Drew Bennett may be 1,500 miles away from this Saturday’s
rivalry game, but the USC-UCLA matchup still hits close to
home.
After spending five years as quarterback and wide receiver in
the blue and gold from 1996-2000, Bennett signed with the
NFL’s Tennessee Titans, coached by Jeff Fisher, a former
cornerback at USC.
“This is a big week,” Bennett said. “The last
few years, I’ve lost the bet (on the UCLA-USC game) to my
head coach.”
Now solely a receiver, Bennett has had to swallow a lot of pride
since his school has lost every rivalry game since he joined Fisher
in Tennessee.
“He calls all the trick plays around here. He calls a play
that I’ll be in on “˜Trojan,'” Bennett said.
“He tries to stick the needle in me a little bit.”
In his first three years in the program, Bennett’s team
was the one applying the sting to USC, winning the Victory Bell in
three straight games.
“It was like a season in itself,” he reflects.
“People talk about it all year long. For UCLA and USC, you
can have a terrible season, and beat the archrival at the end of
the year. A season in one game.”
But unfortunately for Bennett, his rivalry experience in college
ended on a sour note. The Trojans knocked off UCLA in
Bennett’s junior and senior seasons in 1999 and 2000, and
Bennett has not had the chance to see his alma mater win since.
Equally frustrating for Bennett was the lack of a significant
role he had in those games. When he came to UCLA, he was slotted as
the back-up quarterback behind the legendary Cade McNown. Though he
was expected to replace McNown in 1999, that job eventually fell to
then-freshman Cory Paus, seemingly leaving no place for Bennett in
the program.
But in early October, coach Bob Toledo decided to move him to
wide receiver. Having began his stint at UCLA as a quarterback, the
transition was smooth in some respects.
“It wasn’t too bad,” he reflected. “I
knew all the (receiver) routes. I knew where I was supposed to be,
on what plays, how to read coverages ““ so it helped me a
little bit (to play quarterback).
“But, still, the act of getting off the line of scrimmage,
and getting bumped, how you work your feet, and all the stuff like
that, that I had to pick up quickly. It was a crash course, but I
wasn’t starting ““ I was like the third receiver ““
so it wasn’t a huge pressure situation.”
Playing behind Freddie Mitchell and Danny Farmar, two wideouts
near the top of UCLA’s record books, Bennett had little
opportunity to shine. But at 6-foot-5 and with tremendous athletic
ability, he was too good a talent to be left on the sideline
entirely.
“I reached a point in my senior year where I was looking
to play anywhere. Anywhere they played me, I was willing to give it
a shot.”
His persistence continued onto the professional ranks. Though he
did not get drafted by any NFL team in 2001, he eventually earned
himself a spot on Tennessee’s roster as a wide receiver.
“I tested for my senior day at the mini combine (at UCLA)
… caught routes, and ran the 40 all right and did all the testing
stuff decent, so I feel like they thought my best chance to make
the team was as a receiver,” he said.
Ironically, Bennett’s impact at the position at the
professional level has been greater than it ever was in his
collegiate days. In his fourth season, he already has 654 receiving
yards, almost seven times as many as he had his senior year at
UCLA.
He has even found a way to rekindle some old memories, throwing
his first touchdown pass earlier this year, a 26-yarder to Derrick
Mason, against the Packers on Oct. 11.
“I’ve been telling everyone here for a long time
that I can throw a pass, and it worked out pretty well this
year,” Bennett joked.
Despite his growing accomplishments, Bennett still carries
around the underrated label. On Saturday, he hopes his alma mater
can lay claim to the very same label.
He certainly won’t mind that it will come at his
coach’s expense.