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ACC Legend: Ben Bennett
11/5/2011 1:17:00 PM | Football
By Rob Daniels, Special to theACC.com
From a strictly numerical standpoint, ACC football's greatest trend-setter came from California, threw for Duke and never played in a bowl game. Don't believe it? Consider what football was like when Ben Bennett began as a Blue Devil and how it developed in his time and since.
To call him the Potentate of Pass sounds a bit bombastic. Until you look at context.
Bennett, the Blue Devils' ACC Legend for 2011, graduated as the NCAA's record-holder in passing yards with 9,614. And just as he predicted, he's nowhere to be found on that chart, which stops at 20th place, these days.
"I knew it wouldn't (last)," he said from Orlando, Fla., where he has lived the past 20 years. "When I was a junior in high school, we were one of the pass-happiest teams in the area and we threw it 16 times a game. In my senior year, we were throwing it 19 times a game. When I got to Duke, the biggest day I ever had was as a freshman against Wake Forest. Went 38-for-62 or something. Now you've got teams that throw it 50 to 60 times on a regular basis. The evolution of the passing game meant that eventually, the dinosaur would be buried, and that was me."
When Bennett enrolled at Duke in the fall of 1980, the ACC's career passing mark had stood for a dozen years. Leo Hart, another Blue Devil, racked up 6,116 yards in three seasons, his numbers depressed by the freshman ineligibility standard of the time (1968-70).
Check out theACC.com for the complete story.
From a strictly numerical standpoint, ACC football's greatest trend-setter came from California, threw for Duke and never played in a bowl game. Don't believe it? Consider what football was like when Ben Bennett began as a Blue Devil and how it developed in his time and since.
To call him the Potentate of Pass sounds a bit bombastic. Until you look at context.
Bennett, the Blue Devils' ACC Legend for 2011, graduated as the NCAA's record-holder in passing yards with 9,614. And just as he predicted, he's nowhere to be found on that chart, which stops at 20th place, these days.
"I knew it wouldn't (last)," he said from Orlando, Fla., where he has lived the past 20 years. "When I was a junior in high school, we were one of the pass-happiest teams in the area and we threw it 16 times a game. In my senior year, we were throwing it 19 times a game. When I got to Duke, the biggest day I ever had was as a freshman against Wake Forest. Went 38-for-62 or something. Now you've got teams that throw it 50 to 60 times on a regular basis. The evolution of the passing game meant that eventually, the dinosaur would be buried, and that was me."
When Bennett enrolled at Duke in the fall of 1980, the ACC's career passing mark had stood for a dozen years. Leo Hart, another Blue Devil, racked up 6,116 yards in three seasons, his numbers depressed by the freshman ineligibility standard of the time (1968-70).
Check out theACC.com for the complete story.
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