Former Ohio State assistant coach Zach Smith took to Twitter on Wednesday to break his silence since the completion of the university's investigation, saying in a number of posts that he believes that people in the media, including ESPN, have hurt his children as well as Ohio State football players, staff and fans.
"Silence = over. I tried," Smith said on Twitter. "I can't watch [clowns in the media] continue 2 run their mouths-not only w/o knowledge but w/ complete disregard 4 my children. Their mother had plenty of disregard 4 them in this. Time 4 u all 2 face the damage ur causing."
Smith was fired July 23, after a pattern of past allegations of abuse of his ex-wife, Courtney Smith, came to light in a Facebook post by reporter Brett McMurphy. Also in July, an Ohio judge issued a protection order that forbids Zach Smith from getting within 500 feet of Courtney Smith.
Zach Smith went on to say in subsequent posts Wednesday that he "never beat my wife," that Ohio State "botched" its investigation and that he believed the university forced Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer into making an apology after being given a three-game suspension.
Meyer was suspended on Thursday after a two-week investigation found that he mishandled domestic assault allegations made against Smith and misrepresented what he knew about the situation in a public statement in July.
Meyer was suspended without pay and banned from interacting with the football team through Sept. 2. He can rejoin the team at that point, but he will not be able to coach in games against Oregon State, Rutgers and No. 16 TCU.
Former Ohio State offensive coordinator and current Texas head coach Tom Herman was the other assistant with former Buckeyes wide receivers coach Zach Smith on a 2014 strip club trip that included high school coaches.
Athletic director Gene Smith also was suspended without pay for more than two weeks.
Ohio State placed Meyer on paid administrative leave Aug. 1, shortly after Courtney Smith said in an interview with Stadium that she believed Meyer and others at the football program knew that her ex-husband was abusing her in 2015 and failed to do anything to stop it. She also told college football reporter Brett McMurphy that all the coaches' wives knew about the 2015 allegation.
Meyer initially said he was previously unaware of any domestic issues between the Smiths that occurred during the time that Zach Smith was a coach at Ohio State. He backtracked shortly after being placed on leave, saying instead that he misspoke when first answering questions about Smith and that he followed proper protocol in reporting the incident in 2015.
Smith on Wednesday tweeted that "the truth will come out" about his ex-wife's allegations.
Zach Smith was arrested on suspicion of domestic assault in 2009 while working as a graduate assistant on Meyer's staff at the University of Florida. He was not charged with a crime. Meyer said he was aware of that incident, and he recommended that the Smiths seek counseling at the time.
Smith also was arrested on drunken-driving charges in 2013 and pleaded guilty to lesser charges. He said he didn't tell Meyer about the arrest.
Meyer said he ultimately decided to fire Zach Smith last month when he learned that Smith failed to tell him about a criminal trespassing charge that occurred in May and a restraining order issued by an Ohio judge in July. Both of those incidents are ongoing legal issues.
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