​SOUTH BEND — Now it can be told: Notre Dame football running back Aneyas Williams was merely the fall guy for the end zone celebration penalty that marred the win over Michigan State.“Crank the Lawnmower” was the name of the orchestrated gathering, but Williams was simply following the script as crafted by his offensive linemen.Williams let that slip out in his media session following practice on Tuesday Sept. 29, and starting right guard Sullivan Absher later backed him up.“I can confirm that,” Absher said. “We approached Aneyas — and Aneyas might not have even been the first guy to say yes.”Ooh, the plot thickens.“We were like, ‘All right, what are we doing if we score a touchdown this week, fellas?’“ Absher said, thinking back to the runup to Week 3 in prime time against the Spartans. “And obviously we found out we can’t … choreograph is what they said. It can’t look pre-choreographed. I guess we have to find a way to make it look a little more spontaneous.”In the immediate aftermath of the 15-yard penalty assessed to Williams for his starring role in the humorous pantomime, the junior had to sit and mostly watch as backup Nolan James Jr. carried a whopping 26 times in the 27-10 win.Irish coach Marcus Freeman was so upset with Williams in the moment that he later apologized, both privately and publicly, to his player and the player’s mother, Sarah Williams. A mild sideline bump from coach to player wasn’t exactly R-rated, but in Freeman’s culture of mutual respect, the moment was regrettable.  “He apologized right after the game,” Williams said. “We have a relationship. I’ve known him since, shoot, sophomore year of high school. … My mom’s always here. I always have her here. They have a relationship in a sense.”After Williams rebounded with a strong showing against Purdue last week, carrying 14 times for 80 yards and a score, Freeman apologized again to his running back and his mother.“He knows I’m a mama’s boy, so that’s the first person he thought about,” Williams said. “My mom knows. She can handle it.”Best in the land: How Notre Dame football went from average to best in penalty avoidanceAneyas Williams may be due compensation for pain and sufferingWilliams said the whole episode was a learning experience for him and his teammates.“It was just something we had planned for a while,” he said. “We all felt like it kind of stuck within the rules of what Freeman wants us to do: celebrate together. Handed the ball to the ref.“If we could go back and do it again, we would ask Free and have him get it approved. But, yeah, man, you live and you learn from it. … We just won’t do it again.”Williams went on to joke that his linemen might want to do something special for him as an act of contrition.“It was something they wanted to do,” he said. “Running back to O-line, I was like, ‘All right. yeah, let’s do it.’ They owe me one. I took the blow for ‘em, but we’re past i