Norte Dame head coach Brian Kelly gave assistant strength coach David Grimes a sideline shove on Saturday and was in his face reportedly trying to control the sideline during the Irish's game against Temple. Kelly said he wished the sideline confrontation never happened, according to JJ Stankevitz of CSN Chicago.
Former NFL player and ESPN SportsNation host Marcellus Wiley accused Kelly of racism for his treatment of Grimes this past weekend.
"This is racial. You know I don't like to play the race card, but I'm going to here on this one," said Wiley. "When you see a black coach getting emasculated basically, undermined on the sideline, when he's a coach with authority over those players, there are going to say, 'Huh, there are very few images and likenesses of a black player with the position of authority on the coaching staff.' Very few. And when you see one treated like that, your imagination starts to take over and says 'Brian Kelly, we tried to respect all of you guys on a level playing field, despite the fact that most of us on the field are black, but then most of you on the sideline are white.' But when you undermine one of the few figures that we can actually see a likeness, now that speaks volumes to those players."
This is not new for Kelly, as he has been seen yelling at players in the sideline previously, whether white or black. Every year, it seems we see Kelly yelling at players on the sideline, and very frequently it's the quarterback, including Dayne Crist, Tommy Rees, Everett Golson, or even recently with DeShone Kizer.
"I'm responsible for the sideline," said Kelly, via CSN Chicago. "Our sideline was not where it needed to be. There were some things going on on the sideline that were unacceptable. It falls on my shoulders. If we were to get a penalty in that time of the game, it would have fell on me as being somebody that can't control the sideline. I wished the situation never occurred. I regret that it happened. David and I have met. We have met about the situation. We've moved past it."
Kelly said that Grimes is a valuable employee to Notre Dame, and that he will be with the team for a long time. Accusing Kelly of racism is a big statement, but other than his sideline altercation with Grimes there is no evidence to backup this claim. Kelly has been reminded of his sideline actions - which seems to happen every year - but nothing has truly changed. The Fighting Irish were ranked fifth in the first College Football Playoff Poll, and the coaching staff is likely focused on Pittsburgh this Saturday.
It will be interesting to watch Kelly on the sideline this weekend, as people will be waiting for him to have another sideline explosion. There will continue to be different opinions on Brian Kelly as a head coach, and if he continues to have incidents like last week he will on continue to be a topic in the news and not for how his team performs.
