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Urban Meyer asked a question about Courtney Smith at her press conference, where all Ohio State staff did not apologize.
USA TODAY Sports
Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer spoke publicly for the first time after serving a three-game suspension.(Photo: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports)
Ohio State football coach, Urban Meyer, disputes an important finding in his university's investigation saying he did not discuss how to erase text messages on his phone with a staff member early August.
He stated that the messages on his phone were not deleted by him, but that they had been deleted by an information technology staff member whose name was not revealed several months ago.
In an interview with ESPN, he also stated that he did not recall having a conversation with football member Brian Voltolini about changing his phone's settings on Aug. 1. He told Voltolini that there was "nothing to hide".
His version of the events contrasts with the findings of the Ohio State investigation, according to which Meyer "specifically discussed" with Voltolini on August 1 "how to adjust Meyer's phone settings so that messages from more than one year be deleted.
The contents of his phone became Potential evidence that day after a press article was published alleging that Meyer had made inaccurate denials about his knowledge of allegations of domestic violence against one of his assistant coaches as of 2015. The university then investigated how Meyer with a three-game suspension.
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Meyer made his first public comments since his suspension at a press conference Monday and in a recent interview with ESPN.
"My phone started to hang in the spring," Meyer said Monday. "The IT manager was taking my phone, and everything he was doing, he did, to increase storage capacity. And I learned a few months ago, I think in the late spring, it was said that he had changed my setting to one year. So, again, I have never changed the setting on my phone. I have never changed SMS on my phone, and when I heard that, I was content to … with respect to the report of the investigation (Ohio State), I would never do that, I did not do that, I do not even know how to change a setting on my phone.
The Ohio State report revealed that he had discussed changing his phone's settings on Aug. 1, but could not determine if he had changed the settings then or earlier.
It was the same day that college football journalist Brett McMurphy published an article containing SMS of 2015 written by Shelley, Meyer's wife, in which she was discussing Smith's alleged mistreatment with the woman who was accused him: the ex-wife of Smith, Courtney. .
Ohio State investigated what Urban Meyer knew about the allegations and whether he covered Smith. Meyer said he was unaware of his wife's written messages about Zach Smith. University investigators have found no text message on his phone dating back more than a year.
"Although we do not know if messages dating back over a year had appeared on Coach Meyer's phone before August 1, or if Coach Meyer removed messages, we know that he has at least thought and discussed with Brian Voltolini. negative article, "said the Ohio State report. "Often, but not always, such reactions testify to a conscience of guilt."
Meyer challenged this in an interview with ESPN.
"Despite all the respect of the report, there was no awareness of guilt as to what was on my phone," Meyer said. "No."
ESPN reporter Tom Rinaldi also asked Meyer to have this discussion with Voltolini.
"I do not remember the exact conversation," said Meyer.
On Monday, he told reporters that he remembered discussing his phone with Voltolini but said that his phone was not a problem and that there was nothing to hide or hide.
Ohio State has released documents stating that Meyer had an iPhone, which usually has a default setting for keeping text messages "forever". Limiting the retention of messages to the last 30 days or year typically requires manually changing this setting.
Meyer said his phone capacity had become a problem because he had "hundreds of videos of my grandson and other family videos". He said: "It's not uncommon for me to recruit more than 100 players a day and send graphics."
"Many, many people have access to my phone, including computer scientists, including people who help me recruit," Meyer said.
Ohio State did not specify in its report if it used digital analysis tools to try to recover deleted messages. He also did not answer questions about the result. Experts say that these tools often succeed in recovering deleted texts.
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Follow USA TODAY Sports reporter Brent Schrotenboer on Twitter @ Schrotenboer
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