It’s rude to point. But that didn’t stop Shane Beamer on Tuesday. Nor Antwane “Juice” Wells Jr. on Thursday.
Beamer, the South Carolina head coach, has caught some serious flak for his berserk behavior during the Citrus Bowl on Tuesday when he had to be held back while pointing at Illinois coach Bret Bielema.
And as if his Gamecocks’ loss in that bowl game wasn’t irksome enough, Beamer was reminded of his uncouth outburst when Wells — a former receiver, now of the Ole Miss Rebels — trolled him during a touchdown celebration in the Gator Bowl on Thursday.
Wells’ pointed salute while being restrained by a teammate after hauling in a 32-yard touchdown in the first quarter of the 52-20 win over Duke was a clear callback to the irate finger his former coach had held up two days prior.
During the second half of their 21-17 loss to the Fighting Illini, the Gamecocks’ head coach was shown on the game broadcast pointing and screaming at Bielema.
As Beamer would explain after the game, he thought Bielema was taunting him and his team during a break in play by sticking his arms out in the fair catch signal — the same signal one of the Gamecocks’ kick returners made earlier in the game on a fake fair catch.
Beamer did not take kindly to Bielema’s gesture and had to be held back from running out onto the field by a slew of assistant coaches.
Wells’ merciless imitation Thursday wasn’t so out of the blue considering that the wide receiver and his former coach share a bit of uncomfortable history.
In November 2024, Beamer shaded a former player for transferring out of the program at the end of the 2023 season. And while the ex-Gamecock wasn’t named by the head coach, it doesn’t take much detective work to determine whom he was referring to.
“There’s a player that left our program after last season, and one of the reasons he told me he was leaving was [because he didn’t think] we were going to be very good, and we don’t have a quarterback,” Beamer told reporters on Nov. 19.
“Well, he is somewhere else right now and there are a lot of guys that are here and are glad they’re here.”
Before transferring to Ole Miss to play under a much more mild-tempered coach in Lane Kiffin, Wells was one of the Gamecocks best receivers
In 2022, he paced the receiving corps in receptions (69), yards (928) and touchdowns (six).
After playing just three games in 2023 due to a foot injury, he moved to Oxford, Miss.
But there, among a more talented wide receiver room, Wells struggled to regain both the target share and production he accrued as a Gamecock.
He finished 2024 with 27 receptions for 521 yards and five touchdowns.
The 32-yard score Thursday was his only catch of the game despite Ole Miss’ deconstruction of Duke’s defense.
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