Tensions escalated in the second half of the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Tuesday afternoon South Carolina trainer Shane Beamer go after Illinois trainer Bret Bielema.

At first glance, Beamer appeared upset that Bielema intentionally signaled “substitution” to him in the South Carolina scrum, and he exploded in anger. Except that wasn’t really the problem.

Shane Beamer spoke to reporters about the situation after the game.

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

“Disappointed. I have a lot of respect for him, he’s obviously been doing this for a long time. But in all my years as a coach I’ve never seen this happen. An opposing coach comes along while his player is injured and basically has something “I have to take care of my own team.”

The incident was sparked when an Illinois player was injured on the ground 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 return to his sideline, he faced Beamer and the South Carolina group and signaled the referee to allow substitutions.

It was apparently the same signal that McDowell made on the kick return in question. To the casual observer, it appeared as if Bielema was mocking Beamer for his substitutions.

Shane Beamer was already hot at the start of the game and was obviously upset about the officiating. And then when Bret Bielema made his shot, Beamer lost his composure for a moment. Bielema also gave the substitution signal when passing over.

After he cooled down a bit, Beamer called out to the sideline reporter Quint Kessenich: “You saw that.”

Throughout the game, Illinois had come on late in response to the Gamecocks, nearly putting South Carolina into a delay of games.

Seconds after the near-melee, South Carolina made a late substitution and Bret Bielema sent a series of substitutes, prompting Shane Beamer to call a timeout to avoid delaying the game in the lower red zone.

The broadcast then showed both coaches, with Bielema appearing on the sideline opposite a disheveled Beamer with a mischievous grin.

On3’s Andrew Graham also contributed to this report.