MOBILE, Ala. – A pair of skill position players from the University of South Alabama football program's offensive unit are being considered for selection to the 2022 Reese's Senior Bowl after the organization released its annual Watch List on Thursday.

Senior quarterback Jake Bentley and junior wide receiver Jalen Tolbert are both candidates to appear in the contest, which will take place at Hancock Whitney Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 5.

In five seasons at the collegiate level — the first four at South Carolina before moving to Utah last year — Bentley has recorded 8,409 passing yards and 61 touchdowns, which both rank among the top 15 among all active players in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision.  He was 77-of-124 (62.1 percent) passing and finished with 882 yards and six scores while helping lead the Utes on a three-game winning streak to end the 2020 campaign, highlighted by a season-best 240 yards and two touchdowns in a victory over 21st-ranked Colorado.

The native of Lexington, S.C., posted 7,527 passing yards, 7,670 yards of total offense and 626 completions including 55 touchdown passes in four years for the Gamecocks, all totals that rank among the top five in the school's record book.  A team captain both his sophomore and junior seasons, Bentley guided USC to back-to-back bowl appearances including being named the Most Valuable Player of the Outback Bowl after throwing for 239 yards and two scores in the final 16 minutes to rally the Gamecocks to a 26-19 win over Michigan.

Tolbert has been named to four different preseason All-America teams this summer and is also on watch lists for the Maxwell and Biletnikoff Awards after catching 64 balls for 1,085 yards and eight scores a year ago, as he ranked second in the Sun Belt Conference in receptions and receiving yards per game on his way to being named first-team all-league.  The first-team preseason all-Sun Belt selection from Mobile was twice chosen the conference's Offensive Player of the Week after 100-yard performances in victories over Southern Miss to begin the year and Arkansas State in the Jaguars' road finale.

Entering his fourth season on the field, Tolbert already ranks in the top five on South's career record list in four different categories: yards receiving (1,666, third), touchdown receptions (14, tied for third), average yards per catch (17.35, third) and 100-yard receiving games (3, tied for fourth).  He also is four catches shy of becoming the sixth individual in program history to record 100 receptions and is among the top 10 in the Jags' record book in all-purpose yards as well.

Over the last 10 years, seven Jaguars have been selected to participate in the Senior Bowl including Riley Cole last year, the first time the contest was played on the South Alabama campus.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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