Brian Kelly Explains Why He Shoved One Of His Assistants

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly owes a debt to the Miami Hurricanes and the officiating crew that allowed their insane kick-off return to stand, because I have a feeling the incident above would have gotten a lot more attention this weekend if there hadn’t been something else for college football fans to freak out about.

That’s Kelly getting physical with his assistant strength coach, David Grimes, during the Fighting Irish’s game against Temple. After the game, Kelly explained that he was trying to prevent Grimes from getting a penalty for arguing with the official (via CBS Sports):

“David was gonna get us a 15-yard penalty, and so I had to control the sideline,” Kelly explained after the game. “I wasn’t going to let that happen. He got a little too close and I backed him up out of the way to make sure we didn’t get a 15-yard penalty.”

Sure, it’s a good idea for a head coach to step in and prevent one of his assistants from getting a dumb penalty, but grabbing a guy by the shirt and then forcefully driving him backwards is not a good look for a head coach. You don’t have to turn into a little rage-ball to effectively control the sideline, man.