Kirby Smart was criticized on Saturday after he shoved an opposing player during Georgia’s 41-31 win over Mississippi State at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., and the coach says he has addressed his actions.
Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. ran for a gain in the fourth quarter and went out of bounds into Georgia’s sideline. Smart then went running over to say something to defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann and gave Van Buren a fairly aggressive bump on the way. You can see the video here.
Smart said after the game that he was just trying to get to Schumann to change personnel and was unaware that he had even bumped Van Buren. The coach reiterated that on Monday but said he reached out to both Van Buren and Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby.
“I didn’t even realize that I had run into him. I reached out to Lebby that night and talked to him and he said the kid was great,” Smart said. “Yesterday I talked to Mike and told him I had no intentions or ill will toward him at all.
“If you’ve ever been on the sideline during a game, it’s pandemonium. It’s really pandemonium when you’re trying to change personnel and you’ve only got 3-4 seconds to do it and we were bad off in a bad personnel grouping against empty that we had actually messed up the week before. … I reached out to the kid. He was great. He’s a really good player. He’s gonna be a good player in this league, and he played better as the game went on against us.”
Kirby Smart on the sideline incident with Michael Van Buren pic.twitter.com/Od3am7tMYI
— Benjamin Wolk (@benjaminwolk) October 14, 2024
Mississippi State fans felt Smart’s behavior crossed the line, which is hardly a surprise. Smart clearly let his emotions get the best of him for a brief moment, even if they were not supposed to be directed toward Van Buren.
