Ohio State suspends Urban Meyer for 3 games

Ohio State announced Wednesday that head coach Urban Meyer will be suspended without pay for the team's first three games of the 2018 season following an investigation into his handling of domestic violence claims involving now-former assistant coach Zach Smith.

Athletic director Gene Smith will also be suspended from Aug. 31 to Sept. 16.

"Although neither Urban Meyer nor Gene Smith condoned or covered up the alleged domestic abuse by Zach Smith, 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," the school said in a statement outlining the investigation's findings, per The Athletic.

Meyer will be away from the Ohio State sideline for games against Oregon State, Rutgers, and TCU. He'll return for the Sept. 22 contest against Tulane.

Ohio State later clarified that Meyer will be fully suspended through Sept. 2 - one day after the contest against Oregon State. He'll then be able to coach the Buckeyes prior to the latter two contests, but won't be present for the games themselves, according to Dan Hope of elevenwarriors.com.

Meanwhile, Meyer said he "should've done more" in a statement following the announcement of his ban, adding that he gave Smith "the benefit of the doubt."

"I followed my heart and not my head," he added.

The investigation also determined that while Meyer "made significant misstatements" at Big Ten media day when he denied knowledge of a 2015 incident involving Smith, he wasn't "part of a deliberate cover-up" to keep the former wide receivers coach on Ohio State's staff.