‘Standard of excellence’: Jake Bentley introduced as Nation Ford’s head football coach
Jake Bentley ushered in a new era of football at Nation Ford High School on Wednesday morning.
As the Falcons’ new head coach gave his introductory speech, the entire football team, several classes, other teachers, administrators and parents packed the Fort Mill school’s auditorium. Not a single head wasn’t turned in Bentley’s direction.
Bentley, a former South Carolina quarterback who’s been an assistant prep coach in the area, spoke about the importance of “pulling the rope.”
It’s an expression he learned from his father, Bobby — a recent Gamecocks assistant who’s currently at the helm of Battle Ground Academy in Tennessee — and has taken to heart throughout his own coaching career. The idea is that no matter what happens, players and their teammates always have to pull in the same direction alongside each other.
Bentley capped his initial remarks paraphrasing what Nation Ford principal Chris Chandler told him about his new community during the interview process: “Fort Mill football is a sleeping giant, and it’s time to wake it up.”
“It’s excitement for the players, and from them to me, just to know that they’re fired up about really building something special,” Bentley said in an interview. “That’s what we really plan to do: Build a culture of sustained success. Not just this year, but for generations to come.”
‘We truly believe that Jake is the right person’
Bentley, 27, played at Byrnes High School in Duncan before transferring to a high school in Alabama after his father accepted an assistant job with Auburn’s football program.
A former quarterback at Presbyterian College in Clinton, Bobby Bentley was the head coach at both Byrnes and Presbyterian — until the middle of Jake’s high school career.
Brian Blackmon, now a coordinator at Troy, became Jake’s head coach when he started at Opelika High School in Alabama. It was a unique situation, especially coming from having his father as his coach, and Blackmon went out of his way to make a seemingly out-of-place Jake feel welcomed.
Bentley is ready to pay it forward, and his new boss can sense it.
“In Fort Mill, there’s been variable success in football programs across the three schools, and there’s that question of ‘Why?’” Nation Ford athletic director Bryan Dillon said. “’Why not that next level? Like academics. Like a lot of the Olympic sports. Like basketball.’ We think part of that is identifying the right person, and we truly believe that Jake is the right person to lead the program.
“Passion, first and foremost. Passion for the sport, learning, improving and getting better at everything you do within it. Making sure the student-athletes have the opportunities that they deserve. That they have somebody who cares for them as much as we had people who cared for us when we were coming up.”
‘This state and community mean so much to me’
Bentley returned to his home state upon finishing high school.
A Gamecocks quarterback from 2016-2019, Bentley had season-ending surgery in his final year in Columbia after initially being the starter. He entered the transfer portal and continued his collegiate career, making stops at Utah and South Alabama.
Bentley began coaching as a graduate assistant at Florida Atlantic, spending a season with the Owls before becoming quarterbacks coach at North Alabama. That led him to Rock Hill High, where he’s served as the Bearcats’ quarterbacks coach, co-offensive coordinator and passing game coordinator.
Now the 27-year-old has his first head coaching gig, and he’s ecstatic to get started.
“The Fort Mill community is truly a special place,” Bentley said. “Just the pride they take in that community. The standard of excellence that surrounds this community is something that I want to be a part of. This state and this community mean so much to me, and I can’t wait to make them proud.”
