Ohio State Coach Who Accused Lavar Ball of Copyright Infringement Has Now Been Accused of Domestic Violence

Zach Smith, the Ohio State wide receiver coach and recruiting coordinator, was briefly in the news last year when he tried to claim that LaVar Ball copied him, and the Lonzo Ball ZO2 shoe logo was stolen from something called “Zone 6” at Ohio State.

He’s now in the news again because of a legal action taken by his ex-wife in Ohio. According to Brett McMurphy, Courtney Smith filed a domestic violence civil protection order to keep Zach Smith more than 500 feet away from her, and he was also charged with criminal trespass last week when he went to her house rather than meet at a public place, in violation of an earlier criminal trespass warning. The two were divorced in 2015.

McMurphy’s reporting also reveals the past history that goes back to Smith’s days as a graduate assistant at Florida under Urban Meyer, where a police report was taken in 2009 for a domestic violence incident involving the Smiths. That included allegations that Zach Smith “picked her up by grabbing her T-shirt and threw her against the bedroom wall located upstairs in their apartment.” Courtney Smith did not press charges at that time.

Smith was in quality control and a graduate assistant under Urban Meyer from 2005 to 2009, and has been on Meyer’s staff at Ohio State as the wide receivers coach since arriving in 2012. He added the recruiting coordinator duties in 2015.

On Wednesday, Zach Smith, 34, also was charged with a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing, according to an arrest report from Delaware Municipal Court. The criminal trespassing charge was for dropping their son off at his ex-wife’s house – and not at a pre-arranged public place – which was a violation of an earlier criminal trespass warning. That warning was provided to him on Dec. 19, 2017, according to the criminal complaint.