Muschamp makes it clear: Jake Bentley is being asked to do more than most realize

It was a small comment from South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp, a passing thing mentioned while naming him the team’s offensive player of the week.

“I don’t think people realize how much we’re putting on him at the line of scrimmage and the run game,” Muschamp said.

Perhaps most don’t. In a world where fans quickly turn on the amorphous topic of “play-calling,” it stands to reason a player in the thick of it can have a role in seeing what’s in front of the offense, deducing the best course of action and directing things appropriately.

Muschamp gave a little more depth as to what that meant Tuesday, saying how much more had been asked of Bentley than in past seasons — especially with run-pass options.

“I would say a lot more, just from a standpoint of trying to get us in the best run look, run to run, run to pass, pass to pass, from a protection standpoint, being able to change the protections,” Muschamp said. “But I think as much as anything, more RPOs, because that takes (critical decision making).”

That’s part of the reason a quarterback who threw for 261 yards, granted at 9.3 yards per attempt, with one score and one interception (a ball he couldn’t quite get over a middle linebacker), earns the team’s honor for best offensive player.

The Gamecocks cranked out 273 yards on the ground. Four runners, including Bentley, averaged 5 yards a carry or better.

Bentley said the extra presnap responsibilities revolve around the run game.

“Just getting us in the right look, whether it be secondary rotation or front, just making sure we’re in the best run play possible,” Bentley said. “It’s been something that they’ve gradually put more on me more and more. Just at practice, they’ve seen that I can handle that at the line of scrimmage.”

The Gamecocks deployed a nice mix of their base schemes against the Commodores. They used inside and outside zone, with some power and jet sweeps mixed in (plus some looks from unbalanced lines).

For Bentley, solving those defensive puzzles helps out another part of his game.

“It’s fun for me because if we do it early, it kind of gets me making right decisions,” Bentley said. “I know, obviously, the more important decisions are going to be when you’re throwing the ball, but getting us in the right run play, for me, gets me in a positive state of mind.”

For the season, he’s completing 68.3 percent of his passes. The only game he’s really been asked to sling it around was against powerhouse Georgia.

Both South Carolina’s passing and rushing offense have moved the ball better than at any point in the past three years.

Muschamp explained that the expanded use of RPOs also put more on Bentley’s plate, not necessarily in terms of complexity, but in getting more things done mentally in less time.

And that starts with the basics.

“You’ve got to make sure everybody’s set first,” Muschamp said. “You’ve got to catch the snap. There’s a lot of moving parts going on out there. And you’ve got to make a decision, are you going to hand if off or are you going to take a shot down the field. That seems very pedestrian, but it’s not.

“His decision-making in three games has been really good.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 7:45 PM.