Apologies, reflections: OSU's Meyer meets with media for first time since season began

It was unlike any other football press conference Urban Meyer has conducted in his six-plus years as Ohio State's head coach, a far-reaching question and answer session Monday filled with apologies, self-reflections and hardly any football talk.

That was to be expected, given that Meyer spent all of training camp on administrative leave and is just now coming off his three-game suspension for mismanaging former troubled assistant Zach Smith.

Speaking with reporters as OSU's active head coach for the first time since Big Ten Media Days on July 25, Meyer spent most of his 55 minutes at the podium either sounding contrite or trying to clear up misperceptions about his suspension.

Defiance, which described his mood at the press conference detailing the findings of a school investigation, resulting in his suspension, was not evident Monday.

Meyer emphasized several times that the reason he was reduced to TV spectator through OSU's 3-0 start was because of the way he mishandled Smith and not because he turned his back on domestic violence.

Smith has been accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, Courtney, but has never been charged by authorities.

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Perhaps in an attempt to diffuse a media circus Monday, during an interview in his home with ESPN's Tom Rinaldi that aired in two parts Sunday and Monday, Meyer admitted he made a "bad decision" in hiring Smith in 2012. Meyer also released a statement on his personal Twitter account Monday in which he stated "What I've learned will make me a better leader."

The tone and direction of his press conference followed both sentiments.

He said off the top how proud he was of his staff and players for the way they handled business for the last several weeks, but if you wanted any insight into Saturday's home game with 34-point underdog Tulane — other than Nick Bosa won't play as he gets more tests on his abdominal/groin injury — you were in the wrong place.

And if you thought he was going to look into the cameras and apologize to Courtney Smith for enabling an abuser, as she claims, you weren't going to hear that either.

It's up to you to decide if it's time to turn the page on this Meyer-Smith saga or if irreparable damage has been done to Meyer's credibility and, in terms of collateral damage, to Ohio State.

Many had probably already taken a stand before this new ESPN interview and his comments of Monday, which, among other things, touched on these topics:

• On misleading reporters when asked about Zach Smith's troubled past at Big Ten Media Days: "(My) focus ... was on (a report he heard about the night before of) a felony arrest that never took place. And so once again, for those of you — I see some of you here that asked those questions — I apologize.

"I gotta do a better job of listening. It was very uncomfortable ... obviously (I was) there to talk about football, players and teams. But that situation, when I got started getting peppered about questions about what I perceive to be a felony assault arrest, that's the reason I answered the way I did."

• On watching the first three games on TV: "I think even as hard as that is not being able to be there at training camp. That's when you build your team and that's why I stay in a hotel with them. It's very difficult.

"I watched it at home. Some support would come over to my house, friends, very close friends. And (the TCU game) in particular, I only watched the good plays. I couldn't take it. I only watched the good ones. My daughter kept me updated and I would seriously ... sounds silly, but I would leave the room. The way that game started, it looked like ... that team is very good. I only watched the good plays. And there were some really good plays."

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• On claims his credibility has been shattered: "It's tough to take. I've spent 30-plus years in coaching. Never been perfect. Tried extremely hard. My love of players, my love of development of players, my love of team, my love of the university has never been challenged.

"I did not lie to the media. I did not do a very good job. Now everybody has a decision to make and a choice to make. I was very clear about why I was doing, why I said what I said. And I apologize for that. If that destroys a guy's credibility, then I apologize for that."

• On a report that he deleted text messages from 2015, when some domestic abuse allegations took place: "(The investigation) found my settings to be on one year, which I wasn't quite sure what that meant. And I found out later, after I went back to work, that the IT people changed my phone to one year months earlier than that.

"There was never a deleted message. And I think the report even said that. I can't recall exactly what it said. But I did not delete text messages, never changed a setting in my phone."

• On whether mentor and former OSU coach Earle Bruce, Zach Smith's grandfather, influenced the way he managed Smith: Not about domestic violence, no. No. I think the fact that Earle was such a close mentor of mine ... I wanted to try, once I knew domestic violence was not part of the equation, how best to help (the Smiths') two young kids.

"Fire Zach Smith? Can he support that family? And what happens next? And I knew they were work-related. I thought all the work-related stuff was about this tumultuous time in his life. I wanted to help Courtney. I wanted to help the children. How do I do that?

"And I talked to several people: How do I do this? And we had very good success, like I said, over the years. Tried to put him in intense counseling so he could stabilize that family and be a good father, support the family the way he should."

• On whether he believes Courtney Smith was a victim of domestic abuse: "I can only rely on what information I received from the experts."

• On text messages Courtney Smith shared with Meyer's wife, Shelley, about her allegedly abusive relationship with Zach Smith: "(My wife) never shared the text messages with me."

• On damage to the football program: "To say there's not damage, there was. I'm hoping that the clarity of the damage is that why I was suspended and what the report came back, and that I was not lying to the media. I was not lying to people ... (we didn't turn) our back to domestic violence.

"And I'm going to do the best I can. If we can remove those two, which is the truth, the damage, I believe, is that we just went through a really hard time and I made a mistake in helping a troubled employee, went too far trying to help someone that had some work-related issues."

• On how his team, led by acting head coach Ryan Day, went 3-0 in his absence: "I knew Coach Day was a difference-maker when we hired him. I followed his career. He was with me in Florida. His professionalism and what he's done has been phenomenal and the rest of our staff, with coach (Greg) Schiano, Kevin Wilson, the other coaches, have been tremendous.

"But most important I want to thank our players. (The 40-28 win over TCU) was very hard to watch because it was such an intense game, but it seemed as the game got tougher, our players got better. And that's because of good people, brotherhood and most importantly a very good team."