Eric Bennett came along at the right time, and the sophomore quarterback enhanced an East Ridge High School program that already was on a roll.
He isn't overwhelmed by the moments and refused to get caught up in the hype that accompanied the first undefeated regular season in more than 50 years of East Ridge football.
"He's a real laid-back kid," Pioneers coach Tracy Malone said. "Sometimes you want to check his pulse. He doesn't get down. He doesn't get excited. He's steady emotionally."
So Bennett, who took over from Matt Yarbrough the third game of the year, will be at the controls tonight when East Ridge hosts Smith County in the first round of the TSSAA's Class 3A playoffs.
East Ridge quarterback Eric Bennett (7) passes. The East Ridge Pioneers hosted the Signal Mountain Eagles at Baylor School in TSSAA football action on Friday September 4, 2015."I feel like I'm pretty calm," he said. "I'm not going to overreact so much as calm everybody down so we can do what we're supposed to do."
Yarbrough, a senior, wasn't overly thrilled with Bennett's promotion, but Malone and Bennett offered nothing but praise for him.
"He was upset, but he still plays a big role on the team and he is getting equal (practice) reps," Malone said. "Matt handled it like you expect a senior leader to handle it. He's a backup quarterback but a senior leader at the same time."
Added Bennett: "He's cool. If I do something wrong, he'll tell me. He still works with me. He's a good teammate."
To date Bennett has completed 35 of 56 passes for 575 yards. They aren't all-star credentials yet, but they've been good enough thus far.
"I think a year from now we'll be talking about how physically gifted he is," Malone said. "He has a good base level of fundamentals, and we thought he'd be good. We just didn't think he'd be good this year."
Bennett entered the season seeing himself as a backup yet found himself rather quickly going from not totally engrossed in football and his role to being the man in the spotlight.
"I started to get into the offense a little more," he said. "My teammates were a big part of my transition. In the Signal game they were picking me up - made me feel good about it. They've helped me mentally."
It helped that the line had begun to jell, that running back Traneil Moore had emerged as an offensive force and that he was surrounded by supportive and talented teammates. The scoring picked up beginning with Bennett's promotion.
"That's a combination of a lot of different things," Malone offered. "By the time he got to playing, the offensive line had gotten going, and that's about when Traneil burst onto the scene."
Yet as the season progressed, Bennett began to assert himself.
"He gives us a shot to throw the ball down the field a little bit. We've been able to throw verticals and post routes," Malone said. "We're now able to take some shots that we weren't able to earlier in the year."
While he has begun to display his physical skills, Bennett's attitude has been remarkable.
"Biggest attribute? Right now, while he has physical ability, it's probably his demeanor," Malone said. "We want him to improve faster and we want to see a little more urgency from him. If he makes a mistake he takes his chewing, but when he goes back out there he's the same dude."
It's something new for the Pioneers, who lived and died the previous three seasons with quarterback JoJo Tillery.
"We were so quarterback-centered that it probably hurt us offensively," Malone said. "Guys were waiting on him to make a play. I don't care how talented, Eric's still a sophomore. Him coming in has caused everybody to pick up their game."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.