RED ZONE

Urban Meyer Asked How to Delete Texts as Damning Ohio State Report Came Out: Investigators

Investigators say Urban Meyer’s first reaction was to hide evidence.

In the minutes after a damning report broke about what Urban Meyer knew about his assistant’s history of domestic violence, the Ohio State head coach asked the university’s head of football operations how he could delete text messages older than one year from his cellphone, investigators reported Wednesday. An Aug. 1 bombshell from reporter Brian McMurphy broke the news of texts exchanged between the ex-wife of assistant coach Zach Smith and Meyer’s wife, Shelley, in which Mrs. Meyer stated she would discuss her claims of abuse with the head coach. According to the report, “Upon seeing this report when it first came out (at about 10:17 a.m.), Brian Voltolini, who was on the practice field with Coach Meyer went to speak with him, commenting that this was ‘a bad article.’ The two discussed at that time whether the media could get access to Coach Meyer’s phone, and specifically discussed how to adjust the settings on Meyer’s phone so that text messages older than one year would be deleted.” Investigators say in the report that no texts older than a year were found on the phone when they got access to it the following day. Late Wednesday, Ohio State suspended Meyer without pay for the first three games of the Buckeyes’ season for not reporting Smith to university authorities.