It was 10 years ago today then-Coastal Carolina head coach David Bennett performed an impromptu symphony behind the microphone.
After opening the 2011 season with a 30-23 victory over Furman, Bennett veered his weekly press conference off course. You see, the Bennett home had a broken screen door at that time and a cat wandered into the house. I'll let him take it from there.
That 60-second clip -- can you imagine the field day TikTok would've had with this today? -- went around the world. He was featured in the New York Times and appeared on an Australian sports radio station. Ever the ball coach, he used the conversation with his new Aussie friends toward recruiting, seeing if there was an Australian punter who might like to relocate to Conway.
"We Need More Dogs" was also remixed into a song. Tell me this isn't a banger.
The founding coach of Coastal Carolina football, Bennett got the job after going 63-17 at Catawba College. The Chanticleers were an instant hit, winning their first game in 2003 and going 10-1 in their second season. Coastal posted seven winning records in Bennett's nine seasons, but a 7-4, non-playoff season in 2011 cost him his job.
He coached again at River Bluff High School in South Carolina from 2013-16 and now works as the athletics director at Lexington School District in South Carolina. Coastal is now in the FBS and shared its first Sun Belt title under head coach Jamey Chadwell in 2020.
“I spoke this week to police leaders in Moncks Corner, and they said, ‘Can you do the cats and dogs thing?’ ” Bennett told The State for a story in 2018. “I got a call from a company in Des Moines, Iowa, and they want me to be keynote speaker. Their motto is that they want their workers to be tougher and be more like dogs. So it has been pretty neat.”