Phil Bennett is not a magician.

Like any football coach able to survive the profession for four decades, Bennett has multiple scars. He’s been fired, once as a head coach, and been washed out during staff changes multiple times. But another job has always been around the corner because of the regard for him within the profession and his limitless connections.

Everyone in college football knows Phil Bennett and vice versa. That he could emerge largely unscathed from the Baylor football sexual abuse scandal based on information uncovered to date perhaps is the greatest testament to Bennett’s credibility, considering that Baylor’s president, athletic director and head football coach all lost their jobs.

Arizona State, reassured in part by a recommendation letter on Bennett’s behalf from Baylor’s current athletic director, hired Bennett in January to fix its struggling defense, ranked next-to-last nationally in 2016. 

In February, before spring practice, Bennett said, “The front seven looks talented to me. We’ve just got to find some ways in the back end that we can be who we are and be able to stop big plays and get off the field.”

That’s made Bennett at least a good prognosticator because that’s exactly what’s happened for ASU to evolve into a quality defense that can help to win big games. The product of hard work and player development is that Bennett at 61 is a viable candidate for the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach, and the Sun Devils are contenders in the Pac-12 South going into Saturday’s critical game against No. 21 USC.

Bennett has preached so much about the journey to becoming a quality defense that Don’t Stop Believin’ should be the anthem blaring at Sun Devil Stadium on the new mega video board. It’s Bennett’s journey, though, goes on and on and on to create a compelling mosaic.

Bennett made it out of Marshall, Texas, on a football scholarship to Texas A&M, where R.C. Slocum was his position coach. If the name sounds familiar, it should. Slocum’s son Shawn is ASU’s special teams coordinator, one of many ties that made ASU a natural fit for Bennett.

Once Bennett started in coaching in 1978, there was no turning back to working on oil piplines like his father although the football life is just as nomadic.

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In this, his 40th year of coaching, Bennett has stayed nowhere longer than six seasons. ASU is his 13th college job counting separate stints at Texas A&M and TCU. There also is one high school season just before he got his first crack at being a defensive coordinator at Iowa State in 1984.

He’s worked for well known head coaches – Bill Snyder, Dave Wannstedt, Art Briles, Fred Akers, Slocum – and some even fans at that school would have trouble remembering. 

“I’ve never worked for a bad coach,” Bennett says. “I took something from every coach I’ve worked for. Probably because I played for R.C. and then what happened with Bill, those were my two biggest influences.”

Even that high school season at Irving (Texas) MacArthur under Ray Overton is a fond one for Bennett: “Ray O, he was the best. They hadn’t been to the playoffs since forever and we went. The team building and getting kids to be better than what they think they are were great.”

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For the last nine seasons, Bennett’s been on bowl teams including Baylor in 2013 when his defense was ranked No. 28 nationally and the Bears reached the Fiesta Bowl.

But there were lots of lean years, too, with only six bowl trips in his first 29 years of college coaching. He was 18-52 in six years as SMU head coach including 0-12 and 1-11 seasons. The Mustangs then were still struggling to recover from receiving the so-called NCAA death penalty including cancellation of the 1987 season for repeated violations.

“It was a hard job, but those years served a purpose,” Bennett says. “I needed to raise my kids and to do that I needed to be my own boss. I have no regrets, but it was hard.”

Everything changed for Bennett on Aug. 11, 1999, when his wife Nancy, while on a run, was struck by lightning and died. He was in his first year as Kansas State defensive coordinator under Snyder and suddenly a widower with 11- and 8-year-old children. 

“It was very rough on us,” says Sam Bennett, now 29 and in his second year as an ASU offensive graduate assistant. “We were fortunate enough to have people around us including coach Snyder and the entire staff that really just took us in. The people around us made us stronger as well as helping us. It made us grow stronger as a family.”

Bennett learned to cook and to wash clothes. His perspective on the job and life changed. “My dad needed football to help with structure,” Sam says. “But what you learn is the structure of football also brings people together and is very giving and helpful.”

Kansas State wound up 11-1 in 1999 and ranked No. 6 nationally, arguably the high point of Bennett’s lengthy coaching career. 

“You do what you have to do,” Bennett says. “When you’re put in a situation, you make things work. I made a vow to myself I wasn’t going to miss anything. I was not going to be an absentee dad.”

