Mark Ingram offers strong response to Kirby Smart hitting Mississippi State player

Georgia football’s 41-31 victory last Saturday against Mississippi State was defined in some part by what happened just off the field.

With about three minutes remaining in Georgia’s win, Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. scrambled out of bounds to the Georgia sideline after a six-yard gain. There, he was shoved out of the way by Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart, who appeared to be approaching Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann while Van Buren was momentarily between them.

REQUIRED READING: What Kirby Smart said Monday about shoving Mississippi State's QB in Saturday's win

Though Van Buren made his way back to his team’s huddle relatively quickly, one former SEC star said the situation wouldn’t have been so amicable if he were the player in question.

On an episode this week of The Triple Option , Fox Sports’ college football podcast, former Alabama Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, now an analyst with the network, said he would have “tried to beat Kirby’s a-- out there” had he been the one who was shoved.

Smart was Alabama’s defensive coordinator for Ingram’s three seasons with the Crimson Tide.

“He knows if he would have touched any one of us alphas like that, he would have been squared up on,” Ingram said. “If he would have tried to push Rolando McClain, Courtney Upshaw and them cats like that, me, Julio Jones, I would have been trying to get at Kirby. Now, it was on their sideline, so I don’t know if I would have been able to get to him, but I damn sure would have tried. Kirby knows. Kirby knows what’s going down. You push somebody like that? That’s somebody’s child, man.”

Smart, who later said that he didn’t “even realize I’d run into him,” reached out to Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby in the hours after the game and spoke with Van Buren on Sunday.

Ingram was quick to point out the sheer difference in size between Van Buren, a freshman who is listed at 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, and many of the players he mentioned.

“He picked the quarterback, OK?” Ingram said. “He picked the right one.”

The three-time NFL Pro Bowler also pushed back against co-host Urban Meyer, when the former Florida and Ohio State coach said that he couldn’t “imagine there was any intent” with Smart’s actions.

“The SEC’s lucky it wasn’t an a-- whooping,” Ingram said.

REQUIRED READING: Georgia football gets another chance to show its stuff in big-game environment at Texas

On Monday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said that Smart should have received a penalty for his shove, but that he was satisfied with Smart’s response to the altercation and that he is “confident the contact was not intentional.”

With Smart’s Bulldogs traveling to No. 1 Texas Saturday — a game they may need to win to remain in College Football Playoff contention — Ingram left things on a cordial note with his former coach.

“I love you, Kirby,” he said. “Good luck in Austin.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Mark Ingram offers strong response to Kirby Smart hitting Mississippi State player