While his teammates at Opelika High School will be playing on Fridays this fall, Jake Bentley has a chance to play on Saturdays.
Jake Bentley skipped his senior year of high school to join South Carolina’s QB battle
He’s competing with another freshman and the team’s incumbent starter.
Bentley had enough credits to graduate high school, so he decided to come to South Carolina a year early. The 2017 quarterback reclassified to the class of 2016 in April, 16 days after he committed to the Gamecocks, who recently hired his dad as their running backs coach.
He enrolled in Columbia this summer, and is a legitimate contender in the team’s quarterback race.
“They said I had a fair chance to start,” Bentley told The Post and Courier. “I want to start just like every other quarterback in that room wants to start. I’m going to work my tail off when I get there and competition is going to make all the quarterbacks better and is going to make the whole team better.”
He is competing with five other quarterbacks for South Carolina’s starting job, including fellow four-star freshman Brandon McIlwain and the team’s incumbent starter, Perry Orth.
The Gamecocks open their season on the road at Vanderbilt on Sept. 1 on ESPN.
