ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart began his remarks on Monday by apologizing for shoving Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game.
“I went back and watched it, and didn’t even realize that I had run into him,” Smart said. “But I reached out to (Mississippi State head coach Jeff) 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.
“It’s really pandemonium when you’re trying to change personnel and you only got three or four seconds to do it. And we were bad off in a bad personnel grouping against empty that we actually messed up the week before. And so I was trying to get to Schumann to get that changed.”
Smart further complimented how the Mississippi State quarterback played.
“He was great,” Smart said. “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.”
Van Buren finished the game with 306 passing yards and 3 touchdowns on the day. Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby said on Saturday that he did not see the incident and didn’t have much to add on the matter.
“I’m not sure what that was. I was just trying to play my game,” Van Buren said of the shove. “I didn’t really see it.”
Van Buren had been run out of bounds in the fourth quarter. Smart on Saturday said that he had been trying to get the attention of Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann. On Saturday, Smart did not apologize for the shove.
“I think I was going after 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 I’m trying to get Schumann’s attention. But, no, I don’t really remember it.”
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