There is something about the whole Zach Smith (and now Urban Meyer) fiasco that has stuck in my craw since almost the beginning. Ramzy, in the opening days of the firing and subsequent press conference, basically said that problems with Zach Smith were an open secret.

For me, this was confirmed by a personal contact. I know someone who is somewhat of an insider. He is an OSU grad who played football elsewhere and is from Ohio. My contact is still around the team, around current players on the team and around former players. My contact shared his opinion that Zach Smith was a jerk and not pleasant to be around. And this wasn't a second hand opinion:  he has had personal interactions with Zach Smith.

If Ramzy, and my contact, saw this, I can't help but wondering how many other people saw this. In particular, I don't get why beat writers for the Columbus Dispatch, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, along with Eleven Warriors and the Ozone and Bucknuts, didn't ask more questions about Zach Smith years ago. Between public record searches, and personal interactions with Zach Smith, couldn't they have raised issues when Smith was hired, and in 2013 and 2014 and 2015.

My point is that if local journalists had just done their job, it would have been much better for Meyer and Gene Smith and the reputation of TOSU. I'll leave McMurphy out of this. I get that he is persona non grata for OSU and Meyer. But is Meyer so intimidating that no one was willing to write hard hitting articles? There was plenty of information out there that they could have written about years ago. Wouldn't it have been much better all around if Z. Smith was fired in 2015?

I'm fed up with all of it, and I'm not taking the part of national journalist hacks who want to crucify Urban Meyer. But it all could have been avoided, if only G Smith had acted, if only Urban Meyer had acted, if only local journalists had done their job. Smh.

One bit of gloating: I predicted a 3 game suspension, and when Knarsi (sp) asked "why?" I said because they're out for blood. Which is exactly what happened. Whether or not G. Smith and U. Meyer really fell on their swords, it had to be obvious to every one on the BOT, along with Smith and Meyer, that complete exoneration with no sanction wasn't going to cut it.