PHILADELPHIA — As Temple mounted a second-half comeback Saturday night at Lincoln Financial Field against Notre Dame, the focus — at least on Twitter — quickly shifted to an incident between coach Brian Kelly and assistant strength and conditioning coach David Grimes on the sidelines.
ABC’s cameras caught Kelly confronting Grimes and shoving him back during the third quarter, with senior defensive tackle and team captain Sheldon Day restraining Grimes, a former Irish wide receiver and captain.
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Grimes appeared to be saying something in the direction of an official prior to the confrontation, and Kelly said he physically confronted Grimes to prevent a flag from being thrown.
“David was going to get us a 15-yard penalty, so I had to control the sideline,” Kelly said. “I wasn’t going to let that happen. He got a little too close and I backed him up out of the way to make sure that we didn’t get a 15-yard penalty.”
Notre Dame went on to defeat Temple, 24-20.