Brian Smith, on leave as Ohio University's head football coach since Dec. 1, was fired for cause Wednesday after he admitted to having an extramarital affair with an undergraduate student.
As reported by The Columbus Dispatch, the university had not released specifics about Smith's firing prior to Thursday. It had only accused the coach of "engaging in serious professional misconduct and participating in activities that reflect unfavorably on the university."
Smith, who led the Bobcats to an 8-4 record in his first season and a birth in the 2025 Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl against the University of Nevada Las Vegas, vowed to fight his termination, Max Filby of The Dispatch reported.
In addition to the accusation that Smith engaged in the relationship on campus at the Ohio University Inn, where he was staying pending his divorce, Ohio University president Lori Stewart Conzalez wrote in a letter dated Dec. 12 that Smith participated in a public appearance where he smelled strongly of alcohol and appeared intoxicated.
Rex Elliott, a Columbus-based attorney representing Smith, defended his client in a prepared statement saying the former coach was "shocked and dismayed by this turn of events" and that he was "an ethical man who has done an exemplary job for the university," Filby reported.
In a response to the president's letter, Elliott wrote Dec. 16 that Smith dated the student for four months and didn't know she was a student when he met her at an establishment in Athens. The student was not a member of the athletic department and the coach ended the relationship in early November, the letter stated. Elliott wrote that the relationship was between consenting adults and that Ohio University has no policy prohibiting an employee from dating a student. Such relationships have occurred in the past between OU workers and students and they have not resulted in any previous employee being terminated "for cause," according to Elliott.
Smith was also never inebriated at an OU event, his attorney wrote, as reported by Filby.
While Smith was previously reprimanded for drinking bourbon after a victory with assistant coaches in his office, Elliot wrote that there are numerous other incidents of faculty and staff drinking on campus and in their offices. He cited one example where a professor offered Smith and an associate athletic director a glass of bourbon in his office, Filby reported.
"It is clear that OU is motivated to go after Coach Smith — without even getting his side of the true facts," Elliott wrote, as reported by The Dispatch. "There is zero basis for a 'for cause' termination and Coach Smith intends to vigorously pursue litigation should OU continue down this reckless path."
Smith was reprimanded weeks before his firing for violating its alcohol policy, records show. Per Filby's reporting, Smith told athletic director Slade Larscheid and Suzanne Durst, OU director of employee experience, that he stored alcohol in his office desk drawer and that assistant coaches would occasionally join him for a single drink of bourbon in his office after games, according to a Nov. 24 letter from his personnel file. All of the assistants were over the age of 21, and Smith told administrators that the alcohol never impacted his job performance.
Defensive coordinator John Hauser will lead the Bobcats as interim head coach in their bowl game Dec. 23 in Frisco, Texas.
