‘We all fully believe in him’: Jake Bentley defends Kurt Roper

Whenever an offense is struggling, those outside the program will lay it at the feet of the offensive coordinator and his play calling.

This is the case in South Carolina, with Kurt Roper being under fire as the Gamecocks offense went in fits and starts for the third game in a row. The coming week promises more complaints on that front, as is the nature of this game.

But South Carolina quarterback Jake Bentley raised a defense of his coach after his offense sputtered late against Texas A&M under a pass rush that got him again and again.

“It’s all of us,” Bentley said. “It’s no one person. It’s no one coach. It’s just a matter of execution.

“Coach Roper busts his tail all week developing a game plan that he thinks is going to work, and we all fully believe in him and believe in what he does for us. We’ve just got to go find a way to score more points. That’s on all of us.”

USC’s offense showed a level of big-play ability against the Aggies, but those highs were matched with some big lows. USC had six passes longer than 20 yards, plus a 34-yard run, but still couldn’t get much past five yards a play.

That came with seven sacks that cost the offense 56 yards, 12 tackles for loss overall (on 56 snaps). USC could only move when it was making big plays, and it couldn’t make enough with a patchwork line against a ferocious pass rush.

This story was originally published October 1, 2017 at 1:00 AM with the headline "‘We all fully believe in him’: Jake Bentley defends Kurt Roper."