Reporter who broke Ohio State story received death threats from fans

College football reporter Brett McMurphy is the one who broke open the story about one of Urban Meyer’s former assistants being accused of domestic violence on multiple occasions, and he says Buckeyes fans have not exactly followed the old adage of “don’t shoot the messenger.”

In an interview with FOX Sports iHeartRadio on Tuesday, McMurphy said he has received death threats from fans and that there have been threats made against his family.

“I’ve seen references to, ‘I’ll make sure he’s hanging from a tree.’ I’ve had people on Facebook message me and basically talk about things they would do to my daughter, who is 14 years old,” McMurphy said, as transcribed by Brad Crawford of Scout.com. “I don’t know what the definition of a threat is, but I’d say I have over 1,500 messages on Facebook and I would say 90 percent of them contain the F-word or ‘go have sex with yourself’ in a variety of manners.'”

McMurphy was the first to discover that former Meyer assistant Zach Smith was accused of domestic violence numerous times by his ex-wife. Meyer initially called the validity of the reporting into question before later admitting that he was aware of the allegations. McMurphy has since uncovered more details about disturbing behavior from Smith during his time working under Meyer.

Ohio State’s board of trustees has been presented with the findings of an independent investigation, and a decision about Meyer’s future with the program is expected to come as early as Wednesday.