South Carolina QB Bentley addresses booing

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

Jake Bentley made his return to the starting lineup Saturday against Texas A&M and it was met with mixed reviews from the fans in attendance at Williams-Brice that wanted Michael Scarnecchia to play.

After struggling in the first half with some errant throws and an interception in the red zone, Bentley was met with a healthy dose of boos from the crowd in the first half, which he addressed postgame.

“That’s life. That’s really the way I’ve been brought up is you can’t worry about outside influences. People are going to come at you each and every way. You have to focus on what you believe in and surround yourself with great people,” Bentley said. “The support of my teammates had the biggest impact. Obviously it’s disappointing to hear that from the fans, but they just want to win too.”

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Bentley was inconsistent through the first two quarters, throwing for just 46 yards on 6-for-17 passing.

His interception came with the Gamecocks in the red zone and the game tied, which was probably the biggest round of boos he faced in Saturday’s outing.

But, despite Bentley’s struggles, Will Muschamp said there was never really a draw to put in the backup, Scarnecchia, saying he needed the Gamecock skill players to help out more on offense.

“Not really,” Muschamp said about making a change. “We needed to settle down with decision-making and a couple balls here or there. He put us in a situation to win the game. We need to play better around him.”

Also see: What Will Muschamp said in his postgame press conference

Bentley responded with a big second half, engineering a 16-point comeback to tie the game before Texas A&M ultimately pulled away late for a 26-23 win.

The junior quarterback making his 25th career start threw for 177 yards in the second half, tossing three touchdown passes to no interceptions over the last 30 minutes. He completed 11 of his 18 passes in the second half.

Muschamp understands the scrutiny that Bentley faces on a game-to-game basis and said he was proud of how he handled it against the Aggies.

“He battled. He’s a competitor and competes in front of 80,000 people. That position is going to get criticized, just like my position. That’s part of it. He understands it,” Muschamp said. “He battled his ass off to put us in a situation to win the game.”

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Bentley missed last week’s game with a grade-one MCL sprain and returned this week to the lineup wearing a somewhat bulky knee brace.

After the game Muschamp said Bentley has the respect of his teammates and he has the respect of this coaching staff” and his teammates agreed.

“He’s a fighter, man. He’s not going to sit out because of a knee,” Chavis Dawkins said. “He told me on Monday he was going to play even if his leg was broken. That’s just the kind of guy he is.”

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