(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Phil Bennett has been a lot places during his nearly 40 years of coaching college football.
But this season — his first as Arizona State’s defensive coordinator — will represent a new chapter in Bennett’s legacy: it is the first time he has ever coached in the Pac-12 conference.
With vast experience in the Big 12 and Southwest Conferences, in addition to jobs with schools from the Big Ten, SEC, Big East and Conference USA, the Sun Devils’ new defensive leader will face a new type of challenge in trying to stop the high-flying West Coast spread offenses that have become a staple of Pac-12 football.
Bennett, however, says he’s not changing his approach just because of the move to a new conference.
“It appears to me, both the Pac-12 and Big 12 (the conference Bennett last coached in) are very similar,” he said earlier this week. “(There’s) a lot of spread, tempo, and then you have those teams like we had, Kansas State and Stanford.”
For the last five seasons, Bennett was in charge of the Baylor Bears’ defense. In Waco, he had to deal with stopping the powerful offenses of Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech among others. Despite that, Bennett helped Baylor rank fourth in the Big 12 in total defense and second in pass defense, allowing their opponents only 230 yards per game through the air. Since 2013, Bennett’s Baylor defenses only finished lower than fourth in the conference’s pass defense stat once.
Baylor was just the most recent of Bennett’s long list of jobs in the south. After playing as a defensive end for Texas A&M in the mid-1970s, Bennett has coached at his alma mater, TCU, LSU, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Iowa State. Between 2002-2007 he was the head coach at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. At each stop, instilling tough and physical play was one of Bennett’s top priorities.
Now at ASU, Bennett will have to fix the nation’s worst pass defense from a season ago. Coming to a league that will force him to face talented quarterbacks like Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, and Jake Browning, however, will be nothing new for the long-serving Big 12 coach.
It’s not as easy task by any means, but one Bennett is taking full responsibility for.
“When (coach Bennett) came in, he told coach (Todd) Graham he wanted to be all defense,” junior defensive back Dasmond Tautalatasi said. “He wanted to control it, and he has turned the defense around. It’s a lot different than years past.”
Part of the reason Bennett has felt comfortable not changing his ways is down to the belief he has in his new players. Tautalatasi is a perfect example; the first-team safety didn’t start for ASU last season, but has used his physical presence to bring an edge back to the defensive backfield. Described by his teammates as the “hardest hitter” on the team, Tautalatasi is exactly the kind of player Bennett has relied on his entire coaching career.
“I love contact, ever since I was growing up, just coming down here I love the feel for it,” Tautalatasi said. “I’m just out there trying to make plays and if my teammates like what I’m doing, and they say I’m the hardest hitter, then I must be letting my pads do the talking.”
Tautalatasi is just one of the many physically-imposing members of Bennett’s defense in Tempe this fall. But while there are plenty of individual performers the 61-year-old coach is excited about, his main focus this preseason has been on molding them into a more consistent unit.
“One of the things that separates a good from poor defense is consistency,” Bennett said. “We are starting to be more consistent. We are better on deep balls, we’re better tackling in space, we’re better fit to run, we just need to make sure that we stay consistent.”
ASU suffered disastrous defensive seasons in 2015 and 2016, finishing 99th and 124th in points against per game in those seasons, respectively. In both seasons, the team had little success in stopping the Pac-12’s dynamic aerial attacks, culminating in a historically poor 520 total yards against per game last year.
Rectifying such ugly numbers will take time, and even Bennett doesn’t expect his group to “dominate” this season. He is however, expecting them to use their physicality and strength up front to make life tough on opposing offenses.
“I’ve won championships with defenses that make you work to get anything that you get,” he said. “I think the kids have bought in to what we are doing, I think the system is in place. They like it. We just got to keep working the fundamentals. It’s a fundamental game.”
Fixing the secondary has been an especially difficult task this preseason. The Sun Devils will likely being starting four completely new defensive backs on this year’s team; Bennett described the process as having to start from “ground zero.”
But with less two weeks to go until the start of the season, the fruits of his coaching labors are beginning to pay off.
“Just the experience factor. You look at it and…they are talented,” Bennett said of his back end. “They’re athletes. The best thing I like about them, I like that room right now. There is a can-do attitude and that goes a long way.
“We don’t have anybody that is over-opinionated about his ability. The ‘it’ factor is in the room right now.”
The honest “can-do” attitude Bennett is seeing from his players is an attitude being bred by the defensive coach himself. Taking on the challenge of fixing ASU’s defense is not one envied by many around the country. But the experienced Bennett is betting on himself to get the job done, and rebuild the Sun Devils’ defense.
He believes he has his group pointed in the right direction. But more importantly, his players think that they can help the team finish number one in year one of Bennett’s Pac-12 tenure.
“The defense has put in a lot of work,” Tautalatasi said. “I can tell there is a different demeanor about us putting in work, and trying to compete for a Pac-12 championship, and getting rings this year.”
