South Carolina QB Jake Bentley picks his next college destination
South Carolina’s Jake Bentley announced he would leave Columbia as a graduate transfer soon after the regular season ended. Now he’s found his next spot.
Bentley tweeted Monday evening he’ll join the Pac 12 runner up Utah Utes to finish out his college career. He’ll have one season to play there.
The Utes went 11-2 this season and finished out with an upset loss to Oregon in the conference title game. They were considered a College Football playoff contender until that point.
They’re losing senior QB Tyler Huntley, who threw for 2,966 yards, 18 touchdowns and four interceptions this season. He was fifth on the program list for career passing yards.
Bentley only played in one game in 2019, having his season end in a Lisfranc foot injury. That sent what projected to be a final chapter of his career off the rails, putting four-star freshman Ryan Hilinski into the driver’s seat of South Carolina’s offense.
Bentley threw for 142 yards, one touchdown and a pair of interceptions in the opener against UNC, one of the worst games of his career. He hurt his foot on the last play, getting landed on as he tried to throw a Hail Mary pass.
It was a disappointing moment after he put up the third-most yards and second-most touchdowns for a single season in program history in 2018.
Bentley skipped his senior season of high school to enroll a year early at South Carolina. The four-star quarterback and son of Bobby Bentley, a high school coaching legend in the state and the team’s running backs coach, was one of the early big recruits Muschamp’s staff got.
After going through the first half of 2016 with the plan to redshirt, Bentley was installed as a starter and thrived, throwing for 1,420 yards and leading the Gamecocks from 2-4 to a bowl game.
The next year, he had an up and down season, but still posted 2,794 yards, 18 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and led the Gamecocks to a 9-4 year.
“Certainly Jake has been very special to me personally,” coach Will Muschamp said before South Carolina honored its seniors ahead of the Appalachian State game. “The contributions he’s made to this program, the success that he’s had as a quarterback here at the University of South Carolina and we’ll continue to have discussions with him moving forward on what his future will entail. But he’s meant a lot to me personally, his family, the Bentley family’s meant a lot to me personally and I appreciate everything he’s done.”
With Bentley on the bench this season, Hilinski threw for 2,357 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions. The Gamecocks offense struggled all over, failing to rank better than 120th in points per game against FBS competition.
The injury allowed Bentley to take a redshirt season and get another senior year. He’d spent some time considering the NFL before returning for 2019.
Bentley leaves the Gamecocks as the program’s No. 4 player in yards (7,527) and touchdowns (55).
“This is one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make,” Bentley said when he first announced the transfer. “Leaving this incredible university is extremely difficult. I will forever be grateful to the coaches, professors, administrators, and my teammates of this great school.”
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 6:11 PM.
