Bentley To Skip Senior Season, Join Gamecocks This Summer

COLUMBIA, S.C. (USC SID) — Will Muschamp’s current first-team Gamecock quarterback was scheduled to still be in high school this spring.  This summer he’ll add another four-star QB scheduled to still be in high school.

Wednesday Jake Bentley, son of USC running backs coach and longtime Byrnes High School coach Bobby Bentley, announced he will skip his senior year of high school and officially join the South Carolina football team this summer.

He will join a quarterback competition currently led by freshman Brandon McIlwain, who joined the USC football team this spring after graduating his Pennsylvania high school a semester early.

ESPN ranked Bentley the #2 quarterback prospect in the country for the class of 2017.  Instead of opting to return to Opelika High School near Auburn, (where Bentley coached the last two seasons) or enroll in a Columbia-area high school for his final year, Bentley has opted to skip his senior year entirely.  He is thought to be the first big-time high school football prospect to do this since Southern Cal quarterback John David Booty did it in 2003.

Bentley made the announcement public Wednesday morning on social media.

“Many questions will arise as to why I would forego my senior year,” Bentley wrote. “God has prepared me for this moment, and I am prepared for the next step in my life.”

Senior Gamecock quarterback Perry Orth welcomed Bentley on Twitter.  “We are going to be teammates after all!  Welcome to the family big guy!  #GoCocks”

Muschamp said Orth and McIlwain had separated themselves in the five-man quarterback competition after eight spring practices.  Orth missed the rest of spring with a broken left collarbone.  He’s expected to return to full strength for summer workouts in June.