Former South Carolina Gamecocks quarterback Jake Bentley has been hired to be the new head football coach for Nation Ford High School.
Bentley, 27, was announced to be the next football coach for the Falcons at a ceremony at the school on Wednesday, Jan. 8. This past season, Bentley served as quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator for the Rock Hill Bearcats. This will be his first head coaching job at the high school level. He becomes just the third fulltime head football coach in Nation Ford history.
Bentley was one of 52 applicants for the head coaching job at the school. There were eight people that got interviews and then four finalists brought back for a second interview.
Nation Ford Athletic Director Bryan Dillon said Bentley was impressive from the start.
“He presented a really thorough and detailed plan of the way he envisions running the program and it closely parallels the vision I have for running the entire athletic department,” Dillon said. “His overall demeanor and excitement, and what I view as his ability to relate with the student athletes and bring excitement and vigor to the program.”
Dillon said that Bentley’s young age wasn’t an issue, but looks at it as an asset.
“He has a smart football mind,” Dillon said. “Very knowledgeable on the X’s and O’s. How he wants to run a program, we see that as a great opportunity right now to take that big swing with a young coach that can grow with us and our kids. We think he is ready right now.”
Bentley is the son of former legendary Byrnes Rebels head football coach Bobby Bentley. The younger Bentley started out at Byrnes High School and played quarterback there as a freshman, but when his father took a job at Auburn University, he transferred to Opelika High School in Alabama. The younger Bentley signed to play at the University of South Carolina after graduating early from high school.
As a quarterback, Bentley threw for more than 10,800 yards in 45 career starts in college. He was at South Carolina from 2016 to 2019 and had stops at the University of Utah in 2020 and South Alabama in 2021. Bentley graduated from South Carolina in 2019 with a Bachelors in Sports and Entertainment Management and has a Masters in Business Administration from South Alabama in 2021.
Bentley was a graduate assistant at Florida Atlantic University in 2022 and a quarterbacks coach in 2023 at the University of North Alabama before catching on with Rock Hill High for the 2024 season.
Bentley said he had wanted to be a football coach since he can remember.
“From an early age, it was what do you want to do?” he said. “Well, I wanted to play in the NFL and if that didn’t work out, I wanted to coach. Seeing my dad and my high school coach and the impact they had on the community, it was something I had the opportunity to see and it is something I am looking forward to.”
He said the influence of his father and his Opelika head coach Brian Blackmon helped to guide him into the coaching field.
“The influence we can have as a coach is tremendous,” he said. “You get to be a great influence on a group of kids that are at an impressionable and important point of their life. Being able to be there for them and develop them into champions on and off the field. That is what I was poured into and I have a true passion for the next generation as well.”
Bentley said that Nation Ford and a job in the Fort Mill School District was an attraction to him.
“When you look at Nation Ford, the standard of academic excellence that has been established there and in the school district, I see it as a tremendous opportunity to lead a group of men that have that already instilled in them,” Bentley said. “Now it is my job and our staff’s job to put them in a position on the field to be successful. That standard of excellence really attracted me the most.”
Bentley said he plans on meeting with the current football staff so they can get to know each other before any decisions are made about assistant coaches.
As an offense minded coach, Bentley said he wants to build an offense to the strengths of Nation Ford’s players.
“We want our kids to benefit,” he said. “We want to continually attack. We want to put our kids in the best position to be successful.”
Bentley said he communicated with his father throughout the process of coaching and the interviewing process to get the Nation Ford job.
“Being able to constantly pick his brain in every aspect of the program, not only with things that were successful, but things that weren’t,” the younger Bentley said. “I am lucky and blessed to call one of the best coaches in the state’s history, to be able to call him dad. Being able to pick up the phone and ask any question, is a big asset to me.”
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
