Urban Meyer, the highly successful head coach of the Ohio State football team, has been suspended without pay for three games after a university investigation found fault with the way he handled the case of Zach Smith, an assistant coach who was accused of domestic violence.

[RELATED: Ohio State Gives Urban Meyer a 3-Game Suspension]

The investigation’s findings, made public late Wednesday night, detail Smith’s behavior and the university leadership’s knowledge and reaction to that behavior. Here are the highlights:

Meyer talked to a staff member about deleting text messages to keep them away from the news media.

On Aug. 1, the independent journalist Brett McMurphy published an article detailing Meyer’s knowledge of a 2015 domestic violence allegation against Zach Smith.

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.

When the school newspaper asked for emails and text messages from Meyer’s phone, the university failed to respond.

The lack of clarity surrounding this issue is compounded by the failure of O.S.U. personnel to respond promptly to two July 25, 2018, records requests from the school paper, The Lantern, for emails and text messages, as well as any call history, between Urban Meyer and Zach Smith from July 18, 2018, through July 24, 2018, and between Oct. 25, 2015, and Dec. 1, 2015, and the same communications between A.D. Gene Smith and Coach Meyer for the same dates for any materials “pertaining to Zach Smith.” On July 25, 2018, these requests were forwarded to Julie Vannatta, Senior Associate General Counsel, who, on July 25, emailed A.D. Smith, and Diana Sabau, Senior Associate Athletics Director, and instructed them to retrieve responsive emails and texts from Coach Meyer’s phone. On July 26, Vannatta asked Amy Nicol, Director, Internal Operations for Football, and Brian Voltolini to “go get [Coach Meyer’s] phone and check his texts with Zach.” Although all of these individuals were aware of the requests — and indeed both A.D. Smith and Sabau responded that they had no documents on their end — no one appears to have actually checked Coach Meyer’s phone or even approached him about the requests.

Meyer has ‘significant memory issues.’

At the Big Ten media days last month, Meyer told reporters he had only heard about the 2015 incident the day before, when in fact he had learned of it at the time and several officials had discussed with him the day before how to field questions regarding it.

We accept that in July 2018 Coach Meyer was deeply absorbed in football season and wanted to focus on football at Big Ten Media Days. The firing of Zach Smith the day before — the first time Coach Meyer had fired a coach — was also on his mind, as was the erroneous media report of a felony arrest of Zach Smith in 2015. We also learned during the investigation that Coach Meyer has sometimes had significant memory issues in other situations where he had prior extensive knowledge of events. He has also periodically taken medicine that can negatively impair his memory, concentration, and focus. All of these factors also need to be considered and weighed in assessing Coach Meyer’s mind-set on July 24.

Because there was no arrest in the 2015 domestic violence investigation, Meyer and Athletic Director Gene Smith didn’t feel they needed to address it.

Because they believed Zach Smith’s denials and because there was no charge or arrest in connection with the 2015-2016 events, neither Coach Meyer nor A.D. Smith believed that there had been a violation or a potential violation of the law and therefore neither had reporting obligations regarding what they knew about the law enforcement investigation of Zach Smith. In addition, Coach Meyer, because he was first informed of the 2015-2016 investigation by A.D. Smith, believed that he had no further reporting obligations. In assessing their reporting obligations, both Coach Meyer and A.D. Smith placed heavy reliance on the absence of formal law enforcement or court action. Neither made any report of the matter to Athletic Compliance or University Compliance for consideration of whether an internal investigation should be conducted.

In 2009, Meyer didn’t believe Courtney Smith’s allegations of domestic abuse.

We find it more likely that only Zach Smith met with Coach Meyer in 2009, and that Courtney Smith likely did not recant her allegations of abuse at that time to Urban or Shelley Meyer, although it is clear that Courtney Smith decided not to pursue charges and that none were ever filed. Coach Meyer and Shelley Meyer took away from the 2009 events that Courtney Smith was not being entirely truthful when she called 911 to have Zach arrested.

Meyer added a ‘morality clause' to the coaching manual after Zach Smith spent $600 at a strip club on a recruiting trip.

In May 2014, in connection with an out-of-town recruiting trip to Florida, Zach Smith ran up a significant bill at a local strip club along with another O.S.U. football coach and one or more high school coaches. Coach Meyer became aware of this incident, although he maintains not the amount of the expenditure, and reprimanded Zach Smith, warning him that if it happened again, he would be fired; Coach Meyer also revised the 2014 Coaches’ Manual to include a “morality clause” instructing staff to “[a]void strip clubs or venues that would embarrass The Ohio State University” and prohibiting “pornography . . . on any university issued computer, phone, IPad, etc.” Coach Meyer did not, however, report this incident to Athletic Compliance.

Meyer held on to Smith despite a pattern of bad behavior.

We identified a pattern of troubling behavior by Zach Smith: promiscuous and embarrassing sexual behavior, drug abuse, truancy, dishonesty, financial irresponsibility, a possible N.C.A.A. violation, and a lengthy police investigation into allegations of criminal domestic violence and cybercrimes.

Smith had a sexual relationship with a secretary on the football staff.

During and after his divorce proceedings in 2015 and early 2016, Zach Smith’s job performance suffered, and he was regularly late to practice and workouts; on other occasions, Zach Smith failed to appear at scheduled recruiting visits at various high schools, despite reporting internally that he had. During this same period, as recent news reports have noted and other information shows, Zach Smith was: (1) engaged in a sexual relationship with a secretary on the football staff who did not report to him; (ii) took sexually explicit photographs of himself in the O.S.U. football facilities and at other locations, including at the White House on a team visit in April 2015 after winning the 2014 National Championship; and (iii) had sex-related toys delivered to him at the O.S.U. athletics facilities.

Meyer’s relationship with Zach Smith’s grandfather Earle Bruce clouded his judgment.

Meyer’s cherished relationship with Earle Bruce may also have diminished his ability to clearly process and assess the severity of Zach’s problems or to appropriately discipline him, despite numerous red flags raised by Zach’s behavior over the years.

Meyer finally fired Zach Smith for violating the ‘core value of honesty.’