Pitt’s new DC has been around

By Darrell Laurant  |   Monday, February 04, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Maybe what the Pitt football program needs is a little bit of Texas.

On Monday, the school announced that it had hired Phil Bennett, fired last fall as head coach at Southern Methodist, to replace Paul Rhoads (now at Auburn) as the Panthers' defensive coordinator

Bennett, a Texas A&M graduate, has deep roots in the Lone Star State and an impressive resume. He has served as DC for a number of high-profile programs, including his alma mater (where he was named Defensive Coordinator of the Year by the American Football Quarterly), LSU, Kansas State, Purdue and Iowa State. In 1998, he was the co-recruiting director at Oklahoma.

"Phil is not only going to be a major asset for us defensively, but his tremendous experience will benefit our entire program," head coach Dave Wannstedt said in a press release from Pitt.

Bennett had considered the head job at Marshall before deciding to return to the assistant coaching ranks. He was 18-52 at SMU, which has struggled mightily ever since it was handed the "Death Penalty" by the NCAA.

At Pitt, Bennett will also coach the linebackers.

COMMENTARY: With a series of strong recruiting years, Pitt is on the cusp of becoming a major player in the Big East. Besides adding his store of knowledge to the coaching staff, as Wannstedt pointed out, Bennett has links to a lot of high school coaches in Texas, one of the states where the nation's best prep football is played.
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