Jake Bentley's teammates weigh in on career performance

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

When Jake Bentley was warming up Saturday night before the Gamecocks’ rivalry game against Clemson, there wasn’t anything different that stuck out that would have indicated to his teammates what he was about to do.

Bentley and his teammates all probably expected him to have a good game—they always do—but maybe not as good as he was about to have, and there wasn’t a sign to them about his impending performance.

What followed was the best passing performance in arguably school history against one of the best defenses in the nation.

“That boy don’t give up. That’s why I love playing on the O-line for him,” Sadarius Hutcherson said. “He took a lot of criticisms the first half of the season and the thing about him is he never gets down. That’s why I love blocking for him.”

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He finished with a school-record 510 yards passing and tied another school record passing for five touchdowns.

After facing his fair share of criticism and vitriol on social media throughout the entire season, it looks like Bentley put some of that to bed with his record-setting performance Saturday.

“I guess that’s the nature of the beast at that position,” T.J. Brunson said. “When he’s not doing well, everyone hates him or [doesn’t] want anything to do with him. Then, when he is doing well they raise him up and praise him. I like the way he responds to all of it.”

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Bentley finished with five touchdown passes, four of those coming from at least 20 yards out.

After finding Deebo Samuel for a nine-yard score to open the game, he hit Kiel Pollard for a 67-yard bomb downfield, then Samuel two more times (a 75 yard and 32-yard score), before finishing with a 20-yard pass to Shi Smith dropped perfectly in the back of the end zone.

He became just the second quarterback this year to throw for multiple scores against Clemson’s defense, which was averaging giving up just 12.1 points per game, and the first to lead an offense to at least 35 points against the Tigers since Virginia Tech scored the same number in the 2016 ACC Title game.

Afterwards, Bentley’s teammates who have been around for his other 29 career starts, said that may have easily been his best performance ever.

“Jake kept fighting,” Pollard said. “That’s what you ask from your quarterback: just keep fighting and keep helping us win games. I’m proud of Jake.”

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Saturday’s game wasn’t enough to earn SEC Player of the Week honors, but it did continue to build the respect of his teammates.

Bentley’s strung together five-straight solid performances, including the one against Clemson.

Over the last five weeks, Bentley’s completing 69.7 percent of his passes and is averaging 10.3 yards per attempt. He’s thrown 14 touchdowns to just three interceptions.

“He’s proven it every single week,” Zack Bailey said. “He’s got a big year coming up. I think he’s going to do big things.”