Bret Bielema addresses controversial substitution strategy, taunting Shane Beamer in Cheez-It Bowl

Tensions spilled over during the second half of the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Tuesday afternoon, with South Carolina coach Shane Beamer going after Illinois coach Bret Bielema.

Beamer appeared upset at Bielema seemingly intentionally signaling ‘substitution’ at him in the South Carolina huddle, and he exploded with rage. Only, that wasn’t exactly the issue.

Bret Bielema addressed the situation after the game, noting the beef went back to a previous South Carolina kickoff return.

“I know the only thing that I did was there’s an unwritten philosophy in coaching that when you do this (extends arms) as a college kickoff return guy, what you’re doing is you’re telling everybody else that it’s going to be a fair catch and it’s going to be dead in the end zone when the ball lands,” Bielema explained.

“The reason we do that, and I first got aware of it was in the NFL was kickoff, and kickoff return is the highest percentage of injury in the sport, so one of the things that coaches began to do was everybody out of respect started T-barring. I think these guys would tell you, everybody does that.”

South Carolina’s Juju McDowell made the gesture on a kickoff, then executed a fake designed for Nyck Harbor. That drew Bielema’s ire, as his guys thought the play was dead.

“I’ve never seen it any other way. It’s not an official. There’s nothing illegal,” he said. “They didn’t do anything illegal, but it put us in a position that we now — the ethic of what that is got evaporated there, because our kids stop. So when you’re a kickoff return unit, if I’m running at you and the kickoff returner back there, the guy blocking me, he doesn’t know what’s going on so he’s going to begin to engage you and we see somebody do that before the whistles are blown, you can stop, decelerate, and you don’t have these massive collisions.”

RELATED: Shane Beamer criticizes Bret Bielema, discusses viral incident

The incident was kicked off when an Illinois player was down and injured near the South Carolina sideline late in the third quarter. Bielema had gone over to see how the player was doing, and after turning to walk back to his sideline, faced Beamer and the South Carolina huddle and made the T-bar signal, the same signal a referee would to allow for substitutions.

Shane Beamer had been running hot earlier in the game, seemingly upset with officiating. And then when Bret Bielema made his jab, Beamer momentarily lost his cool. Bielema had also made the T-bar substitution signal while walking over.

Beamer, after he cooled down some, yelled to sideline reporter Quint Kessenich: “You saw that.”

Throughout the game, Illinois had been subbing late in response to the Gamecocks and pushing South Carolina close to taking delay of games.

Seconds after the near-scuffle, South Carolina subbed late and Bret Bielema sent in an array of subs, causing Shane Beamer to use a timeout to avoid a delay of game in the low red zone.

The broadcast then showed both coaches, as Bielema sported a sly grin on the sideline opposite a ruffled Beamer.

Bret Bielema insisted there was no bad blood after the game, and the two had a cordial enough handshake, albeit brief, near midfield.

“Listen, I love Shane. He’s a good person,” Bielema said. “I know somebody said that he thought I did it at him. I did it at their whole damn sideline. I wasn’t going personally at him. I did it at their whole sideline. I wanted them to understand that I know what just happened.

“There’s nothing illegal, there’s nothing wrong. I just have never seen it done in any level of football, college or pro. That’s it.”

On3’s Andrew Graham also contributed to this report.