Georgia coach Kirby Smart reaches out to Mississippi State QB Van Buren to explain sideline shove

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Monday he has reached out to Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren and coach Jeff Lebby to explain his contact with Van Buren on the sideline in Saturday night's game.

Van Buren ran to the Georgia sideline late in No. 5 Georgia's 41-31 win. Smart was rushing toward defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann when he crossed the path of Van Buren and shoved the quarterback.

Smart insisted after the game he wasn't aware he had contact with Van Buren. He said Monday that after reviewing the play he realized he needed to reach out to the quarterback and Lebby.

“I didn’t even realize that I had run into him,” Smart said. “But I reached out to Lebby (Saturday) night and talked to him and he said the kid was great. And then yesterday, I talked to Mike, I told him, you know, I had no intentions or ill will toward him at all.”

Georgia plays at No. 1 Texas on Saturday.

Following the game, Van Buren indicated he wasn't sure what happened on the sideline.

“I really wasn’t sure what that was but I was just trying to play my game,” Van Buren said. “I didn’t really see him for real.”

Making only his second career start, Van Buren passed for 306 yards and three touchdowns as Mississippi State rallied after trailing 34-10. The comeback attempt by the visiting Bulldogs had Smart active on the Georgia sideline.

“If you’ve ever been on the sideline during a game, it’s pandemonium,” Smart said. “It’s really pandemonium when you’re trying to change personnel and you’ve only got three or four seconds to do it and we were bad off in a bad personnel grouping. ... And so I’m trying to get to Schumann to get that changed.”

Smart said Van Buren “was great” in their conversation.

“I actually reached out to the kid and he was great,” Smart said. “He’s a really good player and he’s going to be a good player in this league and he played better as the game went on against us.”

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Charles Odum, The Associated Press