COLUMBUS – Ohio State and head football coach Urban Meyer again find themselves responding to allegations by an online reporter that the coach covered up actions by fired assistant Zach Smith.
This time, Brett McMurphy, the same reporter who broke the story last summer that Smith had committed domestic abuse, wrote on the online sports site Stadium that Smith used a racial slur against a former player.
In an interview with WBNS 10-TV, Meyer called the report “preposterous.”
OSU athletics director Gene Smith issued a statement calling the report “unequivocally false.”
The accusations made today by Brett McMurphy regarding our coach and the reasons for the transfer of Trevon Grimes are unequivocally false. Urban Meyer embraces diversity and would absolutely never support an environment of racism. It simply isn’t tolerated here. And as an African-American, football player and collegiate administrator, I personally can say that our coaches, student-athletes and support staff know there is no place for any such behavior within our programs, at The Ohio State University or anywhere. -Statement from Ohio State Director of Athletics Gene Smith (Nov. 13)
According to the television station report, the mother of the player — Trevon Grimes — says Trevon’s father, the source of McMurphy’s story, is not involved in Trevon’s life.
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The story claims that Grimes’s father claims that his son transferred from Ohio State last year because Smith called him the “n” word during an argument at a practice.
McMurphy’s story about Smith’s alleged domestic abuse and whether Meyer knew of it and covered it up resulted in Meyer’s three-game suspension at the beginning of the football season.