Jake Bentley is on the rise among quarterbacks in the SEC, and coming off two straight wins and a bye week in which he spent time on jet skis with teammates, the South Carolina quarterback seems to be in a good state of mind.

On Tuesday, he was asked if the Gamecocks are considered an SEC East title contender.

“That’s one of our goals,” he said in a press conference with reporters. “That’s one of the goals of our team is to win the East, and that’s what we try to do. At the end of the day, we’ve just got to win. We’ve got to take care of the games that we play in. We can’t look at what has to happen with other teams, or what the scenarios are.”

South Carolina, at 5-2, will play host to Vanderbilt on Saturday in a game where coach Will Muschamp said he wouldn’t mention a bowl eligibility possibility to the players.

“I really think the overall confidence of our team, being at 2-4 last year, maybe the confidence wasn’t there,” Bentley said. “I think that’s really what’s changed this year, the mentality of our team, the confidence level, every time we take the field we expect to win, and so that’s what we’re going to continue to have that mentality, aggressive mindset in every game.”

Bentley also referred to his team being picked fourth in the preseason media rankings in the SEC East, behind Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. This week, the Gamecocks received votes in both top 25 polls.