Notre Dame escaped its visit to Temple with its College Football Playoff hopes intact, but the Owls made things awfully tense for a while -- including on the Fighting Irish sideline.

After the game, Brian Kelly was asked about this incident, in which the Irish coach was spotted forcibly pushing assistant strength and conditioning coach David Grimes away from the field by his shirt collar:

Kelly said following the game that he didn't want Grimes to continue what appeared to be a string of comments directed at an official. 

"David was gonna get us a 15-yard penalty, and so I had to control the sideline," Kelly explained, per Irish247. "I wasn’t going to let that happen. He got a little to close and I backed him up out of the way to make sure we didn’t get a 15-yard penalty."

On the one hand, you can't blame Kelly for not wanting an utterly unnecessary penalty in the late stages of a tight game with playoff-level stakes. On the other, Kelly's already got a reputation for a certain amount of in-game ... intensity, let's say. Using that kind of force on his own staff member isn't exactly going to help that reputation.

Brian Kelly got the better of Matt Rhule on Saturday, but barely. (USATSI)
Brian Kelly got the better of Matt Rhule on Saturday, but barely. (USATSI)