What Muschamp, Bentley said on both backup quarterbacks

Since Will Muschamp took over at South Carolina, the Gamecocks have been recruiting the quarterback position at an elite level and this season the room reflects that.

They have a three-year starter and two Elite 11 Finalists in the room and are finally starting to reap the rewards of their recruiting success with arguably the deepest quarterback room, and competition, of the Muschamp era.

“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,” Muschamp said. “They'll continue to battle through camp, and we'll see what happens.”

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Those two backup quarterbacks would be Dakereon Joyner, who threw for almost 10,000 passing yards in his career and put up 52 touchdowns as a senior at Fort Dorchester, and Ryan Hilinski, one of the biggest pieces in the Gamecocks’ 2019 class after amassing 2,771 yards and 29 touchdowns last season at Orange Lutheran in California.

The two will be battling it out for the backup quarterback spot over the next month before South Carolina’s season opener against North Carolina, with Muschamp saying he’d like to have a decision made about halfway through camp.

But, even if they don’t usurp Bentley as the starter this season, he’s already seen the benefits of having two extremely talented guys behind him competing for playing time, reminding him of when he was the backup behind guys like Perry Orth, Michael Scarnecchia and Brandon McIlwain.

“They’re very talented, but so were Perry and Scar and Brandon when they were here, too,” Bentley said. “They’re two guys who are just hungry to play and be great. They’re two guys that love football and you can tell just talking to them. They push me every day just like I try to push them to be the best they can be.”

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Joyner is the only quarterback outside of Bentley to see game action at Williams-Brice, playing in one game his redshirt season, going 1-for-1 for two yards with three rushes for 24 yards.

Muschamp hasn’t committed one way or another about if either backup will play this season but the way to get on the field is simple: be able to help the team win.

“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,” Muschamp said. “We'll put the guys out there that help us win football games in our opinion as coaches. We spend a lot of time talking about it and what we need to do to put ourselves in the best position to win football games, and those are the decisions we'll make on that.”

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For Bentley, it could be easy to turn his back on these backups and see them as challengers to his starting spot, but that’s not the case.

The senior in line to break a handful of school records this year is taking his time to bring along these young arms as a way to better the program when his eligibility has dried up.

“I’m just trying to pour all I can into them. I’m not trying to leave Carolina thinking I could have told them something that could help them down the line,” Bentley said. “That’s what guys did with me—Perry Orth, Hayden Hurst—guys that poured themselves into me, who gave me all the knowledge they had. That’s what I want to do for Ryan and Dakereon there.”