A season that seemed lost a month ago following a 2-5 start unexpectedly has new life after the Chants finished a remarkable late season turnaround Saturday by earning a share of the Big South title as well as the conference's automatic playoff bid. And the coach who became a target for a frustrated fan base midway though the season has now delivered the program's second playoff berth and one of the highlights of his tenure.
"It's a funny world, ain't it?" Bennett said, as his team prepared for the first home playoff game in program history, Saturday against No. 21 Western Illinois. "You're one win away from being great, one win away from being bad in this profession that we do."
Bennett admits now that the season took a toll on him at times.
He felt the criticism, heard some of the things people were saying and even questioned himself to a degree.
"It was one of them deals where middle way through, you go, 'Man, do I even do a good job coaching anymore?' You ask yourself that question," Bennett said. "You go, what can I do better? What can we do better? The bottom line is you stay the course, you keep your faith."
Bennett has talked a lot about faith and blessings over the last week. He knows how improbable all this seemed just a couple weeks ago.
These same Chants went 1-4 in non-conference play, losing to a Towson team that didn't win another game all year. They were 2-5 after a disappointing loss to Stony Brook on Oct. 23 in which they fell behind 31-0 in the second quarter.
There were plenty of doubters at that time, Bennett acknowledged, and he knows because he heard the criticism - some from sources he didn't expect.
"Just because I coach football [doesn't] mean you're not human," Bennett said. "So when it gets back to you that people that you think are your friends and people that you think have your back [are] talking bad about you, you find out who your true friends are. In life, your circle of real close friends is smaller than you think. So you can't worry about what other people say or do."
He doesn't want to go into specifics, but he says there were a couple criticisms or comments that particularly stung along the way.
"When it comes back to you that somebody you think is your friend, one of your dear friends, [is] saying things, what do you do? You say a prayer for them and move on," Bennett said. "You forgive, but as human beings, it's hard to forget, isn't it? So you remember that. You just tuck it away."
But he's got more important things to worry about these days. Through all the setbacks and disappointment this season, Bennett has projected a steady message that this team still had something to play for, that this program still had big goals.
He had commented in his office back in early October that his grand vision for the program hadn't changed - despite the Chants' 1-4 record at the time and the three straight non-winning seasons before it. He reiterated that message again this week.
"We still have the vision of winning a national championship here. I think it would be so awesome for our university, our community, our state," Bennett said. "We're not there yet. We're striving for it. ...
"There's a lot of people that are just looking for a conference championship, and they're satisfied with it. We don't want just that. We want to help put this place on the map nationally."
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After that Tuesday practice, with his team gathered in front of him on the field, Bennett read down the list of CCU players who had made the all-Big South team. He mentioned the five first-team selections, the seven second-teamers, junior Marcus Lott's all-academic honor and sophomore Andrae Jacobs' Big South defensive player of the year award.
He didn't mention his coach of the year recognition to the players, though.
But CCU athletic director Hunter Yurachek would a few minutes later while congratulating the team on its remarkable run over the last month and commending Bennett's role in that.
It was a month and a half ago when Yurachek sat in his office and said he thought the football team was "close" despite its 1-4 non-conference record, while also voicing his confidence in Bennett.
"I think when he was sitting at 1-4 and 2-5 - not myself, but I think from the outside [with] people saying 'Hey, we need to make a change' - I think he just kept pressing forward," Yurachek said this week. "I think he had a belief that he had a team that could get this done, and he kept telling those guys to believe in themselves. He kept picking himself off the mat and dusting himself off after that tough start to the season, so I think he showed great resiliency and great leadership in really not letting the ship sink."
Beyond Bennett, Yurachek talked about what this playoff opportunity means for the program overall.
"It kind of puts us back on the FCS football map," he said. "It gets our program back to where it was four or five years ago."
It's amazing what a four-game winning streak can achieve.
Instead of talking about a fourth straight non-winning season, the Chants are talking about claiming their fourth Big South title (or at least a share of it) in eight seasons while remaining the only team to advance from the conference into the NCAA-FCS playoffs. And what all that might mean for the program going forward, for recruiting, etc.
"The exposure," Yurachek said. "They have a selection show that was on ESPNU nationwide, and you see Coastal Carolina. We popped up there first. That's exciting, and that's great exposure not only for us as an athletic program but as a university as a whole. ... You can't put a price tag on that type of national exposure."
Yurachek hopes Coastal Carolina can draw a crowd of 6,000 to 7,000 fans for the first home playoff game in program history. The ticket office was closed Thursday for Thanksgiving, but the university had sold about 4,000 tickets through Wednesday, and Yurachek is hoping for a strong walk-up crowd Saturday.
Meanwhile, the athletic department planned to have a presence at Coastal Grand Mall today while also marketing the game in newspaper, television and radio advertisements.
Bennett has been vocal in his hopes that the community will come out in support of what the Chants, their coach and their athletic director hope will be a big moment for the program.
Said Yurachek, "This is just going to be a springboard, I think, to bigger things to come next year and the years after that."
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It's still a bit incredible to think how this all came about.
Coastal Carolina (6-5, 5-1 Big South) had to win its final four games while knocking off a Liberty team that had lost only one other conference game over the last four seasons and then limiting a Charleston Southern team (one that had scored 42 points the week before) to as few points as possible Saturday to have a chance at claiming the playoff bid through the league's tiebreaker.
A tiebreaker that the Chants could only win if Liberty first knocked off a hot Stony Brook team and scored at least 42 points of its own in the process to swing the tiebreaker of fewest points allowed in conference play to the Chants.
Bennett tells the story of asking his wife Melanie last week whether she wanted to spend Thanksgiving at home or in Cheraw with family.
"She said, 'We're not going to either. Let's just go with God's plan.' So I went, 'OK,' " Bennett said. "She says, 'We're going to the playoffs.' And I went, 'OK. Honey, just let me tell you something ..."
He broke down the scenario for her and said "That would be almost a miracle."
Whatever it is and however it happened, the Chants are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2006 - and this time at home.
And as the initial shock wore off and the reality set in, the players have also started talking about what all this could mean for the program in the big picture.
"This is getting the name out there again," senior receiver Marquel Willis said. "It's been since '06 since we've been in the playoffs, and people kind of forgot about us. And people are still kind of looking at us, like, 'Oh, 6-5, they got in because they won their conference out of a tie.' So if we can win a couple games, you know, this will put us back on the map and have people realize what we can do."
Said senior fullback Racheed Gause: "It's a great opportunity for the whole Coastal community. It's so overwhelming and exciting for me. I didn't think I was going to be in this position, but to be here is unbelievable. And I think that the whole community is on our backs, and we're going to take them where we need to go."
In his office Tuesday night, Bennett was asked what he thinks this all means for the program after everything it - and he - have been through the last four seasons.
He said it's a step in the right direction. He talked about how he still thinks of Coastal Carolina as a young football program. A young program that has now earned four conference titles and two playoff berths in eight seasons. And he talked about that big-picture vision he continues to have for the Chants.
As for how close he thinks they are to making it a reality one day, well ...
"I don't know - we'll know after Saturday. And then the next Saturday. And the next Saturday," Bennett said. "If we're still playing football, it's closer than you think."
