Did Urban Meyer remove text messages from his phone? What he said

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The most problematic part of Ohio State's 23-page report announcing the findings of its independent investigation of football head coach Urban Meyer concerned Meyer's phone.

And what was not there.

The investigators concluded that Meyer's reaction to the announcement of a negative report regarding his knowledge of the allegations of spousal abuse against former assistant Zach Smith on August 1 was aimed at finding a way to delete old text messages from your phone. According to the report, Meyer discussed changing the settings on his phone to remove messages dating back more than a year with the director of football operations, Brian Voltolini.

Meyer denied this Monday.

"I never deleted a text message, and I never changed a setting on my phone," Meyer said at the press conference.

Meyer tackled many topics on Monday regarding his suspension, why he managed things as he did and what impact that might have on the program. We make every effort to digest all information more easily. Here we are talking about the deleted text message report.

* Did Urban Meyer damage the Ohio State football program and recruit?

* Did Meyer's relationship with Ohio State change?

When the investigators received Meyer's phone on Aug. 2, there was no message dating more than a year and the setting to delete them had been activated. Although the report indicates that the investigators could not determine when the setting was changed.

Of all the things reported in these 23 pages, the one that Meyer seemed to deny the strongest. The bulk of his message was aimed at fighting any idea that he was tolerating domestic violence, and the report concluded that neither Meyer nor athletic director Gene Smith had done so.

But Meyer also mentioned, spontaneously in his opening statement, the part concerning the deleted texts.

"Many people have access to my phone, including computer scientists, including people who help me recruit," Meyer said. "It's not uncommon for me to recruit more than a hundred players a day and receive videos.I have hundreds of videos of my grandson and others." videos of my family.

"And what's going on is that my phone has started to hang all spring," he said, "it changed my setting to a year. I've never changed the setting on my phone I've never changed the text message on my phone And when I heard that – I respect the report a lot – would never do that, and I I did not do that. "

The Associated Press interviewed archival experts who said that Meyer, or anyone else on his staff, was suppressing the messages on his business phone, which would violate Ohio's open case law.

Meyer said that he did not recall having a conversation with Voltolini about the specific deletion of messages from his phone.

"If I remember correctly, there is an article about the press that has access to your phone," he said. "I said," I do not worry about my phone. There is nothing to hide on my phone. "And that was it."