Nov. 03--A few minutes after admonishing his starting quarterback and calling his action of flapping his arms in celebration after scoring a touchdown Saturday "unacceptable," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly expressed some contrition for his own action of shoving assistant strength and conditioning coach David Grimes on the sideline during the game against Temple.
"I wish that situation never occurred," Kelly said Tuesday. "I regret that it happened."
Kelly reiterated that he was trying to control his sideline when he aggressively approached Grimes, who appeared to be barking at an official, and grabbed him by the jacket and pushed him multiple times.
Kelly praised Grimes, a former Notre Dame receiver, called him "a great guy" and "a valuable employee."
He said the two have talked and "moved past it." Kelly also said some changes will be made to how the team will do things on the sideline but didn't expound.
"There were some things going on on the sideline that were unacceptable, and it falls on my shoulders," Kelly said. "If we were to get a penalty in that time of the game, it would have (fallen) on me as being somebody that can't control the sideline."
As for Kizer's arm-flapping? Kizer noted on Twitter it was an ode to the Eagles, of whom he is a fan. But that didn't fly with Kelly, who said that's "not what we're about."
"It won't happen again," Kelly said.
pskrbina@tribpub.com