During the SMU years (2002-07), Bennett would rush from practice to Sam’s football game or Maddie’s softball game then return to work for staff meetings. He remarried in 2005 to his current wife Julie, adding two stepdaughters to his family.

To now be at ASU with long-time friends Todd Graham and linebackers coach Keith Patterson, whom Bennett replaced as defensive coordinator; Shawn Slocum, whom he’s known since childhood; and his son is about as good as it gets at this stage of life. He rides his bike to practice, entertains his players and the media with a litany of stories and is putting an entertaining product on the field.

Who knew when Graham was a Texas high school coach in his 20s, taking notes at the San Angelo coaches clinic on how to coach defense from the likes of Emory Ballard, R.C. Slocum, Wade Phillips, Tommy Tuberville and Bennett that one day Bennett would potentially come to the rescue at a crossroads in Graham’s college head coaching career.

Graham points out that he and Bennett have 70 years combined coaching defense. “Phil’s the best I know at developing defensive backs. If we put our head together and adapt to our players and stay true to what we know we should do, we’ll keep getting better and playing well.”

Phil Bennett coaching career

• 1978: Texas A&M (Emory Ballard/Tom Wilson HC), 8-4 record (Hall of Fame Bowl)
• 1979: Texas A&M (Tom Wilson HC), 6-5
• 1980: Texas A&M (Tom Wilson HC), 4-7
• 1981:  Texas A&M (Tom Wilson HC), 7-5 (Independence Bowl)
• 1982: TCU (F.A. Dry HC), 3-8
• 1983: MacArthur High School (Irving, Texas) (Ray  Overton HC)
• 1984: Iowa State defensive coordinator (Jim Criner HC), 2-7-2
• 1985: Iowa State DC (Jim Criner HC), 5-6
• 1986: Iowa State DC (Jim Criner/Chuck Banker HC), 6-5
• 1987: Purdue DC (Fred Akers HC), 3-7-1
• 1988: Purdue DC (Fred Akers HC), 4-7
• 1989: Purdue DC (Fred Akers HC), 3-8
• 1990: Purdue DC (Fred Akers HC), 2-9
• 1991: LSU (Curley Hallman HC), 5-6
• 1992: LSU (Curley Hallman HC), 2-9
• 1993: LSU (Curley Hallman HC), 5-6
• 1994: LSU DC (Curley Hallman HC), 4-7
• 1995: Texas A&M DC (R.C. Slocum HC), 9-3 (Alamo Bowl)
• 1996: Texas A&M DC (R.C. Slocum HC), 6-6
• 1997: TCU DC (Pat Sullivan HC), 1-10
• 1998: Oklahoma (John Blake HC), 5-6
• 1999: Kansas State DC (Bill Snyder HC), 11-1 (Holiday Bowl)
• 2000: Kansas State DC (Bill Snyder HC), 11-3 (Cotton Bowl)
• 2001: Kansas State DC (Bill Snyder HC), 6-6 (Insight Bowl)
• 2002: SMU head coach, 3-9
• 2003: SMU HC, 0-12
• 2004: SMU HC, 3-8
• 2005: SMU HC, 5-6
• 2006: SMU HC, 6-6
• x-2007: SMU HC, 1-11
• 2008: Pitt DC (Dave Wannstedt HC), 9-4 (Sun Bowl)
• 2009: Pitt DC (Dave Wannstedt HC), 10-3 (Meineke Car Care Bowl)
• y-2010: Pitt DC (Dave Wannstedt HC), 8-5 (BBVA Compass Bowl)
• 2011: Baylor DC (Art Briles HC), 10-3 (Alamo Bowl)
• 2012: Baylor DC (Art Briles HC), 8-5 (Holiday Bowl)
• 2013: Baylor DC (Art Briles HC), 11-2 (Fiesta Bowl)
• 2014: Baylor DC (Art Briles HC), 11-2 (Cotton Bowl)
• 2015: Baylor DC (Art Briles HC), 10-3 (Russell Athletic Bowl)
• 2016: Baylor DC (Jim Grobe HC), 7-6 (Cactus Bowl)
• 2017: Arizona State DC (Todd Graham HC)
• x-18-52 combined record as SMU HC
• y-interim HC for one game (1-0)

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