How Benedict football is preparing for 2023 season after last-year’s conference title
The Columbia heat hasn’t quite crept into Charles W. Johnson Stadium as the Benedict College football team takes the field at 7:04 a.m.
Fall camp is barely two weeks old. The Tigers’ first game against Shaw University is still a few weeks away. Yet there’s a buzz around the Benedict program on this morning of preseason practice.
A year like the Tigers had in 2022 will do that.
“What a marvelous year we accomplished in 2022,” head coach Chennis Berry told The State. “You can’t take it back. But, ultimately, we have to move forward as a football team and get ready to get this team ready.”
Benedict rarely has expectations. Frankly, its football history barely registers enough winning seasons — six since the program was restarted in 1995 — to justify them.
Still, what Berry and his staff did in flipping the Tigers from a 5-5 team in 2021 to an undefeated regular season and SIAC championship last fall justifies every bit of attention Benedict will receive in August and into the fall.
“Every day that we come in here, Coach is telling us that we are the hunters, not the hunted,” defensive lineman Jayden Broughton said. “We won a championship last year. Usually (teams) have championship hangover. We want to be on that high pedestal (again).”
Berry has relied on the usual notes he’s played since landing the head coaching job at Benedict in 2020. Chopping wood. Win every day. Things of that nature.
Clichés aside, the No. 17 Tigers are undergoing significant changes following their successful 2022 campaign. Starting quarterback Eric Phoenix entered the transfer portal, later landing at FCS school Murray State. Benedict will also have to replace offensive coordinator Kevin Saxton, who took an off-the-field role with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Berry, who handles the bulk of the offensive coaching responsibilities, isn’t overly worried about the changes. The quarterback situation, though, will need to sort itself out.
Third-year signal-caller Zavien Foster feels like an option. The Dorman product has appeared in seven games over the past two years, completing 25 of 51 passes for 255 yards and a touchdown.
Foster figures to be pushed by Aeneas Dennis, a two-year starter at Shorter University who transferred to Benedict in the offseason. Dennis has the experience edge on Foster, playing in 33 games over his four years at Shorter — finishing with just under 4,000 yards and passing for 33 touchdowns in that span.
The Tigers also brought in graduate transfer Nigel Summerville (Lehigh) and Joshua Elmore (Monterey Peninsula College) to round out the QB room.
“We’ve got several days, or weeks before we play,” Berry said. “We have time to figure out who the guy is gonna be. There’s some guys that we’ve had out there have been doing a really good job. Right now we don’t have a decision on which direction we’re gonna go.
“Ideally, it’d be one guy, but if it ends up — for our team — being two guys, we’ll see how it goes when we get to that point.”
In the two years since taking over the program, Berry has assigned the team the book “Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great” by Joshua Medcalf to read during the offseason.
Broughton and defensive line mate Loobert Denelus are going on their third times through the book. Berry said one learns new lessons with each read. Denelus and Broughton concur.
Whatever those lessons may be, Benedict feels poised for another season of forging out its own corner of the college football landscape in South Carolina.
“Last year, a lot of people who were in the room believed,” Denelus said. “It was about getting people outside to see what we have in here. It’s kind of the same thing this year. We know what we have. We’re not worried about what other people are saying. We want to be our best.”
Three players to watch
Loobert Denelus — senior, defensive end
Denelus is the heart and soul of what should be another stout Benedict defense. He was named the SIAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 and became the first player in school history to earn first team All-American honors from the American Football Coaches Association.
Jayden Broughton — senior, defensive line
Alongside Denelus, Broughton makes up another major piece of the Benedict defensive front. He finished last year with seven sacks and 15 tackles, along with a pair of forced fumbles. He could create some serious havoc in the trenches in 2023.
Noah Zaire Scotland — redshirt sophomore, running back
Scotland should help balance out whatever direction Berry goes at QB. The one-time Kennesaw State transfer averaged just shy of five yards per carry on his 118 touches and ran for eight touchdowns a year ago. Expect Scotland to be a fixture of the offense again in 2023.
Three games to watch
Sept 2 vs. Shaw University
Season openers always make for dramatics. Expect a packed house as the Tigers open up their conference title defense at home and give us a first look at this year’s squad.
Sept. 30 at Morehouse
This is likely to be Benedict’s stiffest test of the early-season slate. Morehouse is the lone team on the schedule in or receiving votes in the AFCA’s preseason poll (Benedict came in at No. 17). Benedict could find itself coasting through conference play if it survives a trip to Atlanta.
Oct. 12 vs. Fort Valley State
Benedict ran away with this matchup in a 42-13 win last fall, however, this one should have plenty of eyes on it. The SIAC announced in early August this game will be broadcast on ESPN 2. That’s a big opportunity for a Benedict program growing its brand.
