Texas football coach Tom Herman said Thursday that he’s willing to talk to the NCAA about a 2014 visit to a Florida strip club with Zach Smith when both were Ohio State assistants.
Ohio State this week identified Herman as the assistant with Smith at the club, a visit that was revealed in a school investigation into how Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer handled domestic abuse allegations against Smith.
Texas head coach Tom Herman was the assistant coach who accompanied former Buckeyes assistant Zach Smith to a strip club while on a recruiting trip, Ohio State told ESPN. https://t.co/O4K7nDl5nq
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 29, 2018
Ohio State has said Smith ran up a “significant bill” of nearly $600 of his own money at the Miami-area club in May 2014. Herman was the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator at the time. Ohio State could face an NCAA inquiry if the Buckeyes’ assistants paid for high school coaches who were present.
“I understand the responsibility that comes with being the head coach at the University of Texas. I take that responsibility very, very seriously. Right now, that responsibility includes me being laser-like-focused on preparing our team to win a game in less than 48 hours.”
Going to a strip club is not a crime, nor, in this case, a NCAA violation. This is not a Tom Herman or Texas story. It's still all about Zach Smith, Urban Meyer, and Ohio State. https://t.co/hahGsqH7rC
— Michael Eaves (@michaeleaves) August 29, 2018
The No. 23 Longhorns open the season Saturday against Maryland in Washington. This might just be a reach. Hopefully he can focus on his program rather than his past.
Ohio state be like pic.twitter.com/0UFZmCVBRv
— William Thomas Tatum (@William_T_Tatum) August 29, 2018
