South Carolina quarterback Jake Bentley made the most of an abbreviated season as a freshman last year.
This year, Bentley has the opportunity to play his first full season as the starting quarterback, and Gamecock fans and head coach Will Muschamp are looking forward to it.
“I think he had a really good offseason program before we started spring ball,” Muschamp said. "Then you see the progression in spring, the more that Coach Roper and our offensive staff continued to give him, the better and better he continued to perform and improve."
According to Muschamp, Bentley is constantly watching tape and hanging out with the offensive line, defensive line and secondary in effort to acclimate himself with the whole squad.
“He understands what it takes to be the quarterback,” Muschamp said. “Those are the things I see, and obviously, he has all the intangible qualities to handle the situation. I am looking forward to seeing him play this year.”
“I’m with Cory Helms and Alan [Knott] all the time," Bentley added. "Deebo [Samuel] and Hayden [Hurst], I hang out with them a lot. I think we’ve really gotten closer together as a unit and hopefully, it pays off on the field.”
Bentley will have more freedom to call his own plays this season, which Muschamp said will give the 19-year-old a good amount of latitude at the line of scrimmage based on if the team runs a pass, run or pass with a run built in.
“That’s what you’ll see – more of that with us at the line of scrimmage as opposed to tempo,” Muschamp said. “Obviously, we still want to be able to dictate the tempo of the game. To have that luxury at the quarterback position certainly helps, but also the experience around him. The offensive line experience coming back, the skill position experience coming back helps as well.”
For Bentley the biggest thing is executing plays, but he added, “If I see a look or I see something that I think could work, I have that freedom. It’s kind of one of those things when it works, it’s good. When it doesn’t work, I get some criticism for that. Overall, I do have some freedom, too.”
Last season, Bentley started the last seven games of the season, including the Birmingham Bowl, going 125-for-190 for 1,420 yards with nine touchdowns. In preparation for the upcoming year, the Opelika, Alabama, native broke down all of his film from last season with Matt Simms.
“We really analyzed every game from last year that I played in and really broke it down, play by play,” Bentley said. “We really focused on what I did good, what I did bad. Tried to learn from it and tried to use what I’ve learned during fall camp.”
Bentley threw just four interceptions in 2016, and his 65.8 percent completion percentage ranks fourth in USC history for a single season, according to GamecocksOnline. With a slew of veteran weapons returning, including NFL hopefuls wide receiver Deebo Samuel and tight end Hayden Hurst, he’s looking to build on that in 2017.
"They all want it,” Bentley said. “I guess my thing is just throw it to the open guy. If they can get open at practice, I know they can get open in the game. That’s the big thing. There are a lot of great receivers.”