Muschamp lays out timeline for naming backup quarterback

Going into the season, South Carolina has it's starting quarterback. Now it's about figuring out which guy, if something happened to Jake Bentley, would be next in line.

Bentley, a senior that's on pace to break almost ever passing record at South Carolina by the end of the year, is the team's starter but the Gamecocks are still in need of a set in stone back up and will use the first few weeks of training camp to figure that out.

“We’ll have a scrimmage on the tenth practice and another on the 15th practice. Hopefully after that 15th practice when we start whittling down we’ll have a couple fundamental practices before we start on North Carolina," Will Muschamp said. "In that period we’d like to probably have something there.”

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That would put, following Muschamp's timeline, a decision on a backup coming sometime in mid-August before the Gamecocks start preparations for their Aug. 31 game against North Carolina.

The Gamecocks have two quarterbacks listed as the No. 2 behind Bentley using the infamous "OR" with both Dakereon Joyner and Ryan Hilinski.

Both came to school as four-star prospects and Elite 11 finalists and both have been getting plenty of shots to try and separate themselves and in doing so are putting pressure on Bentley to grow and mature as well.

"I think Jake's got great competition behind him in Dakereon and Ryan, two very talented guys that have extremely bright futures at University of South Carolina. They'll continue to battle through camp, and we'll see what happens," Will Muschamp said. "Every decision we make in our program, as far as football is concerned, is about winning. Whether it's quarterback, defensive end, receiver, it really doesn't matter. We'll put the guys out there that help us win football games in our opinion as coaches."

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This group of quarterbacks with all three four-star prospects and putting up eye-popping numbers in high school is arguably the deepest Muschamp's had in his four seasons at South Carolina with Bentley now the elder statesman.

Bentley hasn't admitted this is the most talented group he's played with—shining some praise on guys like Perry Orth and Michael Scarnecchia—but did say the two young players are incredibly eager to learn.

“They’re very talented and so were Scar, Perry and Brandon (McIlwain) when they were here too. They’re two guys that are hungry to play, hungry to be great," Bentley said. "They’re two guys that love football. You can tell when you talk to them. They push me everyday just like I push them to be better."

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Joyner, in his redshirt freshman year, played in one game, completing his only pass for two yards and rushing for 24. Hilinski finished his senior season with 2,771 yards and 29 touchdown passes, competing 64.2 percent of his passes.

While Bentley is the entrenched starter, he said he's still taking the time to teach the younger players so when he leaves after this season they can come in and be prepared to play.

“I’m really trying to pour all I can into them. I don’t want to leave Carolina thinking I didn’t tell them something that could help them down the line," he said. "That’s what they did with me—Perry Orth, Hayden Hurst, guys that poured themselves into me and gave me all the knowledge they had. That’s what I want to do with Ryan and Dakereon.”