Coastal Carolina Deletes Pic of Shirtless Head Coach With Bikini-Clad Dance Team

The Coastal Carolina football team had second thoughts after sharing a pic of its head coach posing shirtless on the beach with a bunch of female students in bikinis ... 'cause the controversial post was promptly deleted.

The Chanticleers program -- which is in Honolulu for the EasyPost Hawai’i Bowl -- initially published an image of Tim Beck alongside the school's dance team and mascot earlier this week ... with everyone rocking their beach 'fits (even the bird).

Beck shared the pic on his personal Instagram story ... and the dance team's account commented on it, saying, "Glad we ran into you at the beach today. Thanks for the picture!"

Naturally, the pic rubbed some folks on social media the wrong way ... after all, a school staffer being nips out with a bunch of scantily-clad students might not be the most "professional" image for the university.

Others -- including some of Beck's players -- thought it was harmless ... with one athlete even joking his coach was a "ladies man."

After the mixed reviews, the post was deleted around three hours later.

Beck addressed the picture with reporters ... saying the photo op was a "spontaneous event."

"There was no intent to try to generate any particular kind of response one way or the other of how that was," he said. "So, I mean, that’s that’s kind of my statement really on it."

Coastal Carolina also commented on it, according to the Sun News ... saying, "The photo was taken as part of the football team’s documentation of its trip to Honolulu to participate in the Hawaii Bowl. The Chanticleers look forward to playing in the bowl game on Saturday."

So ... which side are you on??