Illinois Coach Bret Bielema Justifies His Gesture At Shane Beamer in Bowl Game

On New Year’s Eve, Bret Bielema and the No. 20 Illinois Fighting Illini upset Shane Beamer and the No. 15 South Carolina Gamecocks in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. Illinois was able to secure the game-winning touchdown with 7:29 remaining in the fourth quarter as running back Josh McCray scampered in for a nine-yard score. But things got heated well before the go-ahead touchdown. Late in the third quarter, Bielema was out on the field to make sure his player was okay after an injury. After the injured player got up, Bielema turned around and made a substitution gesture toward Beamer. However, the South Carolina coach did not appreciate this, giving a heated response as other members of his staff held him back.

After the win, Bielema spoke to the media for a postgame press conference. When asked about this heated exchange between himself and Beamer, the Illini coach justified his gesture.

There’s an unwritten philosophy in coaching when you do [the substitution gesture] as a college kickoff return guy, what we’re doing is you telling everyone else that it is going to be a fair catch and it’s going to be dead at the end zone,” Bielema said. “The reason we do that is… kickoff and kickoff returns is the highest percentage of injury in the sport. So one of the things that coaches began to do is everybody out of respect started T-barring.. Everybody does that. I’ve never seen it any other way.”

Bielema continued by explaining why the T-bar gesture is important.

So when you’re a kickoff return unit,” Bielema added. “The guy blocking, he doesn’t know what’s going on, so he is going to begin to engage you. When you see someone do that before the whistles are blown, you can stop… and don’t have these massive collisions.”

 

Bielema finished his fourth season with Illinois with his first bowl win since joining the program in 2021. He also tallied his first double-digit win year with the team. Beamer is also in his fourth year with South Carolina but saw his best season end with disappointment.