasonably done.
This was a PR decision (which didn't even help PR). They crime was fit to the punishment rather than the other way around. They should have just said we're doing this because of bad managerial choices and left it at that.
