South Carolina coach Shane Beamer was incensed during an injury timeout late in the third quarter of his team’s loss in the Citrus Bowl to Illinois.
As Illinois’ Jaheim Clarke was being attended to by trainers near the South Carolina sideline, Illinois coach Bret Bielema walked over to where Clarke was. Bielema then turned to the South Carolina team and staff and made a substitution signal with his arms as there had been some gamesmanship regarding subs earlier in the game.
That appeared to infuriate Beamer, who had to be restrained and was screaming at the officials.
ESPN sideline reporter Quint Kessenich was right behind Beamer as the sequence of events unfolded.
“Bret Bielema walked across the field to take care of his injured player and taunted Shane Beamer with the substitution posture the refs do, the matching signal, he did it repeatedly,” Kessenich said on the broadcast. “Beamer could hardly believe it at first. He taunted Shane Beamer, and Beamer had enough and snapped. Shane just turned to me and said, ‘You saw what he did.’ I did see it. I did see it. He taunted the opposing coach.”
After Beamer went berserk, ESPN’s cameras captured Bielema smirking when he was back on his sideline. A common defensive tactic is to take as long as possible when subbing to match offensive personnel to slow an offense down and potentially force a delay of game penalty.
There was little animosity between the coaches after the game, however. After Illinois’ 21-17 win, the two coaches shook hands without incident in the middle of the field. Bielema was directly asked by Kessenich about the incident after the game, but did not answer the question and instead talked about the victory.
Beamer addressed the kerfuffle in his postgame news conference.
“In all my years of coaching I’ve never seen that happen,” Beamer said after the game. “An opposing coach come over while his player’s hurt and basically have something to say to the opposing head coach.”
Meanwhile, Bielema explained his side of the story and what prompted the gesture.
“I love Shane. he’s a good person. I know somebody said that he thought I did [the gesture] to him. I did it to the whole damn sideline,” Bielema said. “I wasn’t going personally at him. I did it to their whole sideline. I just wanted them to understand that I know what just happened.”
The win means Illinois finishes the season at 10-3 for the program’s first 10-win season since 2001. South Carolina finishes the season at 9-4.
South Carolina coach Shane Beamer had to be restrained after Illinois’ Bret Bielema taunted the USC sideline with a substitution gesture during their recent matchup. The heated exchange occurred when Bielema made a mocking substitution signal towards the Gamecocks’ bench, prompting Beamer to react angrily and have to be held back by his coaching staff.
The incident added fuel to the fire in what was already a contentious game, with both teams fighting hard for the win. Despite the altercation, Beamer showed his passion and dedication to his team, standing up for his players in the face of disrespect from the opposing coach.
The tension between the two coaches only added to the intensity of the game, with both teams playing with a chip on their shoulder. In the end, South Carolina emerged victorious, but the altercation between Beamer and Bielema will surely be a topic of conversation for weeks to come.
Overall, the incident highlighted the competitive nature of college football and the emotions that can run high on the sidelines. It also showed Beamer’s commitment to his team and his willingness to stand up for them in the face of adversity.
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