Marcus Freeman shares his instructions to Notre Dame bench amid Kirby Smart shove fallout

While it won’t lead to extensive inquiries or rule changes, Kirby Smart’s shove of Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren on the sideline on Saturday is, if nothing else, a lesson for other coaches. Though Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman seemed not to be aware of precisely what happened.

Even still, when asked about a coach making contact with another player and how he tries to manage the sideline, Freeman had a straight forward answer: Be doing things that help the team win.

If that happens, the rest should work itself out.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Freeman said in response to the reporter alluding to the Smart-Van Buren shove. “But, you know, the general rule of thumb is use common sense. If you’re not helping Notre Dame, then — if you’re not helping us win or you’re not doing something to help us have success, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it. That’s the general rule of thumb. So putting your hands on another, opponents player isn’t probably, it isn’t helping us win. And so at the end of the day, everybody has a role on our team on that sideline and that role has to be to help us win, no matter what that case may be.”

After the Georgia game on Saturday, Smart addressed the moment from his perspective.

“I think I was going after [defensive coordinator Glenn] Schumann,” Smart said. “I was trying to get Schumann’s attention. We were trying to change personnel. I think it’s the play they came over to our sideline and trying to get Schumman’s attention. But, no, I don’t really remember it.”

Smart was not called for a flag on the play. The situation also didn’t escalate, as Van Buren did respond in kind or at all to getting waylaid by Smart.

While Smart’s contact with Van Buren was assuredly not advisable and something coaches and players are taught to avoid, it’s become apparent in the days following Saturday that most of the repercussions from it are going to be lessons learned — or reinforced.