Bennifield available again for UTC football team
Bennifield’s return gives Mocs a nice problem
Suddenly, Tom Arth has a good problem to have. Coming off the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s first win of the 2017 football season, the team’s first-year coach now has senior quarterback Alejandro Bennifield available for competition, starting with the Southern Conference home game Saturday at 6 p.m. against Western Carolina. The 6-foot-3, 220-pounder was suspended for the first four games due to an NCAA academic issue.
In Bennifield’s absence, sophomore Nick Tiano has filled in, completing 56 percent of his passes for 785 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions. The 6-5, 240-pound Tiano had his best game in last Saturday’s 63-7 win over Virginia Military Institute, completing 25 of 33 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns.
During Tuesday’s media luncheon, Arth was noncommittal about who will start at quarterback against the Catamounts, who are 3-1 and like the Mocs receiving votes in both Football Championship Subdivision polls.
“We’re very excited that Dro has been reinstated and available. We’re a much better team with him on our roster than him not being on our roster,” Arth said. “It’s a unique situation. We’ll have to evaluate the decision throughout the week and make a decision as we get into Friday.”
Arth said the offensive coaches have talked to both players about “being ready” for this week. Bennifield’s return all but confirms that, barring injury, true freshman Cole Copeland — who technically had been serving as Tiano’s backup — will redshirt. Redshirt freshman Dominic Caldwell will remain the third quarterback.
“Dro’s reps will increase, but at the same time Nick has put us in a tough situation,” Arth said. “You would think it would be easy to say we’re going back to an all-conference player, an unbelievable talent, a captain, all those things, but Nick has done some really good things that’s given us a reason to have to consider that very carefully.”
Regardless of what decision Arth and his staff make, Bennifield’s return bolsters the roster. One of five captains on the team, the second-team All-Southern Conference preseason selection threw for 2,682 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2016 while rushing for six scores. He had stepped up as one of the team’s vocal leaders during the preseason and was on the sidelines at the Jacksonville State and UT-Martin games, driving to Montgomery, Ala., on his own money for the former.
“For a lot of the guys, Dro is someone who’s been here,” senior safety Lucas Webb said. “He’s got a longer relationship with them, so when they see him there I feel like they’re more comfortable. Just the fact he drove down to Montgomery shows he’s bought into the team, he’s willing to be there and he’s willing to do whatever he needs to do to be able to help the guys.”
Senior receiver Alphonso Stewart said the only difference between this week and prior weeks is that Bennifield will be suited up with the team on Saturday. Since his first practice after the suspension was made official, he’s primarily handled third-team reps during drills while working with the quarterbacks, offensive coordinator Justin Rascati and offensive assistant Patrick Kramer.
“Him coming back has given the team a boost to play harder,” Stewart said, “— his cooperation in practice, coaching us up even when he wasn’t able to play. He was always doing his role within what he could do.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.