It’s Halloween 2015 and Notre Dame is in the 2nd half of a tough matchup against a plucky Temple team coached by future Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule. The Irish are 6-1 with only a close loss to Clemson so tensions are high to keep the program in the playoff hunt.

With just over 5 minutes to play in the 3rd quarter, Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer scrambles to his right on 2nd & 18 for a small gain while flags fly. It’s a seemingly unforgettable play and part of a frustrating night offensively.

We get a zoomed in shot of a blank staring Kizer walking back to the line of scrimmage when color commentator Kirk Herbstreit says:

“Yeah, there was a, there was an interesting exchange on the Notre Dame sidelines. I don’t know if Brian Kelly is fired up? Look at this.”

As he’s speaking, ABC cuts to a replay that was memorable enough that it needed to be our latest installment in How Did This Happen:

Let’s set the stage frame by frame:

Immediately we see strength & conditioning coach Paul Longo moving to the left, hand on face, saying something to the field judge. If you pay attention closely, you can also see offensive line coach Harry Hiestand moving slowly towards the referee, as well.

At first, it seems as if Longo is giving the field judge the business but the first crucial twist to this saga happens when Longo’s right arm is raised toward former Notre Dame wide receiver and current assistant strength coach David Grimes.

In this split second, with hands in pockets, you can clearly see that Grimes is the one chirping at the referee and that Longo is trying to diffuse the situation with Hiestand in tow.

BRIAN KELLY OUT OF NOWHERE!!!!!!!!

One of the football trainers has a front row seat and is the first to realize something is about to go down. It’s a great screenshot as you can see the moment Kelly files in front of Hiestand, too.

Kelly comes in and with his right hand pushes Grimes and he gets knocked backwards because his hands are in his pockets and he probably didn’t expect a coach to get physical with him. In my mind, I thought Kelly went pretty high near the neck but he stays pretty low on Grimes’ shirt near the nipple area (did he pinch perhaps?).

Reserve defensive lineman Doug Randolph is the first player in the scene to realize we’ve got an issue.

Mouth slight agape, Randolph seems quite surprised. He even backs up and completely out of the picture. He wants nothing of this smoke coming from the head coach.

This episode probably wouldn’t have looked as bad (or amazing which is it?) if Kelly doesn’t go for the extra couple pushes and gets his hand a little higher on Grimes.

Defensive tackle Sheldon Day is in the background and you can actually see him say, “whoa” before his instincts kick in and he steps in to pull Grimes backwards and away from the confrontation.

Grimes, though? Not real happy!

He actually mutters something and you can use your imagination as to what he actually says. If I had to guess it probably rhymes with ‘truck new’ or something close to that.

If you want to see elite level awareness check out the woman in the back holding the Gatorade bottle in an awesome green Notre Dame scarf. I must stress, she exhibits zero eye contact with the impending melee about to unfold in front of her and calmly exits stage left with only a minimal glance back once she’s out of range of the gathering bodies.

You could argue the still picture in today’s header photo is a classic Renaissance painting. It’s a story that tells so much and allows us the opportunity to break it down today in this space. We now turn our attention to defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder.

What is he thinking? Every single person in the camera shot in one way or another is acknowledging the situation and noticing Brian Kelly coming to grab Grimes by the shirt. Note, the Irish have the ball at this moment. It’s possible BVG is listening to something in his headset from someone in the booth. The live audio feed is giving us the penalty from the referee but this was a replay they were showing which points out we really don’t know when this incident exactly occurred.

Either way, BVG’s blank stare is a modern classic. As Kelly approaches, BVG isn’t paying attention, and as the situation escalates BVG crosses his arms behind his back like he’s enjoying some quiet time at the park. Only after Grimes is being whisked away does BVG snap out of it and turn around, following Grimes out of the picture.

Maybe the most amazing result of this episode is what shows up when you Google David Grimes’ name.

No, they didn’t! Yes, they did! Our man caught 90 balls and totaled 900 yards on the dot in his Fighting Irish career but according to the Google matrix this is what he is known for today. This is so wild.

Don’t forget, this was also the game on Halloween where Kirk Herbstreit nearly pooped himself on camera after being scared:

I know this was a sore subject for a lot of people who think Kelly was out of line for putting his hands on an assistant and former player, as well. Now that Kelly is off to LSU I’m sure a few more people will be taking a more jaded look at this brief 12-second clip.

I’d argue this was one of the most memorable and indelible moments of the Kelly era.