University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football head coach Russ Huesman and his offensive staff decided before the season they would have to let Alejandro Bennifield do things “the Dro way.”
Nearing the midpoint of the season, that way has been successful.
The first-year starting quarterback for the Football Championship Subdivision’s third-ranked Mocs has completed 65 percent of his passes for 976 yards and 11 touchdowns while adding 161 yards on the ground. There’s no experience like game experience for an athlete, and Bennifield has gained plenty of it, facing a variety of looks in the pocket the junior wouldn’t be able to see in standard practices.
As a result, he has made his fair share of mistakes, but coaches say Bennifield is getting better every game.
“We’ve eliminated one or two mistakes every week,” offensive coordinator Jeff Durden said. “He’s playing at 81, 82 percent at quarterback, and that’s basically eight out of 10 plays getting right. We’ve got to fix the mistakes where we try to do too much, but he’s definitely got better. I think the Samford game helped tremendously, and going on the road and playing in this league, that was an eye-opener, it was different for him.
“We’ve got to eliminate the turnovers, but I’m pleased with his progress.”
Bennifield has five turnovers this season – four interceptions and a lost fumble – but he may not remember, because his memory of bad plays tends to be short.
“He only thinks about picks when he comes off the field and I yell at him. He’ll think about it at that point and time,” Huesman joked Tuesday. “We knew coming in that we had to let him do the things we saw in practice all the time that you shake your head at. He wasn’t going to give us the 22, 24 carries that (former quarterback) Jacob (Huesman) could give us. How he’s gained that back has been by improvising.”
The junior has played against a good defense on the road, Furman, and a resurgent East Tennessee State team in its second year as a reborn program. He threw for more than 200 yards in the first half against Samford, which opened up space for running back Derrick Craine to rush for 194 of his 222 yards in the final 30 minutes.
As good as he looked in his first game – he had four touchdown passes on eight completions in a 66-0 win over Shorter – he admitted he was anxious early, which led to an early interception. Yet as the Mocs enter their sixth game of the season, Bennifield said things are starting to slow down a little bit.
“Once I’ve been able to get more reps, plays with my teammates, the reads have started to slow down and I’m able to make the right read because things aren’t going as fast,” he said. “My mind isn’t moving as fast and that helps out.”
And now he’s able to do things “the Dro way.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.