Greg Sankey addresses Kirby Smart's shove against Mississippi State

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has now given his own statement about the incident between Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Mississippi State QB Michael Van Buren Jr..

Seth Emerson of The Athletic shared the quote by Sankey this afternoon in an update to his original story. In it, Sankey says the officials should have thrown an unsportsmanlike flag for the contact to the opposing quarterback by Smart. However, he expressed that the action wasn’t a deliberate one to him as he hopes to not see it again.

Kirby Smart shoves Mississippi State QB Michael Van Buren while arguing with official.

(via @SECNetwork)https://t.co/3JH351c7HR pic.twitter.com/zHYpnyClCg

— On3 (@On3sports) October 12, 2024

“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.”

During the second half of the 41-31 win for the ‘Dawgs on Saturday, Smart came down the sideline and shoved Van Buren as he was trying to say something to an official. Following the game, Smart clarified that it was actually DC Glenn Schumann that he was trying to get to. Beyond that, though, he said that he didn’t recall the moment.

Van Buren also said afterwards that he didn’t really remember it either as he was just trying to play.

Then, earlier on Monday, Emerson had an update on the matter with his story. After seeing for himself what happened again, Smart has been in contact with Jeff Lebby as well as Van Buren.

“Kirby Smart said he spoke yesterday to Mississippi State QB Michael Van Buren Jr., and ‘told him I had no intentions or ill will at all,’” Emerson tweeted previously today. “Smart said he didn’t realize he had shoved Van Buren until he saw the tape on Sat. night, and immediately called coach Jeff Lebby.“

Smart also issued an apology for it during his press conference today. With that, he further explained that it just happened in the moment of a defensive change with Schumann.

“I went back and watched it and didn’t even realize that I had run into him. But I reached out to (Jeff) Lebby that night and talked to him and he said the kid was great,” Smart said. “Then, yesterday, I talked to (Michael) and told him I had no intentions or ill will towards him at all.”

“If you’ve ever been on the sideline in a game, it’s pandemonium. It’s really pandemonium when you’re trying to change personnel and you only got three or four seconds to do it,” said Smart. “I was trying to get to Schumann to get that changed. But I reached out to the kid, he was great. He’s a really good player, gonna be a good player in this league. And he played better as the game went on against us.”

This was a bad look for Smart right after it happened. Still, all involved seem straight on that matter now, especially following this statement from Sankey.

This report will be updated further