Reporter Dan Aulbach talks about the firing of OU coach Brian Smith
Reporter Dan Aulbach gives details on the firing of Ohio University football coach Brian Smith.
(Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information).
Ohio University fired head football coach Brian Smith after he admitted to having an extramarital affair with an undergraduate student, records obtained by The Dispatch show.
The university terminated Smith’s contract on Dec. 17 for cause. Smith had been placed on leave Dec. 1, and has vowed to fight his termination after just one season leading the Bobcats.
In a letter dated Dec. 12 to Smith from OU President Lori Stewart Gonzalez, Smith is accused of carrying on the relationship with the student on campus at the Ohio University Inn. In the letter, the university president also wrote that Smith participated in a public appearance where he smelled strongly of alcohol and appeared intoxicated.
Before Dec. 18, the university had not released specifics around Smith’s firing, accusing the coach of “engaging in serious professional misconduct and participating in activities that reflect unfavorably on the university.”
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.”
In a response to the president’s letter, Elliott wrote Dec. 16 that Smith and his now-ex-wife had already separated and divorce proceedings were underway by the time the coach was in a relationship with an OU student. Smith dated the student for four months and didn’t know she was a student when he met her at an establishment in Athens, according to his attorney’s letter.
Elliott’s response letter said Smith was living at the Ohio University Inn while searching for a place to live because of his divorce.
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.
Elliot also wrote that 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.”
Smith was also never inebriated at an OU event, his attorney wrote.
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.
“It is clear that OU is motivated to go after Coach Smith — without even getting his side of the true facts,” Elliott wrote. “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’s base salary was $615,000 with $135,000 in supplemental income and a twice-a-year bonus of $50,000 for every year he would be employed, according to his contract. If Smith had been fired without cause, his contract would have required Ohio University to pay his salary through 2029.
Smith was reprimanded weeks before his firing for violating its alcohol policy, records show.
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.
Smith led Ohio to an 8-4 record in the 2025 season before he was placed on leave Dec. 1. Before becoming head coach, Smith had served as an offensive coordinator for the team since 2022.
Ohio has named defensive coordinator John Hauser as the interim head coach, and he will lead the Bobcats in their upcoming bowl game against the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) in the 2025 Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl. The game is scheduled for 9 p.m. Dec. 23 at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, and will air on ESPN.
Dispatch investigative reporter Max Filby can be reached by email at mfilby@dispatch.com. Find him on X at the handle @MaxFilby or on Facebook at @ReporterMaxFilby.
