A spicy Citrus Bowl: South Carolina falls to Illinois in tension-filled game

Shane Beamer’s face turned garnet. His eyes bulged and his veins popped as he shouted and pointed across the field, trying to charge forward as as staffer and strength coach restrained the 47-year old South Carolina head coach.

In the season finale of his fourth season as South Carolina’s head coach, in what is supposed to be a somewhat light, fun bowl game, Beamer was more irate in a game than he’s ever been.

It will be easy to forget the final score of Tuesday’s Cheez-It Citrus Bowl — 21-17 Illinois over South Carolina. Yes, No. 20 Illinois (10-3) beat No. 15 USC (9-4), keeping the Gamecocks from winning 10 games for only the fifth time in school history.

It spoiled the first game for new South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Shula, who had moments of great creativity but whose gameplan struggled in the red zone. It also soured the final game of quarterback LaNorris Sellers’ redshirt freshman season. The Gamecocks QB went 24 of 34 for 260 yards passing against Illinois but only ran 11 times for 19 yards.

But we will remember the face of Beamer as he nearly went after Illinois coach Bret Bielema late in the third quarter.

What caused a head coach to have to be restrained from running toward another head coach in the middle of a December bowl game — just a day after they played buddy-buddy at a joint press conference? Well, taunting.

Bielema walked over and continued to stick his arms out. It was a gesture South Carolina did on an earlier kickoff, when Juju McDowell stuck out his arms on a kickoff return, then caught the ball and threw it back to Nyck Harbor to keep the play going.

“There’s a unwritten philosophy in coaching that when you do this as college kickoff return guy,” Bielema said, gesturing with his arms wide and fists closed, “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. ... Kickoff return is the highest percentage of injury in the sport.”

“That’s something we checked with the officials before the game,” Beamer said of the play before talking about Bielema’s actions. “In all my years of coaching, I’ve never seen that happen. An opposing coaching coming over — while his player is hurt — and basically (taunting).”

Bielema kept his arms stuck out — long enough that Beamer noticed. And, well, Beamer took offense — screaming over to Bielema and vigorously pointing at the Illinois head man like an incensed parent. Both rosters ran toward midfield, where coaches held them back before the situation could escalate.

When play finally resumed, Bielema went back to a tactic that had caused Beamer and South Carolina frustration. Throughout the game, Illinois had been substituting late on defense. Which is legal — if an offense substitutes, it must give the defense time to do the same.

South Carolina made a substitution. Illinois countered at a snail’s pace. Beamer was forced to call timeout. On the sidelines, Bielema grinned like a child who fed his sister a ghost pepper and told her it was a pickle.

When all the screaming and substitutions finally concluded, Sellers chucked a go-ahead touchdown to tight end Josh Simon in the back of the end zone.

Advantage Beamer.

Illinois responded with a 12-play, 75-yard drive that finished in the end zone and gave the Illini a 21-17 lead with seven-and-a-half minutes to play.

Advantage Bielema.

South Carolina got the ball and it was hard to have in your head all the miracles that Sellers has made this season. The last-minute drive against Missouri to somehow beat the Tigers. The improbable touchdown on third-and-16 against Clemson.

For the past two months, the Gamecocks have always come through in the tense final moments.

Sellers led the Gamecocks inside the red zone, needing a touchdown to take the lead. But then, like had happened so many times earlier in the day, the drive stalled just before the end zone.

On fourth-and-4, Sellers’ pass to Simon was low and fell incomplete.

Illinois took over and ran the ball out.

Game, set, match Bielema.

It ended a game that never seemed to be in the Gamecocks’ favor.

Midway through the second quarter, Beamer tried to pull a fast one. The Gamecocks lined up in the old-school swinging gate formation with punter Kai Kroeger taking the direct snap. Kroeger played hot potato with the pigskin and just chucked it up toward defensive tackle Alex Huntley. The pass was broken up. South Carolina traded three points for zero.

On its next offensive drive, it seemed the Gamecocks were going to make up for it. After nearly a five-minute drive, South Carolina had a chance to get points before the half but Alex Herrera’s 41-yard field goal doinked off the right upright.

It was an encapsulation of South Carolina’s day. It was not just a miss, but a painstaking miss.

That’s how things felt on Tuesday night for the Gamecocks.