Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly's Emotions Crossed the Line Against Temple

Brian Kelly should send a gift basket, if it were within NCAA rules, to Miami defensive back Corn Elder. He should send another to Frank Beamer.

Because of those two, Kelly isn’t on the home page of many websites—and likely won’t pop up again until Tuesday, when we learn where Notre Dame stacks up in the College Football Playoff rankings. It’s a good thing too, because if you missed what he did Saturday, you’d probably be a little surprised at what transpired.

For those who were watching something else, late in the middle of the Irish’s win over Temple, Kelly rushed down the sideline and grabbed assistant strength and conditioning coach David Grimes’ jacket, proceeded to push and yell at him and then had to be restrained before causing any further disruption on the sideline. Grimes was pulled away by other staffers and defensive lineman Sheldon Day as Kelly walked back down the sideline to fume elsewhere.

Notre Dame eventually won the game, and talk quickly turned to the team making the playoff and other big-picture items about the Irish, but that incident with Kelly stuck with me.

"David was gonna get us a 15-yard penalty, and so I had to control the sideline," Kelly explained after the game, per Irish247. "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 we didn't get a 15-yard penalty."

Kelly defenders will point out it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was an assistant, not an 18-year-old. It was in the middle of a game where emotions ran high, and he possibly prevented a costly penalty against his team.

That’s all great.

But Kelly is also the head coach, and more importantly he’s the head coach at Notre Dame. The incident wasn’t at a Sun Belt game on ESPN3; it was on national television between two Top 25 teams. The heat of battle shouldn’t be an excuse; Kelly is held to a higher standard because of his position, and that applies here most of all.

What he did shouldn’t happen. Period. Not to a player, a coach or a staffer. No peer, subordinate or superior should be treated that way.

Having been around Kelly and talked with him enough at various points in his career, I’m confident in saying he knows all of that. He’s a sharp person and seems to have a better sense of the real world than a lot of his peers in the coaching profession.

That’s what rankled me Saturday and has ever since. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Kelly screaming and yelling and turning a shade of red reminiscent of a tomato. In fact, there’s been an incident similar to Saturday’s nearly every other year during Kelly’s tenure in South Bend and even the seasons before.

As my father reminded me all the time growing up, it’s not what you say to people, it’s how you say it. Kelly’s role as head coach of a program like Notre Dame means he knows exactly what to say nearly every time, but it’s pretty apparent that, at times, he gets a little heated and doesn’t say it in the right manner.

The concerning thing is that’s always been the case, and he has lost his cool on the sidelines repeatedly. At some point, we need to realize these aren’t isolated incidents, but a trend.

Should Grimes have been speaking to the official? Absolutely not. Was Kelly right to tell him to stop and get back away from the sidelines? Definitely.

Should he have done it in that manner? Nope.

I like Brian Kelly and think he’s a terrific coach. He has a great staff and a good team this year.

But he crossed the line Saturday. There won’t be any punishment for his actions or a call for his resignation, but maybe, just maybe, Kelly can use the incident to help change his behavior so he can stop himself before the cameras catch him lashing out again.

Hopefully for everybody involved, there just isn’t a next time.

Bryan Fischer is a national college football columnist at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.