Gator Bowl marks the end of an up and down final season at Ole Miss for Ulysses Bentley IV
The 2024 season of Ulysses Bentley IV has been well documented, or at the very least speculated, and on January 2 his strangest year at Ole Miss comes to a close
When the No. 14-ranked Rebels face Duke in the Gator Bowl it will cap Bentley’s career and one of the most up and down seasons in his collegiate career. One that he never expected four months ago.
Yet, the running back will suit up with all his teammates one final time as Ole Miss aims to secure win No. 10 on the season.
“It really wasn’t a decision,” Bentley said on Wednesday. “I know we’ve been through here with all the transfers and all the guys that have been here. So we might as well just play in it and finish out.”
The sentiment of finishing the season out as a team has been been ringing true in the Manning Center the last couple days from players that echo what Bentley said.
Tight end Caden Prieskorn who is also putting a bow on his Ole Miss career in Jacksonville concurs with his teammate.
“I feel like a lot of us, it’s our last time really getting to throw on an Ole Miss jersey,” Prieskorn said. “Really, we just want to play together as a team. All of us just want to go out there and ball, honestly.”
But back to Bentley, the 2024 season saw him relegated to a special teams role where he did more holding his arms out wide on kickoff returns than he did touching a football. He managed to get some meaningful carries against LSU and in the Egg Bowl, but not the number he expected to be putting up.
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Through it all Bentley continued to not allow the energy to turn negative while dealing with the setback.
“I really wasn’t frustrated,” Bentley said. “Like I said early in the season, I’m a leader on the team. A lot of guys look upon that and I always kept a positive attitude. When you’re going through it as a player, or really anybody just through life, if you just keep a positive attitude through anything, everything will be alright for you.”
The Gator Bowl also marks the final chance for Bentley and other Ole Miss players to show NFL scouts something.
For Bentley the NFL Draft mock ups do not have him being a high round pick and it could be a long wait by phone next April.
Among many reasons for him and some of his teammates to play in the Gator Bowl is a final chance to get competitive snaps on film for NFL scouts to see.
Currently Bentley has not been invited to the Senior Bowl or the East-West Shrine Bowl, games meant for top seniors and now juniors to showcase their talents in front of NFL scouts, coaches and executives.
Jacksonville might be Bentley’s final chance to turn some heads.
“It’s definitely big. It’s big for all of us,” Bentley said. “To just kind of go hard and treat it like a regular season or a playoff game. It’s going to be definitely big for a lot of us.”
