COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Urban Meyer acknowledged Monday that his actions when handling former assistant Zach Smith damaged the reputations of the Ohio State football program and university.
Meyer held his first news conference since Ohio State announced his three-game suspension in late August for failing to uphold the standards of the university.
"I think there was [damage]," Meyer said. "I've already had conversations with our recruits and the families of our players. We sent out several letters to the families. But to say there wasn't damage, there was. I'm hoping that the clarity of the damage is in why I was suspended when the report came back. I was not lying to the media, I was not lying to people. [I did not] turn my back on domestic violence."
Meyer underscored several times that he believes his suspension and his ensuing apologies were not because he knowingly ignored domestic violence issues.
"Did I turn my back to domestic violence? Not one bit," Meyer said. "I erred in going too far to try to help a guy with work-related issues."
Meyer said he learned during the past month that he needs to ask more questions in situations of domestic violence. Meyer said he relied too much on information from police in 2015 when Smith was accused of felony abuse by his ex-wife, Courtney, and no charges were filed. He characterized that situation Monday as "a messy divorce with child custody issues." He said he needed to ask more questions, but he did not speak directly to Courtney Smith because he was advised not to contact her during an ongoing investigation.
When asked minutes later if he believes that Courtney Smith was ever the victim of domestic violence, he said: "I can only rely on the information I receive from experts."
Meyer ignored a series of red flags, including multiple domestic abuse accusations, about Smith while keeping him on the coaching staff for six years in Columbus. The university said when deciding to suspend Meyer, it also factored in his response to questions about the 2015 incident when asked about it at Big Ten media days this July. Meyer initially said he knew nothing about the incident, but reversed course more than a week later.
Meyer apologized Monday for misrepresenting what he knew about the 2015 allegations, but maintained that he didn't intentionally lie when answering questions about Zach Smith at Big Ten media days. Ohio State's investigation determined what Meyer said in those interviews was "plainly not accurate" but that he did not "deliberately lie." They attributed the false statements, in part, to memory issues Meyer deals with because of medication he takes.
Meyer said Monday that he's healthy, and that he has no memory issues that affect his ability to coach football.
He praised the thorough nature of the investigation, conducted by Mary Jo White (who previously has directed several high-profile inquiries for the NFL) and a six-person panel appointed by the university. He did, however, refute one part of the investigation that detailed how Meyer reacted when details about Courtney Smith's allegation came to light in a report from Stadium.
According to the Ohio State investigation report, Meyer and associate athletic director Brian Voltolini met Aug. 1 -- the day Meyer was placed on administrative leave in the wake of the Stadium article -- and discussed how to delete text messages on his phone. They reportedly "specifically discussed how to adjust the settings on Meyer's phone so that text messages older than one year would be deleted."
Meyer said Monday that Voltolini approached him on Aug. 1 and asked about text messages. Meyer said he told Voltolini that there was no reason to worry about what was on his phone and that was the end of the discussion.
"I have never deleted a text message," he said. "I have never changed a setting on my phone."
Investigators said Meyer's messages only dated back for one year when they had a chance to examine his phone, but they were unable to determine exactly when he changed the settings to get rid of older messages. Meyer said the settings were changed by an IT staffer several months earlier because his phone was running out of memory.
No. 4 Ohio State won its first three games of the season without Meyer on the sideline. He was not allowed to be around the team at all from Aug. 1 through Sept. 3 except for one meeting the day after the length of his suspension was announced. For the past two weeks, he has been able to coach during the week but not attend games.
Meyer will return to the sideline for Saturday's home game against Tulane.