The investigation centered on what Meyer knew and did about allegations of abuse against Zach Smith, who was fired on July 23, 2018.

The Ohio State University released more than 2,000 pages of documents on Friday related to the investigation of former head coach Urban Meyer and his knowledge and handling of abuse allegations against former assistant coach Zach Smith.

The investigation centered on what Meyer knew and did about allegations of abuse against Zach, who was fired July 23, 2018 after his ex-wife Courtney sought a protective order on July 20, 2018.

Meyer came under public scrutiny one day after he fired Zach when he made statements to reporters on July 24, 2018 at the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago.

Meyer said at the time he didn’t have any knowledge of a 2015 domestic incident involving Zach.

But records released late Friday afternoon show Meyer did have some knowledge about Zach Smith’s domestic issues and issues he was dealing with with his ex-wife Courtney.

In a series of text messages between Meyer and Tim Kight, a leadership consultant for OSU, Kight tells Meyer on July 24, 2018 that “media is reporting that at the most recent hearing Zach was charged with ‘criminal trespassing’ (because) he violated a court order to stay proper distance from Courtney (Zach Smith’s ex-wife’s) apt.”

Urban Meyer replies: “Ok. A mess. I will not address the situation again. Win the moment. Focus on team/players.”

There was also a series of texts between Urban Meyer and Zach Smith from January of 2018 that were released. In them, Smith tells Meyer that he is turning down a job at the University of Alabama’s football program.

Meyer writes back: “I have personally invested far too much in u to get u in position to take next step. U need to step away from other situation and let’s go win it all… again.”

Other emails released Friday came from OSU fans and alumni who had both praise and criticism for how Urban Meyer handled the situation.

There were also emails from OSU staffers who expressed concern about being bombarded with public comments from the scandal. And OSU administrators emailed athletics department employees on August 2, 2018 asking them not to delete emails/texts related to the Zach Smith issue.

That email came one day after August 1, 2018 – when investigators hired by OSU determined that Urban Meyer had a conversation with the football operations person about how to adjust the settings on his phone to delete messages older than one year. Investigators later said they could not find text messages on Urban Meyer’s phone older than one year.

There was also an email showing OSU offered Zach Smith counseling as far back as 2015.

After being placed on administrative leave, Meyer corrected his past statements to say that his words failed him but that he did know about it and followed the proper reporting protocols.

The university created a six-person investigative group to look into Meyer and Athletic Director Gene Smith and their knowledge of the accusations.

The group began their investigation on August 5 and concluded August 19.

According to the summary of the investigation released by the university, Meyer nor (Gene) Smith condoned or covered up the alleged abuse by (Zach) Smith but “they failed to take sufficient management action relating to Zach Smith’s misconduct and retained an Assistant Coach who was not performing as an appropriate role model for OSU student-athletes.”

Meyer was suspended for the first three games of the 2018 season. Meyer retired following the team’s victory in the Rose Bowl on January 1.

Gene Smith was suspended without pay from August 31-September 16.