Urban Meyer: Buckeyes ‘over-the-top irate’ about allegations Ohio State hid racial incident

“My first reaction was like everyone around here: Irate,” Meyer said on the weekly Big Ten coaches teleconference. “Our players were over-the-top irate. They came to see me I mean extremely upset that kind of accusation would be made about something that is absolutely not tolerated and quite honestly the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard in being involved in college athletics.”

In a story published Tuesday morning by Stadium.com, the father of former Ohio State receiver Trevon Grimes accused then-assistant coach Zach Smith of calling his son the N-word during an altercation at practice in 2017.

Smith was fired in August after being served with a domestic violence protection order against his ex-wife, and Trevon Grimes transferred to Florida in January.

The NCAA granted the Florida native Grimes a waiver to play right away because he said his transfer was motivated by a desire to be closer to his mother, Leah, who was diagnosed with cancer.

The Stadium story implied that story was a cover for the real reason Grimes wanted out at Florida, questioning his mother’s health status in the process.

“How that became a story, I think they’re trying to say we made up a story about cancer or something — once again, I’ve never heard anything like this before in my life so we’ve got a big game this week and we’ll move on, but certainly looking into legal action,” Meyer said. "I just don’t know how that’s allowed to… I don’t know. I don’t understand the rules and the laws of the land and say that you can just accuse people of something that did not happen.”