Those who bemoaned the death of bowl season in the 12-team Playoff era clearly didn't see the Citrus Bowl coming.
The game had just about everything. Pitting two top-20 teams, the game had teams playing for something: Illinois, playing in its biggest bowl game since the 2008 Rose Bowl, taking on a South Carolina team riding a 6-game win streak and in search of its first AP Top 10 finish since 2013. Both teams were in search of their first 10-win seasons in more than a decade. Because of that, the Citrus Bowl pitted two fan bases that were excited to be there -- or, as excited as anyone outside of the 12-team tournament -- with attendance hitting a 3-year high. And it had fireworks.
With just over a minute and a half remaining in the third quarter, Illinois cornerback Jaheim Clarke was shaken up after tackling South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers near the Gamecocks sideline. After checking on Clarke, Bielema extended both arms sideways in a gesture, known as the T-bar, toward the South Carolina sideline. As the center judge ushered Bielema back to his sideline, Beamer charged toward Bielema, then was restrained by a staffer while being confronted by officials. While being returned to his sideline, Beamer gestured and shouted toward the Illinois sideline multiple times.
Bielema was responding to an event that began the drive, when South Carolina feigned a fair catch to set up a trick play.
As Bielema said after the game, he felt that making the T-bar gesture put his players in a dangerous position -- South Carolina was attempting to trick them into slowing down, so that they could block a slowed and/or stationary target at full speed.
"There’s nothing illegal," Bielema said after the game. "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."
Explaining his side of the story to Josh Pate, Beamer said he was merely sticking up for his sideline.
"That was just a situation that, in the heat of battle, escalated quickly, as they say in Anchorman," Beamer said.
"We did something that was legal at the time that he didn't agree with. My issue was just, if you have a problem with something that we did -- he walked across the field to check on his player that was injured on our sideline -- just pull me aside, 'Shane, what the F?' You're right there if you have a problem with it," Beamer said. "It bothered me that when he made the motion that he did, he was disrespecting, calling out our entire sideline. That's the issue that I had with it. As the head coach, I'm certainly protective of our team and didn't like it when another head coach came over and made a motion toward our sideline when we were right there. Some would say keep your composure, don't do anything. I don't agree with that. I knew what I was doing. I wasn't in a rage, going to go out there and start a brawl at the 50-yard line but I felt like I had a responsibility to our program to at least respond."
Beamer said he and Bielema spoke in January and that the two are fine now. Bielema said as much himself after the game. "Listen, I love Shane. He’s a good person. 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."
And as Beamer alluded to in his comments to Pate, the action was legal at the time, which means it is no longer legal today. Last month, the NCAA Football Rules Committee passed a rule classifying the "T-bar" as a fair catch signal. And in the ultimate irony to put a bow on this story, the kick return that sparked the brouhaha ended at the 25-yard line anyway.