When Georgia coach Kirby Smart addressed the media on Monday, talking about the looming road contest against No. 1 Texas coming up this weekend was not the only item on the agenda.
Smart took time to remark about an incident that caused controversy in the second half of Saturday’s game against Mississippi State at Sanford Stadium.
Smart apologized for shoving quarterback Michael Van Buren, and told the gaggle of reporters that he spoke to Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby and to Van Buren.
“I went back and watched it, and didn’t even realize that I had run into him,” Smart said. “But I reached out to Lebby that night and talked to him, and he said the kid was great. And then yesterday, I talked to Mike and told him I had no intentions or ill will towards him at all. It was, if you’ve ever been on the sideline in a game, it’s pandemonium.”
Smart said the pandemonium was even more pronounced because he was trying to change out of a personnel grouping.
“We were bad off in a bad personnel grouping against empty that we had actually messed up the week before,” Smart said.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey issued a statement on the incident.
“Coaches cannot make contact with an opposing player. This play should have resulted in enforcement of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty,” Sankey. “I am confident the contact was not intentional and the clear expectation is this conduct won’t happen again.”
“He is a really good player,” Smart said of Van Buren. “He is going to be a really good player in this league.
Van Buren completed 20 of 37 passes for 306 yards and three touchdowns against Georgia.