The 2024 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl was every shade of cheesy with all the drama that laced the event.
Brent Bielema’s infamous substitution taunt headlines the controversies that easily eclipsed Illinois’s 21-17 win that evening, but that’s not all that went down for the Gamecocks head football coach.
South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori getting escorted to the locker room by the Gamecocks’ director of character before the second half turned heads.
The safety missed the entirety of the second half, saying that he had “told his coach” so.
Beamer made it publicly clear, furiously so, that the “coach” that Emmanwori informed wasn’t him.
“Communication — and I thought we had done a good job of it leading up to the game — but clearly didn’t do a good enough job from a communication standpoint because there was a breakdown in there somewhere,” Beamer said after a month of the incident, per The State.
It appears that they have smoothed things out since Beamer has shared some clarification on the situation in a much better way than he did post-game.
Beamer was fuming, to say the least, when asked about Emmanwori’s absence post-game.
“Internal team matter,” Beamer had said. “Not gonna talk about it.”
The South Carolina safety also did his part in making peace, clearing things out via a social media post.
“As for the bowl, it was just some miscommunication between me and some coaches,” he posted. “We weren’t on the same page I’ll take some accountability for that … never intended for it to end like that and I never quit on my teammates. Still one hell of a season to look back and celebrate glad I was apart of it.”
The most likely explanation for waiving the white flag is likely the safety’s declaration for the 2025 NFL draft.
Beamer wanted to end his team member’s college career on a sweet note. His appreciative message for Emmanwori was a testament to everything being squared away.
“Appreciate all he did for our program and the plays he made for us this season. And I think if everybody had to do it all over again, both sides probably would handle it a bit differently than what happened,” Beamer said.
Fostering proper communication is a crucial to-do for Beamer’s offseason checklist.
