Jake Bentley knows scrambling in a 2-minute drill is not how it’s drawn up in the playbook.

But these days, the South Carolina quarterback is making things work, no matter the circumstance.

The latest example came on the final drive on Saturday against Louisiana Tech when Bentley’s 24-yard scramble on 3rd-and-10 from his own 21 set up a game-winning drive without any timeouts remaining as the Gamecocks survived, 17-16.

“Honestly, I was just running as fast as I could,” Bentley said, according to The State. “You’re not supposed to scramble in a 2-minutes situation. But I stepped up and there was no one there. I was like, ‘Let’s try this out for once. Let’s see what we can do here.’

“Ever since the second touchdown and we went up by one, we got all excited,” Bentley told reporters after the game. “I just went down the line and told the guys it’s not over yet. Stay locked in, stay ready to go and they did an unbelievable job at that. Bryan Edwards, those guys really rallied the offense and kept us focused, kept us locked in. Go win the game, at the end of the day, it’s in our hands now. We’ve just got to go win the game and make big plays and that’s what we did.”

Something Bentley also offers doesn’t show up in the numbers. It’s leadership. It’s how he related to the struggling Gamecocks’ kicker Parker White, who missed two field goal attempts against Kentucky, and two more this week.

But before the freshman kicker hit a 31-yar game-winner with seven seconds left, Bentley offered him a pep talk. The quarterback recalled after the game what he told his roommate since the Kentucky loss.

“All week he was down after the game and I told him first of all it wasn’t your fault, second of all, we all could have played better, third you are going to have to make one for us,” Bentley said. “You are going to have to step up and make one for us, and he really rebounded in a big way this week at practice, even during the game.”

For his part, Edwards hauled in a 41-yard catch from Bentley one play after the Bentley run. But the story was Bentley, who for the third time this season completed more than 60 percent of his passes and again topped 295 yards. At times, it appears easy to forget that Bentley is a sophomore who has not yet played an entire season of games cumulatively.

“I’m glad he’s our quarterback,” coach Will Muschamp said. “Certainly, in his true sophomore season he’s playing really good football. In those situations, not only does he bring great confidence to our coaching staff, he brings confidence to our whole football team.”

In light of South Carolina’s loss last week against Kentucky, the circumstances that left the Gamecocks this week trailing 6-0 at halftime, and 13-0 after three quarters to Louisiana Tech could have meant they didn’t know where to turn when things looked bleak. But now, whether it’s a late scramble or long pass, Bentley has shown that he can deliver no matter how dire the situation looks.

The Louisiana Tech win, while it’s against a Conference USA opponent, offers a building block for a program still in rebuilding mode. After all, playing at Texas A&M next should only raise the degree of difficulty. For Bentley, these types of games are not only a circumstance he flourishes in, they’re something he thinks about at all hours of the day.

“You gotta want those situations as a player,” Bentley said, according to WACH-Fox 57. “When you’re thinking about football, you put yourself in those situations. When you’re just sitting in class thinking about it, you’re like ‘OK, 50 seconds left, down by one, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna call?’ So, it’s just a matter of making the play and finding a way to get it done.”