Brian Kelly wishes sideline incident with David Grimes 'never occurred'

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said Tuesday that he regrets the sideline altercation he had Saturday night with assistant strength and conditioning coach David Grimes.

Kelly, who also said Tuesday that quarterback DeShone Kizer's arm-flapping touchdown celebrations against Temple were "totally unacceptable," was asked if he had a chance to look back at his confrontation with Grimes.

"I think I've already talked about this a couple of times," Kelly said. "First of all, I'm responsible for the sideline and our sideline was not where it needed to be. There were some things going on on the sideline that were unacceptable, and it falls on my shoulders. If we were to get a penalty in that time of the game, it would've fell on me as being somebody that can't control the sideline. So moving forward, we've made some changes to how we're gonna do things on the sideline and how we'll have a better sideline situation.

"Having said that, I wish the situation never occurred. I regret that it happened. David and I have met, we have met about the situation and we've moved past it. Dave's a valuable employee and he is a guy that does a great job here and is gonna be with us a long time."

Midway through the third quarter of the Fighting Irish's 24-20 victory at Temple, television cameras showed Kelly grabbing Grimes' jacket and pushing him back, with head strength and conditioning coach Paul Longo getting between the two. Defensive lineman Sheldon Day was seen pulling Grimes away from the situation as well.

Grimes appeared to be speaking in an official's direction as Kelly charged toward him, and Kelly said after the game that he was trying to prevent a penalty.

"David was gonna get us a 15-yard penalty, so I have to control the sideline," Kelly said Saturday. "I wasn't gonna let that happen. And 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."

During his Sunday teleconference, Kelly was asked whether he felt he owed Grimes an apology.

"They don't know what happened," Kelly said Sunday of his critics. "It's typical of those that are just looking at the video without having any of the information. You know, only those that are clearly near the situation that have all the information can make those judgments. It's an internal matter, and we're handling it internally."

Grimes, a former Notre Dame captain who played receiver for the Irish from 2005 to '08, joined Notre Dame in 2011 as a player development intern before being promoted to his current role in 2012.