Skip to main content
Join

Ole Miss WR Juice Wells seemingly mocks Shane Beamer while celebrating touchdown in Gator Bowl

ns_headshot_2024-clearby:Nick Schultz•01/02/25•

NickSchultz_7

Juice Wells
(© Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images)

In the first quarter of Thursday’s Gator Bowl, Juice Wells caught a 32-yard touchdown pass from Jaxson Dart to give Ole Miss a lead over Duke. During his celebration, though, he appeared to mock his former coach, Shane Beamer, by referencing an incident in the Citrus Bowl.

Beamer made headlines for his response to an apparent taunt from Illinois head coach Bret Bielema during the Citrus Bowl earlier this week. Bielema appeared to make the substitution gesture toward the South Carolina sideline, and Beamer had to be restrained while reacting to it.

After Wells’ touchdown, he appeared to move similarly to his former coach. He was “held back” by teammates and pointed in a similar fashion to Beamer – perhaps referencing that incident against Illinois.

Wells spent two years at South Carolina before arriving at Ole Miss this year. He’s a key part of the Rebels’ offense, entering Thursday with 521 yards and five touchdowns.

Shane Beamer, Bret Bielema address Citrus Bowl incident

Bret Bielema went over to check on an injured Illinois player in the second half of Illinois’ eventual 21-17 victory and looked toward the South Carolina sideline. Throughout the game, substitutions were a focal point, and it appeared he made that officiating signal. That didn’t sit well with Shane Beamer, who had to be held back by staffers as Bielema returned to the Illinois sideline.

Afterward, Beamer explained what happened. He also shared why he responded the way he did to the situation.

“It’s heated and competitive out there, but in all my years of being around football I’ve never seen an opposing head coach come over to the opposing team’s sideline and basically make a gesture towards the opposing head coach,” Beamer said. “And I think he was upset about something that we did on the kickoff return in regards to Juju (McDowell) on the throw-back to Nyck Harbor, but I would say that he needs to check the rulebook, because that’s something that we’ve cleared with the officials before the game.

“Disappointed. I have a lot of respect for him, he’s obviously done this for a long time. But in all my years of coaching I’ve never seen that happen. An opposing coach come over while his player’s hurt and basically have something to say. I’ve got my own team to worry about.”

Bielema later said it wasn’t about substitutions, but rather something that happened on a previous South Carolina kickoff return. It goes back to something he learned in the NFL, as well.

“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.”