Get Up! co-host Michelle Beadle was candid about her feelings about Ohio State University football coach Urban Meyer's response to the investigation into his former assistant coach, Zach Smith, on the ESPN morning show Thursday.
"This thing went on all day yesterday. You had 11 hours," she said. "When things don't happen in the first hour or two, you gotta start to think to yourself, 'This might not go the way I thought. Let me start to think about how I'm going to handle it.'"
Meyer could have had a different response when he gave his statement. "You couldn't at least get up there and pretend to be a little bit sorry?" she asked. "You couldn't say, 'Look, this is an awful situation. It could've been handled a million times better. Courtney Smith, I am sorry that you got dragged through …' You couldn't even muster that, which tells me everything I need to know, that you have zero culpability in this and you don't think anything wrong happened, which is why I think the entire thing is a farce."
.@MichelleDBeadle didn't hold back on Urban Meyer. pic.twitter.com/UeDxswtLRy
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) August 23, 2018
Zach Smith's ex-wife, Courtney, claimed Meyer "knew of Courtney Smith's domestic violence complaints against Zach Smith through his knowledge of the 2015 to 2016 law enforcement investigation," according to the OSU Summary of Findings. She reportedly texted Meyer's wife about the violence.
Meyer gave a statement at a press conference following his three-game suspension Wednesday. Beadle referred to the fact he apologized to Buckeye Nation, but not Courtney Smith.
"I want to apologize to Buckeye Nation," Meyer said. "I followed my heart, not my head. I fell short in pursuing full information because at each juncture, I gave Zach Smith the benefit of the doubt. As I reflect, my loyalty to his grandfather, Earl Bruce, who is my mentor and like a father to me, likely impacted how I treated Zach over the years. I did not know everything about Zach Smith, which was what Zach Smith was doing, and I'm pleased that the report made this very clear."
"I should have done more and I am sorry for that," he continued in his statement. "The suspensions are tough, but I fully accept them. I wish I could go back and made different decisions, but I can't."
Meyer didn't use Courtney Smith's name or refer to her directly when asked what message he had for her during the press conference. "I have a message for everyone involved in this," he said. "I'm sorry we're in this situation."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
