Will Muschamp gives a snapshot of what he's got behind Jake Bentley

South Carolina football knows what it has at the helm of its offense in quarterback Jake Bentley.

What’s behind him for the past year, that’s been more of a question, at least to those outside the program. Bentley stayed healthy, so it didn’t quite come up, but the trio of passers behind him are far from proven.

But Will Muschamp believes in the group.

“I feel really good about Michael Scarnecchia,” Muschamp said at a Spurs Up Tour stop. “He has sped his game up. He hasn’t taken a lot of snaps. Especially my first year, he had labrum surgery. He took no snaps. And then last year, you saw him continue to develop and the game slow down for him. He throws it extremely well, and he certainly is our backup quarterback.”

Scarnecchia was the No. 2 behind Bentley last season and took only a handful of snaps in garbage time. He was handpicked by Steve Spurrier as a recruit late in the former coach’s tenure and played sparingly in his first two seasons, before the shoulder injury.

After Perry Orth’s graduation and Brandon McIlwain transferred to Cal, the backup job fell to him; and going into next season, the two passers behind him are both in the developmental mold.

Jay Urich spent last season developing as a redshirt. Dakereon Joyner came in a four-star, dual-threat player who won Mr. Football in South Carolina. Both have upside as runners. Both have work to do as college passers.

“Both guys are are really good athletes,” Muschamp said. “But both guys can throw the football, and can function very well and win for us. If they’re going to be our quarterbacks, it’ll be a little change for us because it’s going to be a little more of a quarterback-driven run game than what we are right now. But that’s fine, we can win doing it that way.”

There were points last season when the Gamecocks took the reins off Bentley and let him do some things in the running game. It was somewhat limited, especially against top defenses, as the depth behind him was unproven, but he did run for six scores and averaged 6 yards per non-sack carry.

After next season, the team will add four-star recruit Ryan Hilinski into the mix, though if Bentley has a very good year in Bryan McClendon’s new offense, the NFL could be a possibility.

But with Dan Werner now handling the QB room, Muschamp focused on a few requirements from the group.

“We want toughness at the position,” Muschamp said “We want leadership at the position, and we want a winner at the position.”

This story was originally published May 30, 2018 at 10:16 AM with the headline "Will Muschamp gives a snapshot of what he's got behind Jake Bentley."