The conversation around Georgia coach Kirby Smart shoving Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren continued into midweek as Fox Sports commentator and former Alabama standout running back Mark Ingram shared his thoughts on — and how he would have reacted to — the incident.
“I would’ve tried to beat Kirby’s a-- out there, man,” Ingram said on The Triple Option podcast with Rob Stone and Urban Meyer.
In addition to being a Heisman Trophy winner, Ingram also played for Alabama when Smart was the defensive coordinator.
Ingram referenced his time at Alabama and how Smart should know better about shoving a player.
“The SEC lucky there wasn’t an a-- whooping,” Ingram said. “I know Kirby perfectly. He was my defensive coordinator when I was at Alabama, and he knows if he would have touched any one of us alphas like that, then he would have been squared up on. If he would have tried to push Rolando McClain, Courtney Upshaw, them cats like that. Me, like Julio Jones, like I would have been trying to get at Kirby.
“Kirby knows what would’ve went down. That’s somebody’s child man.”
Meyer, a fellow coach with ties to Ohio State, where Woody Hayes famously lost his job after punching a Clemson player, expressed his disappointment as well.
“I was shocked when I saw that,” Meyer said. “I know Kirby as well. I’ve known him a long time and, first of all, I can’t imagine there was any intent however it happened. Should there be a recourse? There should. It happened.”
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said the act should’ve been flagged.
“Coaches cannot make contact with an opposing player. This play should have resulted in enforcement of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty,” Sankey said in a statement. “As Kirby discussed in his press conference today, he has appropriately reached out to Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby and quarterback Michael Van Buren. I am confident the contact was not intentional and the clear expectation is this conduct will not happen again.”
Smart initially did not apologize for the incident following Saturday’s game. In the fourth quarter of the 41-31 win over Mississippi State, Van Buren had run out of bounds and into the Georgia sideline. As he was making his way back onto the field, Smart tried to get the attention of Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann and ended up shoving Van Buren.
Smart told reporters on Monday that he ended up reaching out to Lebby and Van Buren to apologize for the incident.
“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.”
